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Show THE CITIZEN 7 t( , CRIME AND THE PRESS robberies and hangings, MURDERS,foibles and weaknesses are playing a larger part in the news of the day than they did while the magnificent war drama was in progress. The newspapers 'have swung back to the reliable sources of news and aro striving to interest their readers after the old fashion. It is notable, however, that the public taste has improved in recent year and the journals no longer devote as much space as formerly to stories that once were considered the apothe-si- s of human interest. It is not so many years ago that a public execution called for columns of type and more columns of pictures., Last week a murderer was shot to death and the newspapers did not exploit the event in the sensational style of other days. Although the murder was one of the most intriguing in the states history the execution of the slayer did not stir the interest it would have aroused a generation ago. Never was there a time when grew-som- e details were proper to a news story, but we remember that the news-writof other days was fond of emThe rephasizing grewsomeness. porter was forever shaking a gory pen at his helpless readers. They were interested in human nature; he "thought they were interested m carnage. . pages of risque novels. As the people become better educated and culture more widespread the n spaper which panders to the, lowest appetites and to vulgar sensationalism will appeal to an ever narrowing circle of readers. A recognition of this truth has led even sensational journals to modify their tone. e-- w 'I 0 some extent the public is edu- cated by its newspapers, just as theatre audiences are educated to desire certain types of plays. In a few cities of the United States the sensational newspare is the only one that can achieve financial success. In a few other cities the newspapers are desired, but in most of our large cities the newspapers, through a process of action and reaction between the public and the editorial management, have adopted a golden mean. They have elevated the news standards without abandoning those sources of news which always have interested and probably always win interest the reading public. old-fog- y er experienced newspaper man that you can interest all of the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time, but that you cannot interest all of the people all of the time. It was a curious development of journalism in this country twenty-fiv- e or thirty years ago when the yellow press adopted the theory that all people could be interested an of the time if news were handled as fiction. The story without features was dressed in all the trappings of romance. The woman was always beautiful; the villain, though but a stevedore or a street cleaner, was endowed with riches and, if credulity would stand the strain, with social position. In large measure these methods have been abandoned except in me Sunday magazine sections where old viands are warmed over with elab orate sauces. THE , 'TMIE public criticism of newspapers never was quite accurate. The critic condemned the newspapers for playing up crime; church conferences, betterment leagues and solemn concourses of tradesmen passed resolutions calling upon the unregenerate newspaper editors to suppress all mention of crime. Generally speaking, the columns of the newspapers iave been cleansed and purified, bnt .more in manner than in matter. The yellow press is still with us snu striving to polish the rough diamonds of crime into gems of rare brilliance and to give to sex appeal a refinement and glamour once confined to the TT is a doctrine of socialists that hu- man nature 'is fundamentally good and is made bad by the capitalistic system. It is their idea that sin and crime are due to the struggle for existence and that once that struggle is eliminated sin and crime will cease. With the economic side of the argument I am not here concerned, but if it has any truth in it we can see what a change would come over all of our institutions should everybody be as good as could be. In those millennial days a newspaper' could not publish stories of crimes because there would be no crimes. There would be no murders or robberies and no man would covet anothers wife and no woman would covet anotn-er- s husband. What, then, would become of our newspapers? Would they cease to be purveyors of general news and confine their efforts to special departments of news to finance, sports, laws and ordinances, taxes, pavements and good roads, society, church conferences and speecn-e- s By F. P. Gallagher what news is, let us consider some modifying circumstances. It is a mistake to assume that it is crime, as crime, which absorbs the interest or the reader. The real heart of the matter is that human nature is the element of interest. The most interesting thing in the world is man, his nature and, secondarily, his affairs. If a tramp is knocked on the head and killed by another vagrant very few are interested. The newspaper accords the story but a few lines. But if the leading merchant of the town kills the mayor everybody wants to know all about it. The mere shooting itself is of little importance, comparatively speaking. It is the human nature back of the shooting that allures the interest of us all. He who would say that human nature is more interesting in crime than in virtue and that the columns of the newspaper prove the dictum would be wider of the mark than he imagined. Love, adventure and death are always appealing even where there is no crime. This truth can be illustrated by two stories of the war. F URING the conflict two women spies were put to death one in Belgium and the other in France. Their stories are of equal interest. One was an English woman of lofty soul whose life had been irreproachable; the other was a social outcast who had been the associate of the degenerate and the criminal. The story of Edith Cavell will attract the enthralled attention of men and women as long as the story of Mati Hari. It is not my purpose to prove that DENVER minister of the gospel introduces a jazz band at the afternoon services to arouse interest among the members of his congregation in the messages of religion, and yet the life of Christ interests millions while the life of Herod or Nero interests but few. Every detail of Christs childhood and boyhood is deemed worthy of mention and desquisition, but no one cares to inquire much about the childhood or the boyhood of Herod or Nero. Amos Cummings, a New York newspaper man and congressman, is often quoted because of his definition of news. If, he said, a dog bites a man it is not news; but if a man bites a dog it is news. He was trying to (Continued on Page 18.) A is s Will operate dally from 6:30 to I 9 get a nice roast chicken for yur a""". p. m., '"y a pv i p CL i 1 s Something Different Get the habit of lunching and dining at - ROTISSERIE INN FRENCH-ITALIA- N on the tariff? In one of his stories Hawthorne imagines a day when all the books of the world will be gathered into a pile and burned. And one is tempted to think that in the day visualized by the social reformer newspapers would cease to exist. People would be so perfect and perfectly happy that they would not care to entertained by fairy stories, about things that had no existence. To find stories of great crimes they would be compelled to trip into the dust heaps of history and 2x out such villains as Herod, Nero and William Hohenzollem. Those who have not much faith in the prompt regeneration of mankind by a simple change of the industrial system will see a long future for .the newspaper and its gossip of evil.'Bitt lest the reader gain a wrong notion of w . criminals are less interesting than the virtuous. It depends on circuim stances. The god people are pot played up in the news columns as often as are the bad people, but frequently the acts of the virtuous are more interesting than the acts of the vicious. Mere vice is nearly always excluded from the newspapers. It is disgusting, revolting, and becomes interesting only In rare instances. There is no general rule by which to decide what is and what is not news. The other day Ibanez, the Spanish author, told horn he wrote his novels and he concluded by saying, Of course, there are no rules. And, of course, there are no exact rules by which to calculate the varying values of news stories. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.iiiii.iiiiiii,.Iii,iiii,,i,i11ii11iiI1Ii1ii(iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. OUR ROTISSERIE DINNERS Table DHoteand A La Carte a Specialty FIRST CLASS SERVICE C. RINETTI F. 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