Tribune_ there appeared a series of
targets with the shots of the successful competitors marked upon them,
communicated by telegraph and printed in the paper in America on the
following morning.[4]

After this period we seem to have moved slowly, only some very important
geographical discovery, or event, extorting from the daily newspapers an
explanatory plan or diagram. But during the "Transit of Venus," on the
6th of December, 1882, a gleam of light was vouchsafed to the readers of
the _Daily Telegraph_ (and possibly to other papers), and that exciting
astronomical event from which "mankind was to obtain a clearer
knowledge of the scale of the universe," was understood and remembered
better, by three or four lines in the form of a diagram (showing,
roughly, the track of Venus and its comparative size and distance from
the sun) printed in the newspaper on the day of the event.

Maps and plans have appeared from time to time in all the daily
newspapers, but not systematically, or their interest and usefulness
would have been much greater. Many instances might be given of the use
of diagrams in newspapers; a little dial showing the direction of the
wind, is obviously better than words and figures, but it is only lately
that printing difficulties have been overcome, and that the system can
be widely extended.

It remains to be seen how far the _Daily Graphic_, with experience and
capital at command, will aid in a system of illustration which is one
day to become general. Thus far it would seem that the production of a
large number of pictures (more or less _a-propos_) is the popular thing
to do. We may be excused if we are disappointed in the result from a
practical point of view; for as the functions of a daily newspaper are
_prima facie_ to record facts, it follows that if words fail to
communicate the right meaning, pictorial expression should come to the
aid of the verbal, no matter how crude or inartistic the result might
appear.

Let me give one or two examples, out of many which come to mind.

1. The transmission of form by telegraph. To realise the importance of
this system in conveying news, we have only to consider (going back
nearly forty years) what interest would have been added to Dr. Russell's
letters from the Crimea in the _Times_ newspaper, if it had been
considered possible, then, to have inserted, here and there, with the
type, a line or two pictorially giving (_e.g._) the outline of a
hillside,