MOOSEHEART MAGAZINE
Some of the Lost Opportunities in Journalism
featured no doubt as they are today, and there were many of these to provide sensations. The marriage of the rich Justinian, then heir to the Eastern Roman Empire, to the chorus girl, Theodora, would have been a great display story in its day. The marriage of Catherine of France to the young King Henry V. of England, following the victory of the latter at Agincourt, was a wedding story out of the ordinary. But of all the wedding possibilities, none could exceed in interest that of the Princess Margueriet of Valois to Henry of Navarre with its horrible sequel, the Massacre of St. Bartholomews.
The marriage of Napoleon . to Marie Louise of Austria was no doubt the most discussed wedding of the last century. It was not one half as good a story, however, as the same Emperor’s divorce from Josephine. Bonaparte, who contributed unusually good copy at many times, also helped towards one of the best birth stories of_ the ages, that of his young son, known as L’Aiglon, who failed, however, to share his father’s glory.
Josephine’s divorce recalls that of Henry VIII. of England from Katherine of Arragon, which was after a lengthy legal battle. The court reporters likewise could have had other opportunities in the old days. The trial of the young but vicious Marquise Brinvilliers, who made a wholesale habit of poisoning, thrilled all Europe during the Seventeenth Century. Even as far back as the days of ancient Rome, there was the trial of Caraline for conspiracy and in later England there was the impeachment of Warren Hastings.
FIRST PAGE STANDARD
In England, probably, more than in any of the countries, there was a glorious supply of conspiracies and plots, any one of which would have made a good story. The discovery of the Guy Fawkes plot has left its stamp to this day. England has likewise been generous in its provision of bad men stories, and the exploits of Robin Hood, Jack Cade, Wat Tyler, Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin could not be improved upon for newspaper reading. The revolt of Spartacus, who led what was probably the first great strike of history, that of the Roman gladiators, was another remarkable news story.
The governments of old were so personal in their administration that many events within the courts could have filled the journals of their time. The humiliation of the successful General Belisarius by his Emperor was a sensation in Constantinople in the Sixth Century. The fall of Wolsey under Henry VIII. would have been a real story for the political writers of that time, while the discard of Montespan by Louis XIV could have been well handled by either the political or society editors. There were plenty of other good political stories of the old days.
No political story of to-day could excel that of the abdication of Charles V. of Germany and Spain, who retired at the height of his power. The announced conversion of Henry IV. of France from Protestant to Catholic, with the effect of stopping the religious wars in that country, would have been a beat any reporter could have been justly proud of. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the issue of the decree expelling• the Jews from Spain, were also great sensations which could have been played up in the paper.
Certainly, no live newspaper would have placed within its inside sheets the convention in Philadelphia in 1776 when thirteen States declared their independence of the mother country. The several governmental shake-ups staged in melodramatic fashion, during the French Revolutionary period, were like wonderful opportunities of the day. The proper covering of the securing of the Magna Carta Runnimede would have been a splendid feat of early English, journalism.
PLENTY OF SENSATIONS
Then, too, there were the stories which made little for their historical effect, but which any modern managing editor would have prized for the very tale. It would be a task even in these enterprising times to find a yarn better in the reading than the rescue of the adventuresome John Smith by the warm-hearted Pocohontas, nor could any “first impressions” article exceed in interest an interview with this same Indian princess, fresh from the new world, upon■ her visit to London.
It would be like difficult to find a funeral story more gripping in interest than that of the Grande Monarch, Louis XIV. of France, whose death made such a hit with his subjects, that they held a general carouse along the route of the procession to the grave.
In like manner, there was the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, which would hardly have
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By LEE SOLOMON
reading material while the killing of Prince Alexis by his own father, Peter the Great, and of Edward the Martyr of Saxon, England, by Elfreda, his stepmother, would have furnished an excellent series of stories. In England, the facts of the sudden death of William Rufus in the New Forest, and the deposition and killing of Edward II. and Richard II. might have been faithfully portrayed by live journals. No better mystery story was ever presented for running down than the murders of the Princes in the Tower of London and_no human interest story in any age could exceed that of the death of George, Duke of Clarendon, the thirsty prince, who was drowned in wine.
A great news opportunity was likewise presented in the killing of the wanton Messalina, the abandoned Roman Empress; the mysterious assassination of Gandia Borgia, brother of Caesar, and Lucretia Borgia, the enforced suicide of “Fair Rosamond,” Clifford, and the death of Charles VII., of France, who starved himself through fear of his son, Louis XI., poisoning him. The murder of Amy Robsart, at Kenilworth, the assassinations of Thomas A. Becket and the Duke of Buckingham, and the killing of Lord Darnley, wer.e other equally good stories which would have figured well, in the news.
Then there were other deaths, of such sudden nature, as to bring them up to any first page standard. Young Alexander the Great, dying at the height of his fame, startled the world of his day. Henry II. of France, killed at a tournament, shocked the public of his time. No better suicide pact was ever told in a news story than that of Cleo-patry and Mark Antony. The self-extermination of Brutus and Cato would also have been good reading.
INTERESTIN'G EXECUTIONS
Executions were by no means common-place in the old days, and would have been as interesting then as some electrocutions are today. The daily grind of the guillotine would have hastened the fall of the Paris public, if told constantly during the Terror, but this story was good only in the quantity, rather than the quality, saving the deaths of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Madame Du Barry and Robespierre. The news value of the execution of Mary Stuart could not be questioned, however, accompanied as it was with the jealousy of Queen Elizabeth.
