The Washington times., 1901-10-06
THE PINK or YELLOWNESS.
Newfoundland Editors Learned in
the Art of Vituperati0n.
unsavory journalism I'm the Cana
dian Province-Ncwspap Which
Term Cabinet Officers "Skunks,v
"Dirty Drunkards," and Swine"

| SWINE
There are three daily papers in st.
Johns and two of them are pink 1 tried
10 discover why Newfoundland prefers
for it's newspapers color that Americans
associate with barroom literature, and n
chance acquaintance at the City Club
gave me that very conclusive reply, Il
don't know; it has always been So
That, 1 have learned, in this most pro-
vincial Of provinces, most English of En-
glish cities, is a reason against which it
is useless to argue-it is the very best
reason for anything whatsoever. SO
turned to one OF the publishers who are
| directly responsible for the deluge of
sickly pale pink that falls upon st. Johns
every afternoon. He could not enlighten
me further than to say: TT was so in
the beginning; l don't know what reason
, animated the first publisher who used it,
And so this study of the pink journalism
! of st. Johns must omit the genesis chap
! ter. Nobody created 1t; like Topsy, II
| just growed.'
| 1 shall always remember the Newfound-
stranger than fiction. Americans are fa-
| miliar with the Arizona Kicker" the
"Jayhawk Clarion the ''Wayback Howl
| err The Thomas Cat and the other
! fictitious creations which the American
| humorists use the vehicle for their
most impossible absurdities; but 1 am sure
| no American nuEnOTlSl IN MS WiIucSl
| flights ever accomplished anything quite
| so grotesquely picturesque as the things
l shall here reproduce, verbatim ct itera-
| tum wens deformities monstrositieS,
| and all. as the result of two weeks casual
| glancing over the st. Johns papers
Humor is not the essential quality of all
| these quotations. l might well reproduce
| them without comment and let them
| speak for themselves, bot there ere some
| things j hesitate to reproduce, even in
| quotation marks, even as horrible eX-
q mn lec q N fn
| the reader. But first, / should say, the
! man of whom the following is said is not
| an obscure police court habitue. nor a
common criminal; he is a conspicuous cfti-
zen of Newfoundland, known by name to
all. and by sight to half the people Of
the island L disguise his name under the
| long-enduring cloak of the Jones family,
but | may say he is the Newfoundland
Minister of Marines and Fisheries, occu-
pying position in the community corre-
spending to our Secretary of the Navy.
But here is the paragraph:
1t was not without cause that Jones
was named the great unwashed. the
'malodorous, the skunk. Jones washes |
himself about twice year, and under or |
dinary circumstances cannot be approach |
ed within fifty yards. In fact, his pres |
ence within the city limits is the best /
proof of how imperfectly its sanitary reg /
ulations are carried out. A dirty, (
degraded drunken debauche-that sums {
up Jones character in a line. ST.
Johns. the most advanced and educated
community in the island. disgraces itself
by association with such drunken swine
as Jones. They should be allowed to wal
low in the gutter, which is their natural
habitat. He is notorious a
brawler and fighter and a 'tuf.'
This is the man who calls himself 'Trib-
une Jones' who in a frenzied appeal on
polling eve declared he would die rather
than desert the workingman- When the
wJrkingmen who were burnt out in the
fire wanted him, where was Jones? Jones
was-durnki When the dock had given
away on them. Jones was again-drunki
When the sufferers from the crash wanted |
Jones. Jones was-drunk once more.
In addition to being drunkeI. bum.'
he is vile, treacherous, and unreliable
'scalawag-''' -
Now, if you find this shocking 1 beg to
assure you that the points represent the
omission of the most unprintable of the
column-long TRADE from which this ls
taken.
The paDer in which this is printed is the
leading one of the island: it is the organ |
of the present Government and the editor
who wrote the words quoted above is a
conspicuous public official. He passes in
the island as rather shining light OF
Newfoundland culture. and articles from
his pen have appeared in such English
the Fortnightly Review.
This sort of thing. l am compelled TO
say, is the rule and not the exception in
Newfoundland journalism; and the quo
tatIon | have given must be taken, just
as the most prominent paper CT any COM
munity is taken. as an index of the moral
|
To the Newfoundland editor. ordinary
everyday ''writin' is just ordinary ev-
ery-day ',writin and that IS all; but al,
liberation! that is art that is literaturei
When he accCmDlishes ar ALTERATION,
both he and his readers feel exalted, they
swell with pride at the literary power of
their island latent mostly, but blazing
forth on occasion In nothing less than a
three-word ALTERATION; It is not apt
aiilteration's artful aid. = There IS moth
ing apt and nothing artful about 1t. The
Newfoundland editor manufactures his al
literations with ak and drags the
words together with ox-chains.
There is in the quotation above
did he reader fail to catch it? Dirty, |
degraded, drunken debauche." But the
gem of all the alliterations that I was
able to collect is this:
Bond a bumptious blatherskite; a
brainess. backboneless boobv.
A six-wOrd ALTERATION! When the New
foundland editor had completed that he
knew what few are privileged to know;
he knew just how Milton felt when he
wrote ''fnis' to Paradise LOST"
Here is a gem. in which the editor does
not rise quite to the starry heights of
ALTERATION. but which illustrates well the
fraternal amenities of pink journalism in
st. Johns:
For the information of the Telegram
we might state ii was not Tom the Jok-
er who gave our reporter the note about ! I
the salmon speared by e. Sheehan near
was exactly the same length as the ears /
of the bearded donkey of the Telegram, ,
VINO since DelHS turned out OF 'lOm ,
store last week. now avoids it. ,
And here are few Of the ep-thets I
which l find in use when the pink editor |
begins to pay his respects to his political {
opponents:
Larry, the rat.
Dirty Cabbage Brown
The palsied brat"
"A miserable vendor of rum and mo-
lasses."
The following extracts from Il pink as
sault on Hon. Robert Bond are reproduc-
ed not because they represent my or any
1f man the Newfoundland Premier is. but
simply as an example of one of the lower
depths of st. Johns journalism Pray
note, by the way. the alliteTations
In the Assembly yesterday Mr.. Bond, |
the opposition leader, made a cowardly
and unprOvoked attack upon this paper 4
and upon it's editor. In this he gave only y
another proof that he is a bastard and il
coward. But the fact IS, Bond n
wanted to get blow in at the Herald s. \
editor for well-deserved trouncings ad- d
ninistered to this inflated windbag dur s
ng the election campaign. However we | $
lon't propose to stand any nonsense from | Il
Bond or any other 'bumptious blather-
skitc.' we have too much contempt for | 4
him. He is monumental fraud, whose
political success is due more to his pock-
4tDoot than to his principles. a second
rate phrase-maker whose reputation for
Dratory is due to persistent plagiarism (
le has succeeded in getting few hundred
people to believe in him and a mercenary | h
newspaper to sound his praises But an 4
lyze him and yCu will find he is an Z
irrant ass or huge hypOcrite.' (
His colleague, Murphy. fifty described him
rs a sneak and a dollar-hunter.' whose
dea of political success consisted in at
itudinizinG. He talks of his principle. d
low does he display it? Seven years ago
INrfr al Of.