The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1900. AN EXPERIMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 193, 1 September 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1900. AN EXPERIMENT.

The impracticability of running a daily newspaper as outlined by the Rev. C, Sheldon, Topeka, Kansas, the author of " In His Steps," has been demonstrated by the experiment which closed March 20th last. When it was reported that The Topeka Capital was to be placed at the disposal of Mr. Sheldon for a whole week in order that he might prove the feasibility of editing such a paper as figures in " In His Steps," the journals istic world became interested. This naturally led to a great deal of conjecture, and the general public grew curious, so that the experiment was looked forward to with increasing interest. The Capital for Sheldon week started with a paid subscription of 330,000 copies, while outside sales increased it to 500,000. The profits for the week are estimated at £13,000. The receipts are put at .£22,100 and the expenses at £9OOO. Mr. Sheldon will probably get £2OOO for his services, I and the money will go to benevolent objects. Mr. Sheldon's paper contained eight pages of seven columns each, and of these fifty-six columns, thirty-six are reading matter and twenty are advertising. The reading matter runs straight from its beginning, the advertising matter following, thus dividing the paper into two parts. Mr. Sheldon's rules for the news policy of the paper were as follows: "No theatrical news whatever. No pugilism or wrestling—only the cleaner kind of sporting news. In crime, no details of the deed itself, but amplification of the moral causes which ltd to it, and the moral lessons which it conveys. Politics from a strictly non-partisan standpoint, locally and editorially. All interviews to be submitted in manuscript or proof to the person interviewed, before publication. In case a person refuses' to be interviewed, he or she must not be pestered by the reporter, but left alone. No scandals, and nothing which in the remotest degree is of a scandalous character. No slang, not even that which is considered permissible by the average newspaper." Fewspaperdom states that Mr. Sheldon made the office force pledge themselves to secrecy not to reveal what was going on in the establishment, and laid down the rule that there should be no smoking. Jt took but two days for the good people of Topeka to learn that they must buy some other paper in | order to get the news. It required ionly about the tame period for Mr. Sheldon to ham that the editorial path was not lined with roses. Several unexpected problems confronted him as soon as he had fairly seated hirosalf in the sanctum chair. The critics arose and smote hiui, and among them the clergy wero the most severe. Tbe people of Topeka likewise wero disappointed, and whilst the first issue was bought eagerly, the second was a drug on the market. Although public curiosity at Home was thus satisfied the second day of the Sheldon regime, the Christian Daily was put on sale in Chicago and New York the third day, and some 130,000 copies were disposed of in the former city alone, at prices ranging from five cents to twenty cents each. Besides this, a considerable number of copies were sent out of the country. Although the Capital received some excellent advertising out of the scheme, the opinion is unanimous that Mr. Sheldon has ia no way succeeded in demonstrating the practicability of his theories.