No story, with the feminine appeal, could excel the betrayal and execution of the sainted Joan of Arc. The death, under the axe, of King Charles I. was the prime English news story of the Seventeenth Century. The executions of William Wallace, the Scottish patriot, and of Sir Walter Raleigh would prove popular reading in a present day research of old time journals. In the same way, another execution of unusual interest was that of Margaret of Burgundy, Queen of France, who was condemned for adultery, of particular news \alue because this failing was usually condoned in royal circles.
The war correspondent would naturally have been much in his element in those days of old, as the military campaigns appear to have been the only concern of most governments. To cite many of these opportunities for great descriptive stories would be futile. However, there are some campaigns and some battles which stand out of the ordinary in their newspaper appeal. It would indeed be difficult- even in this modern era of big events to improve upon the news value of the three hundred Spartans defying the Persians at Thermopylae; of the capture of Babylon through the strategy of Cyrus; of Caesar defying Rome and crossing the Rubicon, of the victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens; of the distraction of the Spanish armada; the battle of Hastings with its end of Saxon rule in England; of the sacks of Rome under the Vandals and of the troops of the Constable de Bourbon; of the removal of the Holland dykes to defeat the Spaniards; of King James IV. of Scotland slain on Flodden Field, of both opposing generals killed at Quebec, of Nelson dying in the hour of his triumph at Trafalgar, and of the ever famous strife of Waterloo.
Certainly the capture of Kings would have been a theme of particular attention in those old editorial sanctums, and there were quite a number of stories of this kind possible. Francis I. and King John of France were taken on the battle-field, while James I. of Scotland was likewise unfortunate.
HUMAN INTEREST ELEMENT
The weddings would have been as prominently
Of course, is it but a fantasy to suggest the possibility of a journalism dating back to the very earliest periods. It is easy, however, to regret the lack of newspapers which covered the great events of preceding ages, particularly so in view of the interest with which these journals, if extant, would be read today.
The newspaper is the living memorial of its own date, and any one copy would give a better insight into the life and thought of a particular day than would a thick volume covering the same ground.
Were we blessed with copies of newspapers, presented along modern lines, and preserved from the periods of antiquity, how much clearer would be our perspective of history and how much better Would we understand the conditions under which our forefathers lived. Of course, these newspapers do not exist, but it is interesting to consider what wonderful reading they might afford were they available.
Thanks to the archaeologists we are after these many centuries getting a better understanding annually of the Rome of Caesar’s time, when the F.ternal City sat upon the famed seven hills and ru’ed the world. One copy of the Ides of March issue of the Rome World, when the great Julius fell, would better acquaint us with the conditions prevalent then than hundreds of years of research have so far revealed. The columns at a glance would convey to us the Rome of the time; we would know the very weather for the fateful day; the good things provided in the eating places, the amusements for the public, and the like.
And the issue of the day following the Ides would be even better for our purpose. What an opportunity a city editor could have had. The assassination in the Capitol would have been good for an entire first page to say the least. The entire staff could have been assigned upon that wonderful news story. There was the murder itself for a great lead and no limit to the ends for the enterprising reporters to cover. One staff man undoubtedly would have accompanied Brutus in his flight, and another would have certainly secured statements from Mark Antony, the warm personal friend, and Octavius, the young heir. Cleopatra, who was visiting Rome, at the time, and who had been attached to the fallen autocrat, would have been good for a column of “human interest stuff,” while the usual newspaper articles, such as the police activities, the effect on the stock market, funeral, speculation upon the will, and the like regrets of prominent citizens, arrangements for the would certainly have ,been covered.
The reader must admit that wild as this mere suggestion may appear, that it is a regret nevertheless that we have no newspaper of Caesar’s time to serve us as it were with the news as it would have been given to the Romans had there been great modern journals in those olden times. The assassination of Caesar, however, though one of the greatest news stories which would have ever been covered by a paper, was only one of many like opportunities lost to journalism because the press was too late in the horning.
In fact, managing editors who daily ponder and worry their brains through the failure of news matter to size up to first page standard, can in their idle moments turn with the same like regret to the pages of history and sorrow that they lack the opportunities which the old centuries provided. Omitting the great events of the Scriptures, the mention of which would not be apropos, in a fantastical article of this nature, history has no limit in the number and variety of opportunities, for newspaper purposes. Every country in every age contributed its full quota, and we can but marvel how these many events which retain their interest even to this day would have appeared in cold type if presented like newspaper conditions in their own times.
READABLE MURDER STORIES
Murders, always a good first page story, provided the victims be prominent or the circumstances unusual, could have filled the papers of old on numerous occasions. If Caesar’s assassination was a bit more sweeping in its effects than probably any other, yet there were plenty of other good stories of the same kind. Philip of Macedon, William the Silent of Orange, Henry III. and Henry IV. of France, Gustavus III. of Sweden, were some of the more prominent men of station whose sudden removal could not but have thrilled the hearts of contemporaneous newspaper readers.
Even better stories, so far as the human interest element would have been concerned, would have been the stories of the deaths of some other notables, the mystery of which might have been solved by the good crime reporters of their day. The palace revolutions which ended the lives of the Czars Peter II. and Paul would have given great