BOOKS OP THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3160, 11 August 1917, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

"The Street of Ink." Quite a number of very readable novels have been written during the last few years having for their subject journalistic life in London, but there was room for such a book as "Tho Street of Ink," by H. Simonis (Cassell and Co.; per S. and W. Mackay), in which facts take the place, of fiction. The author has been collected for over a quarter of a. cenpry with tho business sido of journalism, being advertisement manage]- of tho "London Daily News." He gives a detailed and vory readable account of tho starting, development, and present standing of all tho great London dailies, telling us, in. an anecdotal, essentially chatty way, of the men who have contributed to build up great newspaper properties, such as "The Times," tho "Daily Telegraph," the "Daily Nows," and the "Daily Hail." Ho does not confine himself to tho daily Press, but writes pleasantly and always informatively about tho origin and rise of such famous weeklies as the "Graphic," "Illustrated London News," tho "Sphere," ' and those fine semi-political, somi-liter-ary weeklies, tho "Spectator," tho "Athenaeum" (now a monthly), and tho "Nation/' Interesting incidents in thecareer of such old-established weeklies as "Punch," "Truth," "The Field," tho "British Weekly," and other journals whose names are familiar in the public ear are also given, and there is a specially good chapter on the provincial Press - . Mr. Simonis seems to navo been personally acquainted with most of the leading journalists of his time, and gives ns many sharply-drawn but good-natured character sketches of fleet. Street celebrities. A special feature of the book is the attention given to what may be called the business side of "tho Street." Vast sums have' been spent in starting new journals and in bolstering- up or nursing decadent 1 properties info a, renewed health, and vigor:—and financial success. Mr. Simonis tells its how the "Daily Mail" was started on so small a capital as J(!15,000, the founders having, however, use of the presses of the "Daily Express," an evening journal. At _ the outset Lord Northcliffe's brothers, Leicester, Hildebrand, Cecil, and Vyvy.in Harmsworth, were all associated with tho venture. Two of them, who inclined more and more towards Liberalism, in their politics, subsequently obtained scats in the House of Commons, and their interests passed into other hands, but Lord Northcliffe (Alfred Harmsworth) retained the absolute control, which ho possesses in all the undertakings in which ho. is concerned. He told the author that "more newspapers are killed by internal friction than by exterml competition.' Of another of Lord Northcliffe's properties, the "Daily Mirror," Mr. Simonis says that one of its biggest scoops was the obtaining of the earliest and exclusive pictures of the foundering of tho Titanic, and it was also the first to obtain photographs of the funeral of the Emperor of Japan. H© says:

As an example of the forethought which enables successes to bo planned, I need only recall the occasion when the "Eiiily Mirror's" representative took photographs in Ireland at eleven o'clock one morning, brought them to London, and published them in Ireland the following mormnir. Looking at' the time-table it seemed impossible, and, indeed, wonld have been so. but for the special arrangements. which were made to fit up an engravini plant in the Irish boat and train. When, the plates arrived in London th/!y were made up, printed, and.the p'itpers were on their way to Ireland again in two hours. Quite recently, the- "Daily Mirror" made a big war-scoop by publishing the first exclusive photographs of the now famous "tanks." Lord Northcliffe, busy as he is with the "Times," the "Daily Mail," and a myriad other enterprises, keeps a special eye on the "Daily Jlirror." One of the "Mirror" staff 'told the author: He keeps coming into the office with some d—d silly ideas, which, when we have carried them out, we begin to sco how clever they are. One of these ideas was a special Boy Scouts' number. Another was a General Booth Memorial number, which put the circulation up for that issuo to over a million. Before Lord Northcliffe bought the "Mirror" it was almost exclusively a woman's paper. He bought it in 1903, scrapped the original idea and brought it out as a half-penny picture paper for the million. The first number.had a circulation of over a quarter of a million. Then it dropped for a while, but later on steadily rose, until by 1911 well over a million copies a day. were sbld._ . Mr. Simonis has somo amusing stories to relate of his earlier experiences in Fleet Street. At one time the "Street" was, for too many clever men, a "Street of Drink" as well of "ink." Hero is an anecdote of one old journalistic ' hand whom he accompanied on one occasion to a public luncheon: The "old hand" promptly singled out the head waiter, and called him up to his seat. He then produced from his pocket a half-crown, which he'handed to the man, with the remark: "That's for you." cutting, short his thanks by saying "Wait a minute. Tou see that glass; well, it must never be empty." And empty it,never was from the beginning of the luncheon till the end, though it had been drained a good many times. Many a promising young fellow succumbed to the temptations of "the Street." I recall/", writes Mr. Simonis, "one brilliant youug man, at one time editor of one of our '"Varsity" papers, who fell a victim to his temptations, and was finished in a few months. He afterwards sent me a note at my office begging for sixpence to buy bread. Such cases were unfortunately all too common." There is, however, very little drinking in Fleet Street to-day. Your latter-day iournalist has little ot the old-time Bohemiauism about him. \\hcn his work is done he usually makes straight for his liome in the suburbs., Tho book mav not improperly be described as a cyclopaedia of present day British journalism, and as such is possessed of a permanent value as a work of reference. A special feature of. the book is the large number of portraits of famous journalists and newspaper ";nn generally which it contains the portraits are in photogravure, and • are arranged in a verv attractive way, ju "roups. No public library should be without a copy of this novel, and m every way admirable bonlt. (Price, 95.)