AMERICAN JOURNALISM.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1160, 20 March 1874, Page 3

AMERICAN JOURNALISM.

The manufacture of intelligence in times of stagnation is an important industry in the Western States of America, where the newspaper editors are often at their wits' end to find suffi cient food of a stimulating nature to satisfy the voracious appetites of their readers. Some interesting details are given by the Cincinnati Gazette of the ingenuity displayed in this line by a Mr. Bennett, now dead, but once editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. It was Mr Bennett's practice when news was scarce to make small imaginary children tumble from the Newport ferry-boat into the Ohio river, where they would have certainly perished but for the gallantry of a gentleman who happened to witness the occurrence, and who plunged into the water and rescued them—this gentleman being always some personal friend of Mr. Bennett's whom he delighted to honor. Some of these heroes, however, at last became wearied of the distinction thus thrust upon them, and a certain Mr. Kellum, who had several times figured in the columns of the Enquirer as the saviour of perishing innocents, preferred a request that his name might be no longer used for this purpose. He was assured that his request, although it was proof of a curiously sensitive disposition, should be complied with, and this promise was faithfully kept, for the next day Mr. Kellum read in the Enquirer that on the previous day a beautiful little girl, the child of a prominent citizen of Newport, had fallen from the Newport ferry-boat in the river, and Mr. Kellum, who was standing close by and could have rescued the child from a watery grave, refused to render any assistance. Boiling Avith indignation, Mr. Kellum hurried to the office of the Enquirer, and uttered fearful threats of what he would do to Mr. Bennett if this pleasantry continued. That gentleman however, calmly pulling off his coat, said, " See here, Kellum, you are not a bad fellow in your way, but I cannot stand any interference with my department. If I make any statement in the En. quirer you musn't come round here contradicting it. That isn't journalism." Mr. Kellum retired abashed, and thenceforward submitted calmly to his fate.