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youth of a family, who have boon
taught by the head oC it that that
particular paper is a standard of good
politics, good journalism, and good
English. It is usually impossible on
account of time, to rowritca reporters
copy but the editor or copy reader can
mako presentable English out of poor
by a few blue pencil scratches.
The aim of the daily paper is dis
tinctly not literary. As I understand
ifc the function and purpose of the
largest and best papers in this country
is to publish in each edition all the
accidents, incidents and occurences
which have taken place In the tweuty
four hours since the preceding issue.
Iutiumerable mistakes in g rammer, or
thography and style will not discon
cert and mortify an editor so much as
a single omission of an important item
oil news. It follows then that report
ers aro selected primarily for their
ability to lind news and report, It ac
curately and graphically. Incident
ally the editorial columns arc com
posed of comment on the things that
liappen, praise of the candidates, or
the administration, city, county, state
or national that belongs to the party
the paper, in question supports and
criticism of the candidates of the
party the paper does not support.
Commonly there is a marked differ
ence between the quality of English
on the news pages and that In use on
the editorial page. The editors write
discursively and somewhat at leisure.
The style and power of the editorial
page gives tone to the rest -.of the
paper unless it be so yellow that noth
iugcau cbscure the tint.
In considering newspaper English
therefore, It must be granted that
there are two kinds in every paper.
Unfortunately for the style of the
youth few read the ed I LC rials and all
read the news pages. It is unfor
tunate because newspaper reading Is
forming a larger and larger propor
tion of the reading of Americans.
The Sunday nowspapers aro magazines
weighing about a pound and to read
one requires all the time the average
youth allots to his literary develop
ment. It is not the occasional book
one reads, nor, the occasional lecture
one hears that aid In forming the
style of youth. It is the books or
nnpers we read every day and the
language we hear every day that
forms the basis of one's own style or
lack of It. Some of the most learned
men and women have been unable to
ovorcomo the habit of incorrect
tipeech acquired in youth at home or
on the streets. Therefore it is most
important that the style of daily
newspapers in news reports should
improve. There are a few news
papers in this, country, notably The
Sun of New York and The Record of
Chicago all of whose pages have a
distinct styla. Very few careless,
slovenly phrases aro found on their
pages. The children who read p-pers
of this sort, day after day and year
after year aro unconsciously educated
and. unconsciously adopt the stylo or
a modification of the style, so con
stantly before them.
Y6U in reading the papers charity
should accompany criticism, and it
would if wo knew in what various
circumstances the news was gathered
and how time urged the reporters
who recorded it. At night when the
giant presses only wait for ttio re
turn of a reporter who has hurried to
the. scene of a lire or a murder, when
the. pressmen and the stereotypcrs
stand about the pressroom and the
flight editor is nervous and cross for
ear that the paper may be dolayed
and miss the fast mail, a hurried In
coherent report Is to bo expected.
The wonder is that It Is almost always
concise, graphic, correctly phrased
and correctly spelled. There is less
excuse for the mistakes In the per
sonal and society columns of the pa
pers. Theso departments are com
piled at leisure and the reporter
who records the doings of a composite
Individual to whom he gives two
titles as Mrs. Captain Brown, should
be taught better.
Finally in selecting a paper which
the whole family can read and enjoy
and which will not be likely to pre
sent Incorrect models for the young
there is nothing better than a good
weekly paper. The staff of a weekly
paper is selected lor Its ability to write.
There is time to correct and revise
the proofs and the demon of news is
not so exigent. The weekly paper Is
not exactly a newspaper, except oc
casionally in one department, and it
is not a magazine. But it has the
close connection with and breathless
interest in transpiring events that a
newspaper has and the literary as
pirations and standards of the maga
zine. The weekly paper fills a unique
place in periodical literature which
neither the dally paper nor the
monthly magazine can do justice co.
Snubbed by tne daily papers, ignored
by the magazines, it has a function, a
mission and opportunities which it is
fulfilling in spite of disdain.
