A NEWSPAPER QUARREL

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 306, 30 April 1874, Page 2

A NEWSPAPER QUARREL

Newspapkb life in America, and especially in the jounger States, is usually understood to bo surrounded by circutn- j stances and attended by incidents which are unknown in* British journalism and have not jet affected the press in the colonies. A lighting editor, for example, is supposed to be an indispensable member of a newspaper staff west of Ohio,, and beyond Mississippi a revolver, i» as necessary to a man of the pen as ink and paper. What has been done in California in past times we partly know .' how the most of the journals are seldom free from, personal quarrels " all round," and many of them ha\o but an ephemeral: existence, and aro liable to periodical visitations from a»sgry and excited individuals who destroy presses, throw typo through the windows and disappear in one quarter of the city only to appoar ns frofik (or rather foul) uud as offensive ns erer in another quarter a few clays afterwards. Of, this-elass a journal oalled Mazeppa is, or rather was, the type. The Sun and tbeChronicle, however, bay« hitherto been regarded a» newspapers of a respectable ohws-in San Francisco ; but " war tothe knife" appears to liato broken out between them, and to have raged with Spanish savagenees. The quarrel appear* to have reached its height just before the departure of tho mail steamor Macgregor, on her fli st return voyage. It it. stated by a private correspondent of a northern contem-^ porary that on that day the evening newspapers were mV demand at a dollar and a half, raid later at night weie notprocurable. The cause of the disturbance was some outrago- \ ohs libels written by the editor* of th« Ckronicta and tho Sun against each other. Tbo names of married women wereconrsely alluded to, obarping thtm with th« grossest immorality. The wholo ot the printer* of the Sun were arrested, bat the editor, when inquired for, was found wanting. The sous of the editor of the Chronicle, whoie sisters and mothers had been defamed in the vilest language, pei ambulated the city for hours, seeking whom they might shoot. Each paper had its partisans, and at the time of the steamer^ leaving, the cily was in great commotion, while the geneial peace of the city, was threatened. We shall be curious to know how this " very pretty quarrell " came to an end. We- liavrt some peculiar journals in the colony, the oinef erd and aim of "whose existence appears to be to act the part of blowfly to their neighbours, but even these journals are oomparativch recent ;f what i« chuiged to the Sur and the Chroivclc of Sam lianciaco is trua. I