2 DECEMBER 1893, Page 13

The Making of a Newspaper. Edited by Melville Philips. (G.

P. Putnam's Sons.)—Here we have, the title-page informs us, "ex- periences of certain representative American journalists, related by themselves." Very entertaining, for the most part, these experi- ences are ; some have a tinge of the horrible in them—" Hearing my Requiem " being of the latter kind, as far as we can understand it. The" Sporting Editor" has some queer things to relate. Racing seems to be not more reputable in the States than it is here. About prize-fights we all know. The Sporting Editor glorifies base-ball ; it is the cause, he thinks, of most of the physical improvement that the last forty years have brought about in America. Curi- ously enough, he thinks that "half of its interest is due to the descriptive work of the talented nien who write of it, and of those who play it as a means of livelihood." Cricket here, whatever it may owe to the professionals, owes little to the reporters, who are for the tnost part of the prosiest kind. When Mr. Andrew Lang condescends to write about an Oxford and Cambridge match it is a different matter. The most amusing contributor is the "Literary Editor." Doubtless he has the oddest experiences of the whole company ; but then he has to compensate for his fun by some sadly dreary hours. The "Newspaper Illustrator" interests us as a speciality of the present day. The enterprise of the modern newspaper in the matter of illustration is something marvellous.