The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-12
THE NEWsGATHERERS.


Strangers In Honolulu are apt to
make the remark that the local press
gives q surprising amount OF news con-
siderine that this city has no cable
communication with the rest OF the
world. But as a matter of fact this re-
suit In reached because of the absence
Of oabled messages and not in spite or
II Lack OF world news service
throws the Honolulu papers back on
their own field where news Is CLEANED
WITT. an assidaitF unknown in any
maitland city OF similar population
We may ada that the work Is done
vifsx fewer men than Is customary on
the raainIana. Give writers In all prrSo951r,,
9sa5a ord I6ai mat tee Ia the thselve7DageI
aai7v. and sfxteen-page Saturday Al
ycrtaser; sbut tile fourteen-page daily
osarsnScae OF SAN Francisco requires In
the 'taty editor's department alone. in
c4sains the city editor and his two as
ssstant editors. not less than eighteen
usea. -Four OF the twelve pages OF tnat
paper are given To telegraphic news
one TO editorial and one to the work or
the commercial editor and his assistant,
leaving but six pages, less the space
given to advertising. to carry the work
of eighteen editors, reporters and spe-
elat ~ filters It may be judged from
this that Honolulu reporters have to
hustle. and the pages of the Advertiser.
for one, show that they hustle to some
purpose ~
Yet 1t must be confessed that there
is enough news left unpublished In
Honolulu to keep paper as large as
the ADVERTISER, filled. and that being
true it follows that enough news never
sees type In San Francisco to fill |
doEer, papers Of the size OF the Cnron-
icle. A good newspaper is not better
known by what 1t prints than by what
IT leaves out of print. or matter not
deemed available to a Honolulu paper
tae islands, with their diversified in
terests and especially diversified popu- |
IatiotL are peculiarly rich. In the one
fterzt OF society alone-following the
theme through all its racial ramifica-
lions. high and lows contained |
enough of sensation tosfiH the yellowest |
of journals, But a moral and conserva-
tive public has to be thought of and so
a very definite line has to be drawn |
Badness cannot all be kept out but the |
worst of it Is and the public is never (
the wiser. It Is Comforting to the day
workers on the press to know, however,
that they collect and print enough news
in this small and lonely group and espe-
ciaIiy In this little capital to excite the
surprise and admiration Of every look
er-on-
On some accounts il is to be regretted
that the journals of the time cannot !
fill in all the details of the passing |
show; for out of the bits of news and |
picturesque description here and there
collected and sent to print, people will |
one day try to make the full mosaic of
history. But historians have long since
learned to fare badly at the hands of |
news-gatherers; not that the data given |
are deceptive but because they are not |
full enough. We can conceive some
writer of the annals OF San Francisco.
fifty years hence, contending that, at
the beginning of the century. San Fran
cisco, though in constant touch with
ports which had the bubonic plague.
was itself free from that malady. He
would satisfy himself as to the truth
OF his postuiate by a careful reading of
the files Of our San Francisco contem-
poraries. wherein nothing whatever is
said about deaths from the Asiatic
scourge. Yet every man in San Fran
cisco. who knows anything. is aware of
the presence of the plague. History
may not be made up as Carlyle said of
'1ies agreed upon but 1t is made up
of the, information which the people of
the past thought expedient to write
and print.