The Short Skirt.
Investigation into the use of the
bicycle for sport indicates that It Is
used principally as a means of rapid
locomotion and not for the fun of
making the wheels go round Bicycle
clubs the country over languish, and
bicycle races no longer attract a
cowd. It has reached the level of
any other vehicle of locomotion. As
there are no buggy, coupe, or trap
clubs, there will soon be no bicycle
clubs. Not that wheeling has be
come unpopular but.only a matter of
course. The manufacturers have set
tled down to make wheels as they
make buggies, sure that the demand
for them will be steady.
Tjc passing of the bicycle from the
field of recreation to that of serious
business is quietly effected and is of
no particular consequence. In tak
lng its place, however, among the
humdrum machinery of everyday
manipulation a recognition of what
the little two-wheeled safety has ac
complished is historically its due
Aristocrats accomplish no perma
nent reforms. A change of custom or
of costume can only be accomplished
by the people. Reforms come from
below. Fifty years ago Mrs. Bloomer
becoming convinced of the unsanitary
character of long skirts, their incon
venience and their bondage invented
a very ugly costume or part of a cos
tume which was called bloomers.
Many rich ladies of the highest sta
tion and of great influence accepted
Mrs. Bloomer's logic and conscienti
ously tried to use it, But the gamins
hooted at the ladies in bloomers and
their use, from the first, was a martyr
dom to themselves and a mortification
to the friends of the converts. Never
theless, since Mrs. Bloomer's day
many English women have continued
to wear bloomers, and they are about
tocelebrato In England the fiftieth
anniversary of their Introduction
Bloomers and the reasons for their
adoption have probably had an influ
ence in bringing about the era of
short skirts. But unless It were prac
tically impossible to wear long skirts
anl ride a bicycle at the same time,
the world-old fetters of long skirts
would still be clinging to the limbs of
even the athletic girl. The assump
tion of the shortskirt was undeniably
hastened by the use of the trailing
skirts which fashionable women havo
been dragging over unspeakable side
walks for the last two years. Their
untidynessand unfitness for the street
was so apparent that the bicycle ski rt's
reign became, from their first appear
ance certain. The fashionable world
aided in the reform, really accomplish
ed by shop girls and business women
by adopting their style of streetdress.
That the decree came from the last
two, however, is admitted by students
of dress and the origin of radical
chauges in it.
It Is discouraging to the reformers
that the popularity of the bicycle has
effected what the most aristocratic,
influential, and determined, utterly
failed in. The other part of the
moral is that the world moves almost
at its own gait in spite of reform and
that no amount of talk, logic, and
good examples, will destroy an out-of-date
ridiculous custom, like a little
mechauical contrivance with which
the foolish old custom is incompatible.
Matrimonial Speculations,
Admiral Dewey's wife being dead
the society reporters on Washington
and New York papers are kept busy
speculating as to his probable choice
ot a companion. The Admiral's
chivalry and politoness to all women
Increase the difficulties of the report
ers. The Admiral is not accustomed to
appropriate much of praiseand cheer
ing that is really intended for him.
When it comes to selecting one of the
bcautirul and fascinating women who
will smile upon him in Washington
or New York, his gentleness and fear
of causing pain or disappointment
may induce him to hesitate until the
danger is entirely past and he Is
again on the open seas.
The Trust Conference.
One of the remarkable characteris
tics of the trust conference in Chi
cago was the number of college pro
fessors who participated in the dis
cussions and the consideration paid
to their conclusions and conrervative
statements. If economics were con
sidered now, as it was a few years ago,
an exact science, professors ot the
science would have been paid scant at
tention in a gathering of politicians
and business men like that at Chicago.
By giving up all dogma and studying
thecomediehumaine at first hand and
in the open air, end of the century eco
nomists have been able to make some
valuable deductions and the business
man. politician, lawyer, trades-union,
leader, and socialist are willing to
listen to his conclusions.
