New-York tribune., 1900-10-28
THE FEUILLETON'S CENTENARY.
ITS EFFECT UPON JOURNALISM IN FRANCE

IT'S EFFECT UPON JOURNALISM IN FRANCE
From The Pail Mall Gazette.
The completion of the first hundred years OF
the existence of the feuilleton is literary event
which in these crowded times, has received but
scant notice. 1t was by no means naturai
literary growth 1t a forced production,
and the forcing power that produced it was not
of the every day order. The feullleton, IN IaCt'
was the literary consequence Of the Dixhult-
Brumaire The First Consul was the cause of
it's engendure.
clean sweep of the revolutionary press and cut
down the number of Paris newspapers, as we
understand the term, to thirteen Under the
Consulate, and under the Empire, twelve OF
these newspapers found themselves reduced to
mere echoes of the thirteenth-the "Monlteur,
Journal OfiCiel." As truthfully remarked
at the time. the only man in France who had
the right of writing a 'premier-Paris' was
BonapaTte. Then there appeared a writer who
had discovered that what might not be written
in editorial column might appear with perfect
impunity on a lower level-On the reZ-de-chaus-
see. the ground hoOr'-of a journal The name
of this writer was Julien Louis GeoHroy lie
Jesuit by education and journalist by
birth. He had edited royalist print, L Ami
du Roi which had fOundered with the mon
archy on the Dix-AOut. He was forty seven
when he got his real chance, and started the
first feuilleton in the journal des Debats, just
a century ago. The idea caught on at once. The
feuileton, which dealt ustensibly with literature
the drama and other harmless topics, but which,
nevertheless. could make political capital out of
the failure of book or play, under the Ma
pOleOnc nose, became a power. In the hands
Of it's inventor it the making of the
''Dehats" which presently could show a then
astonishing subscription list of thirty thousand
Geoffroys own feuilieton dealt with the theatre
He a trenchant critic His pen was vitr1Olic
where he loved not He for Mile. George
against the Duchesnois. and for Lafon against
Talma and LaTive. There is a story, more or
less apocryphal of Tamas having caned him.
There is another to the effect that his death
was due to his having incautiOuSly sucked his
pen. But his public believed in him Dussault.
Hoffman,, Felletz and the rest hardly counted
tod hole lffeTQ
output of the paper. II was matter of com
mon credence that he was its proprietor The
"Debats' cashier, then, was his homonym- As
late as 49, at the fremont sale, receipt
signed by the hcmOnym was bought, at a fancy
price, for the autograph of the more famous
GeOffTOy. He had been dead since 1914. After
him came Janin. On Other papers there were
feuetonsts like Theophile Gautier, Paul de
St Victor, De BiGviile. Louis UIbaCh. Francisque
Sarcey, who occupied the ground floor" of
the Temps in our own day The musical
feuilleton has been signed by Adolphe Adam,
Hector Berloz. and Coutil- Blaze. The scientific
variety by Bdbinet. Louis Fieuier and Meunier.
The photographed by Pontmartin. Gustave
Planche, and. of course. Sainte-Beuve. But,
since Geofroy's time the feuIeton cannot he
appeared there. Is it Temen fbered that Monte
Cristo," the ''Mousquetares' ana "ViuEt Ans
Apfes' have all filled the downstairs of the
steele? Eugene Sues "MySteres de Paris" in
the "Dtbats," and his "Juif Errant." in the
Constitutional" were the counter attractions.
The ''ConStitutionner' did not secure the famous
"DGbats' both bid for him. Their rival had to
put down hundred thousand francs as the
price. Those were good times.
The early feuilletnnist had naturally to acquire
the knack with which his Successors have be
come only too familiar sinCe-the knack of al
ways writing up to, and always breaking off 1t.
a situation. Where the number of lines was eX-
acty measured and the interest had always to
he stretched over to the next day this. in the
case Of the early practitioner required some do
ing. But read your "MOusquetaires' with an
eye to this curtain arrangement. and YOU Will
perceive how admirably Dumas contrived to do
it. In later days. the Petit Journal has en-
tranced countless COnCierges with it's install
ments of Gahoriau. and PonSUn du Terrail, and
Xavier de Monttpiu; while every body that is or
was, anybO Y, from Jules Claretie to Robert
Louis Stevenson and Kudyard Kipng, has
drawn his particular public under other rubrics
The feuilletOn in short, has carried the news
paper where, without it the newspaper would
never have gone Good bad. its effect upon
the growth of journalism is as indubitahle as it
is nCalculable.
"DISINTELLECTU4LIZ