PRESS AND LAUNDRY

Worthy citizens who have always proclaimed the superiority of America in all things, and as an example pointed with pride to the infinitely more wide-awake progressiveness of "our press", will step back aghast at reports from the battle of the papers now raging in London. To the vulgar eye, that threadhare old scarcecrow, "British Conservatism," has pulled himself together and is working off the effects of a violent "jag." The shades of Addison and Steele, returned to earth, if they survived half a day in London traffic, would shrink away in horror at the prospect of the press. The struggle for supremacy has led from one exploit to another. The papers are daring each other into new ways of getting subscribers. The "Morning Post" promises eloquently to become the premier daily in Britain. The "Telegraph" has begun to deliver its Contest edition to Paris before breakfast,--by airplane. Not to be outdone, the "Daily News" announces that every subscriber may obtain insurance for himself and all his family under sixteen, against mumps, typhoid, or loss of laundry, free. Other papers are taking up the gage of battle and London rocks under the strain. It is interesting to speculate on the adoption of similar policies by our "wide-awake" American press. The possibilities are limitless. Imagine the staid old "Evening Transcript" taking in washing, or that specialist in muck raking,--the "Boston Orifiamme"--offering to insure any of its subscribers so rash as to venture into Back Bay after dark!