El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-28
YELLOW
How the Name Originated and What
The Yellow Journal Stands For Now.
CAllen Sangree in March Ainslee's)

1t is interesting. in the first place. to
note the casual way in which this
term. yellow journalism. now world
wide in use. had its origin. Among
newspaper men I find some contro-
versy on the subject. but the concen-
sus of opinion is that when Arthur
Brisbane. now managing editor of the
Evening Journal, suggested to MIR.
Outcault. the artist, that he introduce
in the Sunday World n of h Mays
gutter-snipe sketches from a London
publication. h laid the fuse that was
soon to be touched. Brisbane was then
on the Sunday World. and that p
Immediately became popular for its
comic supplement containing Out
cault's kid pictures" On the Sunday
that New York entertained Ii Hung
Chang. Mr.. Outcault brought out his
tough boy. who had always worn a sort
of night-gown. in vivid yellow, with
the words issuing from his mouth:
Gee. l got a yellow shirt, tool"
Thenceforward the comic prodigy was
kept in that some colored garb.
The New York Herald is the first
example of yellow journalism. 1t has
always been Mr.. Benefits policy to
secure exclusive news: that is. news
which shall appear only in his paper.
To impress the public with his enter
prise, he put headlines in bold type.
With the construction of a special Eu-
ropean cable. the establishing of a free
ice fund for the Door. and other insti-
t~utions. he set h pace in competition
and inaugurated the precedent whose
catch-word is, do Things" These pa
pers are constantly calling or their
men for deeds than on Park Row are
now regarded as commonplace SO fire.
quently are they accomplished. but
to others they might seem fanciful and
romantic. Ike White, the Worlds star
reporter. who rose to fame by discov-
ering III identity of N~orcross. n
wOuld-be murderer of Russell Sage,
was, for example. summoned from a
warm bed one wintry night by a tele-
gram that babe him report at the office
Immediately for a trip to Alaska. He
obeyed mechanically. and was shown a
paragraph printed in the World some
days before. 1t related to the discov-
cry of a beautiful white child by an
English correspondent. while travel
ing over the Canadian Pacific. The
story said the child was held in bond
age by a tribe of Indians. The World
reprinted it from a London paper, and
when half a dozen persons had inquired
in letters Why the World lie not res
cue the beautiful girl destined to be-
come the slave of a savage chief, Mr..
Pulitzer decided to make an attempt.
White took the midnight train. and
as the location was vague. wandered
about for a week or more in the snow
covered steppes of Canada before he
ran down his quarry. Greatly to his
and the papers disappointment. how
ever. he found the child an illegitimate
half breed, who the nearest Catholic
priest said had been born in the tribe.
and who was perfectly contented with
her lot. refusing to be rescued. The
enterprise that promised such unlimit-
ed advertisement thus turned out to be
a fiascO.
Yellow journalism is successful from
a financial standpoint. The profits for
the Herald last year amounted to near
ly s75O.OOO or about $2,O 900 per day:
Mr.. PlitZer's net profits for the same
time were $500. 900, his income having
fallen off since the World dropped from
two cents to one. The Journal, it is
generally understood. anne out even,
although Mr.. Hearst might have made
money had he not continued to invest
more in pushing his circulation. This