ot more than many a journalist could acquire for himself with
a little practice. The director of the _Daily Graphic_ is reported to
have said that "the ideal correspondent, who can sketch as well as
write, is not yet born." He takes perhaps a higher view of the artistic
functions of a daily newspaper than we should be disposed to grant him;
by "we" I mean, of course, "the public," expecting _news_ in the most
graphic manner. There are, and will be, many moments when we want
information, simply and solely, and care little how, or in what shape,
it comes.

This kind of information, given pictorially, has no pretension to be
artistic, but it is "illustration" in the true sense of the word, and
its value when rightly applied is great. When the alterations at Hyde
Park Corner (one of the most important of the London improvements of our
day) were first debated in Parliament, a daily newspaper, as if moved by
some sudden flash of intelligence, printed a ground-plan of the proposed
alterations with descriptive text; and once or twice only, during
Stanley's long absence in Africa, did we have sketches or plans printed
with the letters to elucidate the text, such as a sketch of the floating
islands with their weird inhabitants, at Stanley's Station on the Congo
river, which appeared in a daily newspaper--instances of news presented
to the reader in a better form than words. "The very thing that was
wanted!" was the general exclamation, as if there were some new
discovery of the powers of description.

As the war correspondent's occupation does not appear likely to cease in
our time, it would seem worth while to make sure that he is fully
equipped.

The method of writing employed by correspondents on the field of battle
seems unnecessarily clumsy and prolix; we hear of letters written
actually under fire, on a drum-head, or in the saddle, and on opening
the packet as it arrives by the post we may find, if we take the trouble
to measure it, that the point of the pen or pencil, has travelled over a
distance of a hundred feet! This is the actual ascertained measurement,
taking into account all the ups and downs, crosses and dashes, as it
arrives from abroad. No wonder the typewriter is resorted to in
journalism wherever possible.

A newspaper correspondent is sent suddenly to the seat of war, or is
stationed in some remote country to give the readers of a newspaper the
benefit of his observations. What is he doing in 1894? In the