OCR Text |
Show OUTCAULT'S NEW JOB. Owing to the interest manifested in anything ' Mr. Outcault may do, his local friends may be interested in Col, Mann's explanation of why Mr. Outcault quit the Herald in New York. It follows: fol-lows: Buster Brown is announced to leave the Herald Her-ald at New Year's and return to consort with his predecessor, The Yellow Kid, on the American-Journal. American-Journal. The gossips have exploited the fact that, in the absence of Mr. Bennett, the mismanagers of the Herald pay Mr. Outcault only $100 a week for the Buster page of twelve pictures $8.33 1-3 each for sketches in colors. Besides receiving a hundred times this sum in such advertisements as Buster plays, Buster clothes and Buster toys, the canny Heralders recoup the meagre pay by peddling ped-dling the pictures to western papers. Mr. Hearst was informed about the situation, raised the Herald Her-ald out, and Buster is deserting the sinking ship. A nice legal point makes the transfer important. Mr. Outcault, with profuse generosity, submitted two or three drawings a week; the Herald cached instead of returning those not used, and now threaten to go on publishing old Busters, for at least two years, in defiance of Mr. Outcault's copyright. Should this be attempted, a suit will be brought. But the distinction is plain. If Mr. Outcault was paid a salary of $100 a week, all the Buster Brown pictures he drew belong to the Herald; if he was paid $100 for one page weekly, all the unused pages belong to him. Like ex-Justice ex-Justice Parker, I may add the dictum that the Herald, which inaugurated liberal salaries in journalism under the elder Bennett, is now a scab paper in all its departments. |