h its success.
DIFFEEENCES BETWEEN PENNY AND SIX-PENNY SHEETS
The penny paper on account of its size was forced to give its news in small space. For example, the first issue of The Sun in New York gave an account of a revolution in Mexico in four lines which included a statement of the source of the item. For the most part, the penny sheet printed its news on inside pages: the first page was given over either to advertising or to articles usually quoted from exchanges. The Sun, to quote its first issue again, had on its front page a supposedly humorous story about an Irish captain and the duels he fought; early issues of The New York Transcript devoted their front pages to a continued story, "Edward and Julia; a Reminiscence of Forty Years Since"; page one of the first issue of The Daily Evening Transcript in Boston was composed entirely of advertisements. At the start the editor of the penny paper usually culled his material from the pages of his more verbose six-penny contemporary: later, he either went himself or sent a reporter to gather such items.
The chief distinction between the six-penny sheets and the penny papers was that the former featured the news of legisla- tive chambers and the latter that of the courts. It must be frankly admitted that in some instances the penny press went to the extreme limit in reporting criminal cases, but in so doing it showed sound newspaper psychology. What makes a short piece of fiction so interesting is its account of some struggle or "scrap," whether it be the conflict in a character study where two natures battle against each other, or whether it be the fight of two rivals for the hand of Fair Ophelia. How well James Gor- don Bennett knew this has been outlined elsewhere. In reporting the happenings of the police court the "scrap" element, which gave value to the accounts, was present in double strength: first, there was the story of the physical combat which brought the contestants to court; second, there was the legal battle be- tween their lawyers. The penny papers went on the principle of what the Lord let happen ought to be printed in their sheets. Such contentions of the penny press brought upon it the severe criticism of the more cultured in the community. It
