Stephen Crane's Private War on Yellow Journalism

Author(s): Thomas Arthur Gullason

Source: Huntington Library Quarterly , May, 1959, Vol. 22, No. 3 (May, 1959), pp. 201-
208
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3816557

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 Stephen Crane's Private War on
Yellow Journalism
By THOMAS ARTHUR GULLASON

FAMILY environment prepared Stephen Crane for a career in jour-

r nalism. His father wrote for religious periodicals; his mother
served as a reporter on the Philadelphia Press and the New York
Tribune; and his older brother, Townley, was a correspondent for
the Tribune during the summer months at Asbury Park. By i888,
young Crane assisted his brother, and by i891 and 1892 he was
contributing his own pieces to the newspapers.' His anxiety to dedi-
cate himself to an exciting profession could not be hidden, for in his
first literary essay, written in I890, he chose as his subject Henry M.
Stanley, an idol of journalists. In part, Crane said:

In looking about for a man who had qualities to command such an expe-
dition [searching for David Livingstone] he [James Gordon Bennett,
editor of the New York Herald] decided on Henry M. Stanley, then a
war correspondent of the Herald in Spain during the Carlist insurrec-
tion....
His [Stanley's] simplicity and modesty form a prominent part of his
character. He who had lived in constant peril of the javelins and poi-
soned arrows of hostile tribes for months; who, with his little band, had
fought battles every day for weeks, gives no eloquent description of his
exploits to an admiring world. But from his simple description the world
easily sees the tremendous obstacles he must have overcome, and instant-
ly lionizes him, giving him a place among the great men of the earth,
where he should ever rank not only as a great christian explorer, but as a
great statesman and a great general.2

But Crane's enthusiasm for the newspaper life must have been
short-lived, for as a reporter in New York he could not satisfy his

'For two valuable discussions on Crane's newspaper background, see Victor A.

Elconin, "Stephen Crane at Asbury Park," American Literature, XX (Nov. 1948),
275-289; and Joseph J. Kwiat, "The Newspaper Experience: Crane, Norris, and
Dreiser" Nineteenth-Century Fiction, VIII (Sept. 1953), 99-1I7.

2Lyndon U. Pratt, "An Addition to the Canon of Stephen Crane' Research Studies
of the State College of Washington, VII (March 1939), 55-58. This essay was orig-
inally published in Feb. I 890 in the magazine Vidette, when Crane attended Claverack
College.

201

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202 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY

editors nor himself.3 Much of the time he was a sp

for several of the city's newspapers: the Tribune, Sun, Press, Jour-
nal, and the World. Part of his failure to succeed as a reporter lay
with his impressionistic style of writing and with his subjectivity.
More important, he was probably confused by the new journalism,
appropriately termed yellow, which burst upon the New York scene
in I892 and which by I896 was stirring American sentiment so pro-
foundly that it has been blamed for creating the Spanish-American
War. Some of the features of yellow journalism were a dependence
on "the familiar aspects of sensationalism-crime news, scandal and
gossip, divorces and sex, and stress upon the reporting of disasters
and sports"; "the lavish use of pictures, many of them without sig-
nificance, inviting the abuses of picture-stealing and 'faked' pic-
tures"; and "impostures and frauds of various kinds, such as 'faked'
interviews and stories.4
Crane had a fanatic love for the truth,5 and, unfortunately, two
of his employers were Joseph Pulitzer of the World and William
Randolph Hearst of the Journal, the chief purveyors of yellow jour-
nalism. True, Crane never referred to the term "yellow journalism'
but he had his early misgivings about Hearst. Once he suggested
that his employer's newspaper was more like a sideshow: "Except
Willie Hearst nobody understands the popular mind as well as Oscar
[Hammerstein]. I see no difference between the Journal and Ham-
merstein's roofgarden. You get the blonde with the tincan in her

3To his close friend Hamlin Garland, young Crane once confessed: "I don't seem
to be the kind of writer they want. The newspapers can't see me at all" See Garland,
"Stephen Crane"' The Book-Lover, II (Sept.-Nov. 1900), 7. Some of his editors
agreed with Crane's confession. One, who worked for the New York Press, re-
membered a Crane report: "One of them that came into my hands was entitled 'Sixth
Avenue' and there was little left of it after the crossing-out of comments on the
newspaper's Sixth Avenue advertising receipts, to say nothing of libels. Then the
editors read the remainder and threw it away, too, as not being exciting enough"
See Curtis Brown, Contacts (New York, I935), p. 26o. On at least two occasions,
editors received complaints about Crane's subjectivity. See "Selections from the Mail'
New York Tribune, Aug. 24, I892, p. 9; and Garland, Roadside Meetings (New York,
I931) p. 200.

