IV “The Modern Pulpit”
It is a bright July morning. As I sit in the garden I look out, over a tangle of wild roses, to a calm sea and a flock of white sails. Everything invites to happy thought and innocent reverie. Moreover, it is the day of rest, and every one is at leisure to turn his mind towards pleasant things. To what, in fact, are most people on this continent turning theirs? To this, which I hold in my hand, the Sunday newspaper.
Let us analyse this production, peculiar to the New World. It comprises eight sections and eighty-eight pages, and very likely does really, as it boasts, contain “more reading matter than the whole Bible.”
Opening Section 1, I read the following headings:
“Baron Shot as Bank-teller—Ends Life with Bullet.”
“Two fatally Hurt in Strike Riots at Pittsburg.”
“Steals a Look at Busy Burglars.”
“Drowned in Surf at Narragansett.”
“Four of a Family fear a Dogs’ bite” (sic).
“Two are Dead, Two Dying; Fought over Cow.”
Section 2 appears to be concerned with similar matter, for example:
“Struck by Blast, Woman is Dying.”
“Hard Shell Crabs help in giving Burglar Alarm.”
“Man who has been Married three times denies the Existence of God.”
But here I notice further the interesting and enigmatic heading:
“Will ‘boost’ not ‘knock’ New York,”
and roused for the first time to something like curiosity, read:
“To lock horns with the muckrakes and to defend New York against all who defame and censure it the Association for New York was incorporated yesterday.”
I notice also “Conferences agree to short rates on woollen goods,” and am reminded of the shameless bargaining of which, for many weeks past, Washington has been the centre; which leads me to reflect on the political advantages of a Tariff and its wholesome effect on the national life.
Section 3 deals with Aviation and seaside resorts:
“Brave Lake Placid,” I read, “Planning New Hotel.”
“Haines Falls entertaining a Great Throng of People.”
“Resound with the Laughter and Shout of Summer Throngs.”
Section 4 consists entirely of advertisements:
“Tuning-up Sale,” I read. “Buff-and-crimson cards will mark the trail of all goods ready for the sale. We are tuning up. By September it is our intention to have assembled in these two great buildings the most fashionable merchandise ever shown. No one piece of goods will be permitted to linger that lacks, in any detail, the æsthetic beauty demanded by New York women of fashion. Everything will be better and a definite percentage lower in price than New York will find in any other store. Do not expect a sale of ordinary proportions. To-morrow you will find the store alive with enthusiasm. This is not a summer hurrah.” And so on, to the end of the page. Twelve pages of advertisements, uninterrupted by any item of news.
Section 5 is devoted to automobile gossip and automobile advertisements.
Thereupon follows the Special Sporting Section:
“Rumsom Freebooters defeat Devon’s first.”
“‘Young Corbett’ is chipped in the 8th.”
“Doggett and Cubs each win shut out.”
“Brockett is easy for Detroit Nine.”
Glancing at the small type I read:—
“Englewood was the first to tally. This was in the fourth inning. W. Merritt, the first man up, was safe on Williams’ error, and he got round to third on another miscue by Williams. Charley Clough was on deck with a timely single, which scored Merritt. Curran’s out at first put Clough on third, from whence he tallied on Cuming’s single. Cuming got to second, when Wiley grounded out along the first base line and scored on Reinmund’s single. Every other time Reinmund came to the bat he struck out.”
I pass to the Magazine Section.