The personnel of the conference was
remarkable because it represented
so many kinds of men and because of
the toleration of their attitude to
wards each other. The practical poli
tician, the labor leader, the single
taxers, the professors of political econ
omy, reformers, Journalists, bankers,
clergymen, railroad men, and farmers
formed the audience, and at times
the sneakers.
According to Dr. E. Benjamin An
drews In TheRevlew of Reviews "Ben
jamin Tucker, the anarchist, was on
the program aud said out his whole
say, listened to with profound atten
tion from beginning to end and ap
plauded, as few speakers were."
Dr. Andrews summarizes the result
of the conference thus: "The view of
most of the political economists in the
conference who contributed the bulk
of the seasoned thinking that trusts
are mainly, though not wholly, the re
sult of economic evolution, so that all
talk of suppressing them is idle; that
they may become very deleterious, not
withstanding this, raising tho effec
tive cost of goods to consumers, erect
ing and Intensifying class distinctions,
retarding Industrial Invention, and
vitiating our political life; and that
therefore they must be carefully
watched and studied, ti'll we see what
regulation of them is necessary, and
then checked and snubbed by legisla
tion, as they can be if proper wisdom
Is exercised to keep them the servants
of the people and not let them become
Its oppressors."
The Yachts,
One of those Americans who seem
to know just what the American peo
pie in forty-five different states, and
just what the English living on the
Island clear across the Atlantic
ocean, think and feel about any sub'
ject, said the other day, that neither
the English nor the American people
were very much Interested In this
yacht race. Tho reason is, he said,
because Mr. Iselin, the owner of Co
lumbia is a rich man and an aristo
crat and the common people feel that v
the victory if he wins it, will not be
particularly an American victory.
Sir Thomas Lipton has been and is
"in trade'' he Is an Irishman and his
title is of recent bestowal. Not that
any of these facts make any dif
ference. He is a very fine fellow and
has shown himself a thorough sports
man and his business ability and
energy make him all the more ac
ceptable to Americans. In conse
quence of buying and selling tea
though, he is not, strictly speaking,
a swell when he is at home and the
real swells have been overheard to
express a fear that his success might
inflate his pretensions to a society
they do not consider him entitled to.
In th's country, schoolboys on their
way to school no longer converse
about the teacher nor their own
championship games of football but
about the Columbia and the Sham
rock and which will win, though the
inland schoolboy does not know a
yaciio irom a scuooner. in ungiana
uie crowus on me street, arouna me
newspaper offices belie the intima
tion of the man who knows he knows
and the amount of space occupied by
yacht gossip in the newspapers is a
fair indication of the interest the two
countries take in the race.
The Bom.
The Boer population of the Trans
vaal is about 100,000 souls. And there
are about as many Boers in the
Orange Free State as in the Trans
vaal. The black natives of the coun
try at present controlled by the Boers
number about 750,000. No one knows
whether these black natives would
take part in the conflict, and if they
did which side they would choose to
fight on. Although England is so
much stronger, these unknown con
ditions 6f the struggle are Influencing
her to bo cautious in beginning the
war.
"Send more warships and soldiers to 71
t.lin Plllnlnna woo Admiral Ttownv'S ' I
advice to the President who accepted
it as from the greatest and wisest
authority on the Filipinos and the
Filipinos. Men and ships will be
dispatched to the Filipinos as fast as
possible. Their arrival may demon
strate to the islanders that although
they may have sympathizers in this
country, they are not enough to af
ford them any help or to prevent the
firmly fixed national purpose from be
ing carried out.
it
Mr. TbomML.KlinWl.
In Mr. Klmbairs sudden death Ne
braska loses another of the finely
poised, high bred pioneers who have
linlnnrl In flinmiialvao anil in tllCiT
chlldron to give Nebraska its prestige y
Mr. Kimball is not only a loss w wi
ha but to the state.