RIVAL NEWSPAPERS

Shannon News, 2 September 1927, Page 4

RIVAL NEWSPAPERS

AN AMUSING STRUGGLE. Of all London’s daily newspapers, the two most jealous of each other are the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. To the impartial observer the contest is a joy to behold, for neither is addicted to modesty. Recently, for instance, the Daily Express celebrated in its columns the completion of a quarter of a century’s editorship by Mr Blumenfeld, and at the dinner and presentation to him the laudatory remarks made about the progress and the enterprise of the Daily Express were reported vebatim. Two days later the Daily Mail discovered itself to be exactly 31 years old, and devoted a column to congratulating its readers on the good qualities of their journal. Recently the Daily Express has been giving hearty encouragement to the followers of art, and has promoted an exhibition of painters under 40 years of age, called the Young British Exhibition, for no other purpose than to introduce money, into the pockets of the artists and pictures into the houses of new patrons. Fearing, perhaps, that its rival’s circulation was making too great headway in Chelsea, the Daily Mail looked round for a counterblast. It found that the critics spoke highly of “Mbrning, ’’ Mrs Dod Procter’s contribution to the Royal Academy, which depicts a girl getting out of bed in the chill light before breakfast. The Daily Mail bought this picture for the nation; it filled on successive days priceless columns of space with particulars about the picture, about the skill of Mrs Dod Procter, about the generosity of the Daily Mail, about Miss Cissy Barnes, the bob-bed-haired, blue-eyed, 17-year-old brunette who was model for the picture, about. Mr Thomas Barnes, the fish salesman of Newlyn, who has the good fortune to be Cissy’s father, and about the generosity of the Daily Mail. The only fact not published was the price paid for “Morning.” This, however, Is obligingly provided by the Daily Express, which, in an article on I the poor prices artists get for really creditable craftsmanship, mentions that “Morning” (about the purchase .of which their rival is making such a song and dance) was sold for the modest sum of £3OO.