On the first page is the mysterious heading “E. of K. and E.” Several huge portraits of a bald clean-shaven man in shirt sleeves partially explain. E. is Mr. Erlanger, a theatrical impresario, and K. and E. presumably is his firm. The article describes “the accomplishment of a busy man on one of his ordinary days,” and makes one hope no day is ever extraordinary. The interviewer who tells about him is almost speechless with emotion. He searches for a phrase to express his feelings, finds it at last, and comes triumphantly to his close—Mr. Erlanger is a man “with trained arms, trained legs, a trained body and a trained mind.” There follows: “The Story of a Society Girl,” in which we are told “there is a confession of love and the startling discovery that Dolly was a professional model”; “The Doctor’s Story,” with a picture of a corpse, “whose white shapely hands were clasped one over the other”; and “Would you Convict on Circumstantial Evidence?—A Scaffold Confession. A True Story.” I glance at this, and read, “While the crowd watched in strained, breathless silence there came a sharp agonised voice and a commotion near the steps of the scaffold. ‘Stop! Stop! The man is not guilty. I mean it. It is I who should stand there. Let me speak.’” You can now reconstruct the story for yourself. Next comes “Get the Man! Craft and courage of old-time and modern express robbers matched by organised secret service and the mandate that makes capture alone the end of an unflagging man-hunt.” This is accompanied by portraits of famous detectives and train-robbers.
There follows “Thrilling Lines,” with a picture of a man who seems to be looping the loop on a bicycle.
And the conclusion of the section is a poem, entitled “Cynthianna Blythe,” with coloured illustrations apparently intended for children, and certainly successful in not appealing to adults.
Comment, I suppose, is superfluous. But it is only fair to say that the whole of the press of America is not of this character. Among the thousands of papers daily produced on that continent, it would be possible, I believe, to name ten—I myself could mention five—which contain in almost every issue some piece of information or comment which an intelligent man might care to peruse. There are to be found, now and again, passing references to European and even to Asiatic politics; for it cannot be said that the press of America wholly ignored the recent revolutions in Persia and in Turkey. I myself saw a reference to the new Sultan as a man “fat, but not fleshy.” England looms big enough on the American horizon to be treated to an occasional gibe; and the doings of fashionable Americans in London are reported somewhat fully. Still, on the whole, the American daily press is typified by the specimen I have analysed. Sensations, personalities and fiction are its stock-in-trade. Why? The causes are well known, but are worth recapitulating, for they are part of the system of modern civilisation.
The newspaper press is a business intended to make money. This is its primary aim, which may, or may not, include the subordinate purpose of advocating some line of public policy. Now, to make money, it is essential to secure advertisements; and to secure advertisements it is essential to have a large circulation. But a large circulation can only be obtained by lowering the price of the paper, and adapting it to the leisure mood of the mass of people. But this leisure mood is usually one of sheer vacuity, incapable of intellectual effort or imaginative response. The man is there, waiting to be filled, and to be filled with the stuff easiest to digest. The rest follows. The newspapers supply the demand and by supplying extend and perpetuate it. Among the possible appeals open to them they deliberately choose the lowest. For people are capable of Good as well as of Bad; and if they cannot get the Bad they will sometimes take the Good. Newspapers, probably, could exist, even under democratic conditions, by maintaining a certain standard of intelligence and morals. But it is easier to exist on melodrama, fatuity and sport. And one or two papers adopting that course force the others into line; for here, as in so many departments of modern life, “The Bad drives out the Good.” This process of deterioration of the press is proceeding rapidly in England, with the advent of the halfpenny newspaper. It has not gone so far as in America; but there is no reason why it should not, and every reason why it should; for the same causes are at work.
I have called the process “deterioration,” but that, of course, is matter of opinion. A Cabinet Minister, at a recent Conference in London, is reported to have congratulated the press on its progressive improvement during recent years. And Lord Northcliffe is a peer. The more the English press approximates to the American, the more, it would seem, it may hope for public esteem and honour. And that is natural, for the American method pays.
Well, the sun still shines and the sky is still blue. But between it and the American people stretches a veil of printed paper. Curious! the fathers of this nation read nothing but the Bible. That too, it may be said, was a veil; but a veil woven of apocalyptic visions, of lightning and storm, of Leviathan, and the wrath of Jehovah. What is the stuff of the modern veil, we have seen. And surely the contrast is calculated to evoke curious reflections.