Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-18
DEAN OF THE FELLOWS
HISTORY OF THE NEWSPAPER LIE
PETIT JOURNAL.
The French Exemplar of the Press,
Which Thrives on Crime
and Fiction.
From the Pail Mall Gazette,

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
The latest event in the history Of Journal
ism Is the enlargement of LIE Petit Journal.
One may pause to glance at the history or
this remarkable newspaper. If only because
it has better title than any of its rivals
to advertise it's circulation as 1.-The largest
in the world"
The paper dates from 1863 and it's foun-
der was banker named Moses Millaud, a
fact which seems to indicate that it's origin
was less anti-Semitic than its policy during
the Dreyfus case. Indeed. as the paper oe-
came anti-Semitic the name of the founder
was gradually changed from Moses to
Polydorus In those days of small circula-
lions it began with sale of 10000 copies,
sprang in year or two to BOO, 900 copies.
grew and grew until it turned the million,
was Hoated as a company. and paid pre-
digious dividends. In the interest of those
persons who think of investing their hard
earned savings in newspaper property it Is
worth while to enumerate the means by
which this great success has been achieved
A New Public.
In the first place. the paper catered for g.
new public. Previous daily papers had
only catered for politicians the boulevards
and society. The directors of LIE Petit
Journal decided to aim straight at the
great heart of the people-to satisfy the
literary cravings of the grsette. the dame
des halles the concierge, the bonne-a-tout-
faire and the half-educated frequenters of
the village cafe. They faced two problems
Inc problem of getting at these people and
the problem Of giving them exactly what
they wanted.
The former problem was solved by send
ing out commercial travellers. For many
years representatives of the paper drove
all over the country, neglectng no hamlet
however remote from the railway, arrang
ing that some citizen should always have
LIE Petit Journal on sale wherever th-re
was a cluster Of houses. The result is that
to this day. when you flatter yourself that
you have driven or walked or cycled far
out Of the reach Of newspapers. you sud
denly come upon a notice board inviting
you to buy this particular paper at farm
house or smithy or laborer's cottage.
Chronicle Of Crime.
AS regards the contents Of the paper, its
directors either guessed or discovered that
what their new public wanted was. in the
first place, a complete chronicle of con-
temporary crime, and a daily installment
of sensational serial story. The chronicle
of crime, of course, was easy to supply
without subornlng criminals by giving care
ADMINISTRATIONS to a great army of oc-
casional correspondents. Horrors were
raked In from every corner of the land.
One read how one man had set fire to
farmers haystack, and another had thrown
his mother-in-law out of a window, and
third had pitched baby down a well.
and so on through several columns, and
the public aimed at was delighted "Ah,
&c quill en- a de crimes aujourd' hui sur
lie Journal was the admiring eXclamina-
ton
An even more popular feature however.
was the serial story Moses Millaud, who
inaugurated the policy of publishing them,
was given by popular acclamation the
proud title of 1.-The father of the feuille-
tom and the editor Of the paper present
had the good luck to discover Emile Rich
ebourg, the greatest writer of feuilletons
that the world has ever seen.
Richebourg's Works
Ones heart goes out to Emile Richie
bourg because he knew what he wrote was
rubbish, and never posed as a man of let
tiers. 1t was no part of his task to pene-
trate the hidden places of the human
heart. He wrote of missing Wills and
long-lost uncles, and foundlings who
turned out to be the heirs to great estates
He was generally engaged upon several of
these stories at the same time. and, in or
der that he might not confuse them or for
get the color of his heroine's hair, he used
to have sets of dolls made, and labeled to
represent his personages, kept each set of
dolls in separate drawer. and always
stood the proper puppets on the desk in
front of him when he was writing One
does not readily picture q proud man of
letters working in this fashion. but Emile
Richebourg found that it served his pur-
pose very well Not even the proudest OF
the men of letters earned such large in
come so steadily as he did. For he was
the one Indispensable man. The expert
ment was once tried by employing Jules
Verne instead of him. The result was that
the paper lost $4,000 subscribers in a week
and the editor ate humble pie. and brought
Richebourg back The paper paid him
$4,000 for his serials. and took as MANY
as he would write. For quite a time he
was earning 100000 year