The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-17

charges of libel, and up to the present
the 'fhonors are easy"
charles Letellier the millionaire owner
Oh the journal, Is comparatively young
man of 35, who has no history.s II will
be remembered that his wife, a beautiful
actress, fell overheard from his yacht in
mysterious manner and was drowned
Leteliler inherited an enormous fortune
on coming of age, and thought he would
like to own newspaper BY putting up
s500,0O0 in hard cash he ssas able to attain
his hearts desire. Although he Is not a
journalist he has genius for picking out
talented collaborators and has sur
| rounded himself" as the French say, with
the most brilliant STAFF of writer's in
France Yachting is his hobby, and he
spends very little time ashore, but he is
in constant communication with his jor-
nal by wireless. Although he is not quite
| so unobtrusive as the owner of the Matln,
| there are very few people who can boast
of ever having met him.
IS The Petit Journal
| The Petit journal, which is older than
| its more brilliant rivals by 20 years, is
read by shopmen, the better class Of
workmen, 'consierges' Ca large class, as
there is one in every house,, farmers, and
! the innumerable work girls who are
known as "midinettes. The Petit Jour
nal makes a speciality of "feuilletons,"
which appeal to the sentimental little
| milliner and dressmaker. The heroine is
always one of their own class and always
| energies spotless from the most desperate
adventures. Her struggle with fate is fol-
lowed with breathless interest every day
| by thousands of romantic young women,
who snatch few minutes from their
lunch hour-the only time these human
ants can call their own.
A feature of the Petit journal is It's col
ored weekly supplement- 1t is printed in
glaring colors, and the front page con-
sist of very sensational picture of the
principal event of the week. short de-
scription of this appears inside the paper.
and there.t of the seven pages are taken
up with the inevitable short stories
Possessing as it, does old and firmly
Established following, the Petit Journal is
not obliged to spend money on competi-
tions, nor does it attach any Importance
to foreign cables. Its readers are SUI
premely Indifferent to anything that hap
pens outside of France. While the Matin
and the Journal are making desperate
bids for popularity, the Petit Journal pur-
sues the calm, unchanging policy that 80
years experience has proved to be the
best. The only concession 1t has made to
modernity is to give a moving picture
show twice week in its publishing offices
in the Rue Lafayette.
Charles Prevet the owner and editor,
told the writer some interesting facts
about his paper.
1--WE published our first number on Feb
ruary 2, 1S63' said Prevet, a genial, white
haired veteran of 20, 'sand we sold 100. 600
copies every day for the first month. Our
daily circulation is now 100000 Our col
ored supplement has a steady sale of $780,
900 copies a week, and our agricultural
supplement more than 250,000 We also
sell 25O,00O copies of our fashion paper,
La Mode. and 100000 of our sporting sup
lpement, LIE Plein Air.
Some Interesting Figures
Here are some more figures that will
interest you. / know you Americans are
fond of figures We have 10000 corre-
spondents and 25,00O agents who sell our
paper. We use 1850 tons of paper every
year, and we get 1t all from our own mills
at Essonnes. We publish seven editions
of the Petit Journal every day. and use 10
tons of metal daily for the plates.
zone of the first 'feuilletons" published
by. the Petit Journal was written by
Charles Dickens, but 1t did not meet with
much success; the French reader has al
ways preferred native talent. The circu-
lation went up by leaps and bounds when
Alexander Dumas began to write his in
imitable adventure stories for us, and
soon reached 100000 copies a dav. Lamar
tine and Alphonse Karr were other favor
ite writer's in the early days. In 1865
Emile Gaboriau began his thrilling series
of detective stories, which enjoyed as
much popularity as the same class of fic-
tion did a few years ago. His famous
character. Monsieur Lecoq is an extraor-
dinary detective whose methods have evil
dently inspired the creators of Sherlock
Holmes and company.
Prevet, unlike his rivals of the Matln
and the Journal rose from the newspaper
ranks He started as reporter on his
paper some so years ago. Always the last
to leave at night and the first at the office
in the morning, he was soon promoted to
be chief of the news department. Here
he displayed a wonderful talent for organ
ization, which is essential to a paper pos
sessing more than 10000 correspondents.
He became successfully sub-editor, editor
in-chef and director of the journal he
now owns. He saw its great possibilities
as soon as he Joined the staff, and mehod-
ically invested all his savings in the
shares, which now stand at 460. AS soon
as he had acquired a controlling influence
in the company he reorsanized II. an'i
now stands secure as owner and director
of one of the most powerful newspaper
organizations in the world,