outside contributor than a thorough comprehension of their various
policies and their essential differences. Many beginners, with a quite
creditable literary technique, render all effort futile by omitting to
study what I may call the _characters_ of the publications to which
they offer MSS. They know papers (except the one or two which they happen
to read for pleasure) merely by name. They may by chance have some dim
notion, gathered from hearsay, of the aim and spirit of this paper or
that--but accurate, direct information concerning these things, they
possess none. Having written an article, they send it to the first paper
whose name enters their heads, without giving a single thought to the
question of suitability. By such beginners the _Standard_, the
_Sun_, and the _Morning Advertiser_ are recognised merely as so
many dailies, the _Saturday Review_, _Tit-Bits_, and the _Bazaar_
merely as so many weeklies, and the _Strand_, _Macmillan's Magazine_,
and the _Fortnightly_ merely as so many monthlies; and no doubt when
their stuff has been refused by the _Standard_, they blithely forward
it to the _Sun_, and so on.

Since the early failures of every aspirant are without doubt largely due
to the neglect of this branch of journalistic learning, let me once more
lay stress on the fact that every paper differs from every other paper in
its needs--in what it demands from the outside contributor. Each paper has
its own public, its own policy, its own tone, its own physiognomy, its own
preferences, its own prejudices. These must be studied--as one would study
a subject like zoology. And as in zoology, to acquire a useful knowledge,
it is necessary to classify. The press divides itself naturally into a few
distinctive groups, an acquaintance with whose characteristics will form
the best, indeed the only, foundation for that wide, detailed erudition
ultimately to be obtained through years of experience and observation. Of
these groups I will briefly mention the most important.