4Frank L. Mott, American Journalism (New York, 1950), p. 539. Mott also dis-
cusses the "persistent jingo propaganda" of the New York papers, which helped
to create the Spanish-American War (p. 527).
5There are many places in which Crane emphasizes his love for the truth. For one
example, see William Dean Howells, "Frank Norris," North American Review,
CLXXV (Dec. I902), 770.

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 STEPHEN CRANE 202

gullet and the comic speaker and the song about mother's wayward
boy in both shows'6 He saw some of his own newspaper articles
he never intended as "sensational" publicized as such by Hearst.7
Even when Hearst hired him in 1897 to report the Greco -Turkish
War, the editor clearly hoped to capitalize on Crane's recent success
with The Red Badge of Courage (I895). As proof, one need only
read a few of the headlines attached to Crane's articles, like "That
Was the Romance, The Red Badge of Courage-A Story. This Is
the Reality, A Battle To-Day in Greece-A Fact"' and "The Blue
Badge of Cowardice'8
Obvious signs of Crane's rebelliousness toward the new jour-
nalism are apparent mainly in his fiction. In The Red Badge, it was
the newspapers that aroused Henry Fleming to go to battle, for
continually he read of "a decisive victory" and no defeats. Later at
the war front he learned that this was a gross exaggeration printed
by the papers, and he "wished to launch a joke-a quotation from
newspapers.... 'All quiet on the Rappahannock' but the guns re-
fused to permit even a comment upon their uproar'9 The newspaper
in The Monster (I898) also distorted the facts. It wrote of the
death of Henry Johnson (who did not die) and faked a sentimental
obituary in order to stir the affections of the people: "There was
also an editorial built from all the best words in the vocabulary of
the staff" (III, 53) .
It was during his overseas assignments that Crane became most
critical of his own profession. In Active Service (I899), drawn
from his earlier experiences as a war correspondent in Greece and
Cuba, he seems to have modeled the editor of the Eclipse, Sturgeon,
on his conception of Hearst. In the novel, Sturgeon is anxious to
create a war so that he can boost circulation; one becomes imme-
diately aware that the powerful press is in irresponsible hands.
Sturgeon says:

6Thomas Beer, Stephen Crane: A Study in American Letters (New York, 1923),
P. I76.

7John Winkler, W R. Hearst, an American Phenomenon (New York, 1928), pp.

68, io8.

8New York Journal, May 12, I897, P. 3; June 13, 1897, PP. 24-25.
9The Work of Stephen Crane, ed. Wilson Follett (New York, 1925-27), I, 25, 140.
Volume and page references cited in this article are to this edition of Crane's work.

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204 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY

Now listen. This is immense. The Eclipse enlists a battalion of men to

go to Cuba and fight the Spaniards under its own flag-the Eclipse flag.
Collect trained officers from here and there-enlist every young devil
we see-drill 'em-best rifles-loads of ammunition-provisions-staff
of doctors and nurses-a couple of dynamite guns-everything com-
plete-best in the world. Now, isn't that great? (IV, 6i)
Other characters in the novel show the degenerating influence
of yellow journalism. A foreign correspondent, Walkley, is so hard-
ened by the "war business" that he no longer has any real feelings for
people. The hero of the novel, Coleman (a spokesman for Crane),
seems to have a similar problem. As city editor of the Eclipse he
seeks only the violent, the grotesque, the sensational-anything that
will help circulation. In one scene, he studies the news value of a
report on a freak baby born with no arms and with finlike hands on
its chest: "There seemed to be no affectionate relation between him
and this picture. Evidently he was weighing its value as a morsel to
be flung to a ravenous public whose wolf-like appetite could only
satisfy itself upon mental entrails, abominations. As for himself, he
seemed to be remote, exterior. It was a matter of the Eclipse busi-
ness" (IV, 40).
However, a radical change takes place in Coleman's character
when he arrives in Greece and gains a better perspective on the true
role of the journalist. For the first time he sees that while the govern-
ment, the war office, and generals have no use for a reporter, the
common soldier needs a sympathetic "spectator" and the people at
home deserve a "sort of cheap telescope' No longer is he like the
typically unemotional newsmen, who seem to have one thing in
common-a "pleasure in the extraordinary business of seeing how
men will kill each other" (IV, 98-99, io6). Nor is he news-hungry,
for when he meets a stranded American party, led by Professor
Wainwright, he tries to convince the group that he has accidentally
fallen in with them and that he has not really saved them from the
enemy. Later he apologizes to Professor Wainwright for the forth-
coming headlines, which will make him seem like a "Heroic
Rescuer" He adds:
There is no sense in trying to stop them [the publishers], because they
don't care whether it is true or not true. All they want is the privilege of
howling out that their correspondent rescued you, and they would take
that privilege without in any way worrying if I refused my consent. You

