The Grit-advocate., 1900-05-25
THE NEWSPAPERS CONDUCTED
UNDER DIFFICULTIES,
Liberal Journals Not Fsvored-Most Of
the Periodicals Lead Precarious
Existence and Those Best Managed
Receive the Least Patronage.


newspapers and periodicals pub
lished in Madrid than in any other
European capital. writes Murray
Michel from Spains capital. One
third of the people cannot read: the
rest lack either the time or the desire
to do so and. therefore the reading
public is very small. Generally speak
ing, 1t is only the politicians who read
the newspapers. A newsdealer in the
Passage Maten tells me that he sells
almost as many copies of the Paris
Figaro and Petit Journal and the Brus-
sells Independence Beige as of the Lib
eral and Impartial, the important
Madrid papers. Yet the foreign colony
in Madrid is not very large.
The life of the Madrid papers is
very precarious. Not one OF them has
a circulation exceeding 100000 copies
in spite of all manner of lofty preten-
sions. Those of the papers here which
have the largest circulation are the I'M
parcial, the Liberal. the Correspond
encia de Espana and the Heraldo.
The impartial is edited by Senor
Garret, deputy. and the second by
Senior Moya, formerly deputy from
Porto Rico. The Correspondence
once one of the most popular of all the
papers, is now going to pieces; its eli
entele is abandoning it for the Heraldo,
the organ of Senior Canaljas, former
deputy, young. ambitious and rich
With the exception of the Liberal,
all these papers are mOnarchist, The
Liberal is called republican, but it is
altogether too timid and panders to the
monks and bishops. The oldest OF our
political journals, La Epoca, the organ
Of Senor Silvelva, has almost no read
ers In Spain, but it is doubtless the
best known of them all outside this
country. One finds 1t everywhere in
Europe and even in America. Its d.
rector and editor-in-chief, the marquis
de Valdeiglesias, is senator. very re-
served and reactionary.
The papers which have a compare
lively large circulation get it chiefly
in the provinces and in the former
colonies Of Spain. The publications
which are really the most widely read
are not the newspapers at all, but the
merry. sometimes grotesque, papers,
devoted to bull fights and political
caricatures. There are full two score
Of these. The true republican press is
represented at Madrid by LIE Nuevo
Regimen, weekly federalist journal,
inspired by Senior Pi y Margall; also
by the Pals. unitarian, apparently
revolutionary journal. The Matin is
also in this class. 1t is anti-clerical
and opposed thoroughly to the present
regime. Perhaps the Revista Blanca
ought to be added to this list, though
it is mainly anarchist in principle.
There is a military section of the
There are also a considerable number
of papers devoted to different sciences
and to the arts, but about them the
general public knows and cares moth
ing.
Spanish Journalists are. as "a rule,
young men who have never had any
particular training for their profes
sion, and this explains why so mary
untrue and ridiculous things can DE
read here. | have seen statements to
the effect that the Spanish cuisine is
the finest in the world, and that Gen.
Cronje Is native of Andalusia, and
that the Transvaal is in America.
There are, nevertheless, some able
journalists here, and of these Senior
Pi Y Margall is the most eminent.