The Observer.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 35, 14 May 1881, Page 372

The Observer.

Saturday, May 14th, ISSI. A correspondent, whose mind is evidently much agitated by the abuse "which sundry unsuccessful and bitterly envious scribblers are heaping on the so-called "society" papers, has requested us to describe the object and scope of such journals. Well, Aye have no objection, and first of all let it be understood that these frivolous weeklies do not aspire to improve or instruct the masses, though, as a matter of fact, the probably achieve quite as much good as their more serious contemporaries. The mission of the "society " journal is to review, to criticise, and, above all, to chronicle that " imprinted but everywhere spoken gossip, Avhich is the salt of the social salmi." Edmund Yates, in the prospectus of his new venture, The Cuckoo puts the matter very clearly. He says : " Our newspapers have got their wheels into ruts ; they rumble along ponderously, one after the other, like a procession of omnibusses, from a given point to a given point, taking always the same route, and moving always at the same pace. The single-line-of-rail journalism seems to us to have groAvn out of date. For instance, the age of the leading article is passed, and the age of the paragraph has commenced. Men and Avomen do not now-a-days care for the solid fare that pleased a bygone generation ; they ask for their nourishment in lozenge form. Editors should economise their thunderbolts, as Jupiter does, for supreme occasions only. After all the essence of a Avhole drove of cattle can be compressed into a single plate of soup."