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 STEPHEN CRANE 205

see, sir? I wouldn't like you to feel that I was such a strident idiot as I
doubtless am appearing now before the public. (IV, 27I)
His newspaper's only aim, Coleman knows, is to boost circulation
with exciting, exaggerated reports:
He took a certain dispatch out of his pocket and again read it. "Find
Wainwright party all hazards; much talk here; success means red fire by
ton. Eclipse:" It was an important matter. He could imagine how the
American people, vibrating for years to stories of the cruelty of the
Turk, would tremble-indeed, was now trembling-while the news-
papers howled out the dire possibilities. He saw all the kinds of people,
from those who would read the Wainwright chapters from day to day
as a sort of sensational novel, to those who would work up a gentle
sympathy for the woe of others around the table in the evenings. He
saw barkeepers and policemen taking a high gallery thrill out of this
kind of romance. (IV, 107)

Another circulation trick (employed by a rival paper, the New

York Daylight) is to hire a former comic opera queen, Nora Black,
as a correspondent in Greece, where she will use her charms to get
news; besides, her name in a by-line from the front "would be a
burning sensation" (IV, I 58).
Other instances of Crane's growing animosity toward the yellow
press can be found in his Cuban sketches, Wounds in the Rain
(I900). Editors place Little Nell (another spokesman for Crane)
in an impossible position by telling him to locate the enemy's fleet.
He thinks:
If his unfortunate nine-knot craft should happen to find these great
twenty-knot ships, with their two spiteful and faster attendants, Little
Nell had wondered how he was going to lose them again. He had mar-
velled, both publicly and in secret, on the uncompromising asininity of
managing editors at odd moments, but he had wasted little time. (IX,
53)

Little Nell also realizes that while an army is resting he must make
news, for it is "his virtue as a correspondent to recognize the great
moment in any disguise" (IX, 56). His rewards, however, will not
be great, because men like his high-pressure supervisor, Rogers, have
won their positions due to their "rare gift of incapacity" Meanwhile,
a fellow reporter, Walkley (who is also in Active Service), works
on a "sensational" Sunday story-"a burning description of the
raising of the flag"-which will easily sway the public (IX, 6o).

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2o6 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY

With none of the qualities of Walkley, Little Nell is out of place in

the ruthless world of yellow journalism. A striking instance of this
is shown when Little Nell devotes his time in Cuba to helping a
wounded correspondent instead of reporting events;10 his co-work-
ers are indifferent to the whole affair: "He had expected the news
of the serious wounding of Tailor to appal the other correspondents,
but they took it quite calmly. It was as if their sense of an impend-
ing great battle between the two large armies had quite got them
out of focus for these minor tragedies" (IX, 75).
Elsewhere, whenever the opportunity presented itself, Crane did
not hesitate to deflate reporters who were incapable and inhuman
representatives of the new journalism. Perkins in "The Lone Charge
of William B. Perkins" could "not distinguish between a five-inch
quick-firing gun and a nickel-plated ice-pick and so, naturally, he
had been elected to fill the position of war-correspondent" Further-
more, he had "no information of war, and no particular rapidity of
mind for acquiring it" (IX, 45).1" Correspondents in "The Revenge
of the Adolphus" force themselves to try to "write something ex-
citing and interesting from four days' quiet cruising" (IX, 79).
When they do meet with a thrilling action-a land and sea battle-
they get their news, but they become more interested in "good
clothes, clean clothes ... good food, much food ... much drink"
than in the dispatching of their telegrams, which assistants send off
for them (IX, i oo). In "Virtue in War" correspondents lightly pass
over the news of the heroic death of Major Gates and argue vocif-
erously over the merits of mint juleps (II, I94). As Johnnie, the
American spy in "This Majestic Lie' Crane ridicules some of his
fellow reporters, for "although he [Johnnie] knew much of Cuba,
he could not talk so rapidly and wisely of it as many [American]
war correspondents who had not yet seen the island" (II, 203).
To Crane, editors were even more blameworthy. Often corre-
spondents sent "elephants" (exaggerated reports) only because of
the demands of editors, who are "like deaf men at whom one has to
roar. A few quiet words of information were not enough for them;

loThis was a true incident; Crane nursed the wounded correspondent, Edward
Marshall. See Beer, Stephen Crane, p. I89.
"1This story is based on an actual incident involving the correspondent, Ralph
Paine. See Paine, Roads of Adventure (Boston, 1922), pp. 252-254.

