Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-02-02
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
William Barclay Parsons, Chief En-.
gineer of the Big Tunnel.

Ihey Are Far More Timely Than
Ever Before - Case In Point.
Something About Whighnm, Wnr
Correspondent, Now In Africa.
NEW GoRK. Feb. Special lit
has often been said that the civil war
changed the nature of the newspapers
in America radically and completely,
and so undoubtedly it did Before the
titanic struggle between the great sec
tons of the great republic the tele-
graph was little used, comparatively
speaking, and the editions printed.
even of the newspapers in the greater
cities, were such as could be produced
by the use of presses that would make
the newspaper man of today smile
derisively.
Soon after the beginning of the war.
however, a great change began. News
paper readers demanded news of the
fighting at length. in detail and hot
from the front. This led to such lib.
eral employment of the telegraph by
the war correspondent as never had
previously been dreamed Of This de-
mand for the news called for unprece-
dentedly large numbers of papers and
for editions issued at shorter intervals.
and this stimulated the invention of
fast presses The evolution of the
modern newspaper, virtually begun in
the sixties. has gone on ever since. and
today the newspapers of every medium
sized city in the land are better serv-
ed with the latest news, better printed
op1 u iecrrfp,r plf
the leading papers in the greatest cities
! before the civil war.
War and the Magazines.
A somewhat analogous change has
been and is being wrought in the
monthly periodicals by the Spanish
! American and the South African wars
! This change has not so far involved
/ the use of the wire for the transmits
sion of magazine copy nor in the ma
/ turc of things has it involved any i'm
provement in the printing of the mag
/ azines, hut it has introduced into them
an element of up to dateucss to which
they were before entire strangers.
1t began early in the Spanish war,
when one of the periodicals whose ed
itors had quite closed the forms of
the forthcoming issue without much of
anything in hand concerning the war.
one morning at breakfast these ed
itors read of n decisive battle. and be-
fore the day was over they had tele-
graphed hither and yon for writer's
and artists to hasten and make almost
enough copy and pictures bearing on
the war to fill the number from cover
=.
locked, the new copy was set, and the
new pictures We're engraved as fast rs
they came in. and in a surprisingly
short time the presses were set going.
This remarkable magazine achieve
ment was mentioned at the time in this
correspondence. but a second reference
can do no harm. The latest achieve
ment of the same sort was accomplish
ed by the ScribnerS. AS soon as tho
South African war was definitely
started they engaged II. !. Whigham
who had been war correspondent il
the Spanish American trouble, to rep
resent them nj the front, and straight
way he started for his new field O
duty. \ day or two ago the magaZin,
for February appeared with his frs
article. being on sale exactly tw,
months and two days from the date OF
which he posted the copy.
This Was Genuine HustIing.
Possibly YOU may not understand
how much genuine hustling this mus
have involved. but you will when yol
reflect that ordinarily it takes from
two to three months to get out mag
L. L. .....fV- .aI m.
that it takes fully four weeks for cop,
to come from the scene of the SOutl
African fighting to New York. At tn
very longest the magazine containing
the Whigham article must have bee
made up, printed on slow presses
bound and got before the public i
: about a month after the copy's receI
ton here.
Whigham is somewhat of an eXpeT
with the hand camera, and his articl
is profusely illustrated with views tai
en- by himself, as he explains. unde
exceptionally difficult circumstances
/. e., under fire. With Mauser bullet
flying over your head every second c
! two. he goes on, you dare not expos
0 yourself as you would have to in Of
; der TO get a sure focus on the thing
you wish to photograph, but must b
content with pointing it in a gener;
b. direction and quite uncertain as
l whether you are taking sky or veldt {
. kopje. AS a matter of fact, his phot'
" graphs are really very fine specimen
of the art, showing the nature of I'll
country in which the fighting is
progress with what appears to be r
markable fidelity.
!, A curious thing about these plot
;. graphs is the fact that Whigham wi
a not see them until perhaps a year aft
K their taking. The films were put I'M
o specially prepared tin boxes immed
e ately after exposure, accompanied /
a memorandum giving titles of WIFI
/. he supposed he had taken, identifyir
t them by numbers.
i Whigham, ex-GOIf Champion.
p Mr.. Whigham is an Englishman
birth. though he was for some yea
& attached to the staff of a Chical
newspaper before becoming a war co
: respondent While in Chicago he WI
prominent IN golfng circles and at oil
= time was amateur champion of Il
e. game in \ nerica.
IF He is jerhaps 80, tallish, wi
&c smooth fste, set up like an athlete al