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 STEPHEN CRANE 207

one had to bawl into their ears a w

death, victory-or defeat; at any rate, a tragedy" (II, 204). The
editors felt they were satisfying a greedy public. Crane thought
differently:
. . . we were urged by our managing editors to remember that the Amer-
ican people were a collection of super-nervous idiots who would imme-
diately have convulsions if we did not throw them some news-any
news. It was not true, at all. The American people were anxious for
things decisive to happen; they were not anxious to be lulled to satisfac-
tion with a drug. But we lulled them. (II, 205)

In spite of his prolonged war against his own profession, Crane

was still convinced that a properly run newspaper had a vital place
in America. It could best serve the public on the battlefield, where
the military and the government seemed anxious to control the
news. Crane fought this strict censorship:
Military men seem to think that it is nobody's business whether or no an
army has been whipped. But when all is said and done, a strict censor-
ship is an absolutely essential military thing, and it can also be said with
confidence that the Spartan or the Stoic censor will not do in these days.
He must be strict, but he must also have a feeling for the people at home,
who for some centuries have understood that they pay for wars. They
will not sew their sons up in black flags for a mysterious period of indef-
inite length. The military authorities of the more educated nations must
learn that they must study the popular opinion at home as carefully as
they study the enemy's ammunition supply.12

In his own work, Crane tried to attain his ideal of honest report-
ing, which many contemporary newspapers lacked. While other
correspondents in Cuba wrote lurid tales of American soldiers being
mutilated by Spanish machetes, Crane blamed the mutilations on the
Mauser bullets, which ripped bodies badly. His report, later verified
by medical authorities, was buried on page two; the sensational
reports were carried on page one.13 In a dispatch, "Some Curious
Lessons from the Transvaal' he analyzed one reason for exaggerated
news releases: "In every report of an action in South Africa there
has appeared a statement of the terrible execution done by the Brit-
12New York Journal, Jan. 7, 1900, p. 27-
'3Stephen Crane, "Denies Mutilation of Bodies" Philadelphia Press, June I7, I898,
p. 2. For one of the sensational reports (by Ralph Paine), see Philadelphia Press,
June 22, I898, p. i. In the same paper on June 27, I898, p. 7, the medical experts con-
firmed Crane's report.

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208 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY

ish guns. This may be accounted for by the fact that the observer
posted near the position of the gun is not at all able to tell the
amount of execution done by the gun's fire" In another dispatch,
"The British Soldiers Are Not Familiar with the 'Business End' of
Modern Rifles"' he questioned a front-line report of the enemy's
(the Boers') cruelty: "Could he [the correspondent for an English
newspaper] really mean merely that a British field hospital was
under fire? Does he remember the range of the Mauser and does he
remember that any field hospital to be effective would have to be
within that range? In these days a field hospital is almost certain to
be under fire-not necessarily fired at'"14
Crane's final estimate of yellow journalism is brilliantly summed
up in his well-known free-verse poem from War Is Kind:
A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices
Which, bawled by boys from mile to mile,
Spreads its curious opinion
To a million merciful and sneering men,
While families cuddle the joys of the fireside
When spurred by tale of dire lone agony.
A newspaper is a court
Where every one is kindly and unfairly tried
By a squalor of honest men.
A newspaper is a market
Where wisdom sells its freedom
And melons are crowned by the crowd.
A newspaper is a game
Where his error scores the player victory
While another's skill wins death.
A newspaper is a symbol;
It is feckless life's chronicle,
A collection of loud tales
Concentrating eternal stupidities,
That in remote ages lived unhaltered,
Roaming through a fenceless world.15
One must remember, however, that this poem was written by a man
who still foresaw the valuable contributions the press could make;
but, as long as the new journalism prostituted itself, Stephen Crane
employed his famed critical irony.
14New York Journal, Jan. 7, I900, p. 27; Feb. 14, 1900, p. 8.
'5The Collected Poems of Stephen Crane, ed. Wilson Follett (New York, 1930),
p. 9I.

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