How to read the money article- by Charles Duguid - PDF ebook
How to read the money article
To many thousands of newspaper readers the money article, and the money page upon which it appears, is so much wasted space; a dull jargon of meaningless phrases, to be passed over, with the advertisements, in favour of the latest news and police court intelligence. It is the one part of the paper they never read; they do not realize that much care and expenditure are lavished over the financial intelligence department, all for their benefit especially if they have a little spare money to invest, or which might be invested to their profit.
They disregard the money page, although it forms a large proportion of the newspaper for which they have paid. On the other hand, there are those who open their newspapers first at the money article and keep it open there; which seems to show that some hand use for it. A little observation will disclose that there are those who closely scan every line of the money article, who glance through the rest of the journal with diminished interest, or, in some extreme cases, do not glance through it at all. These people are to be found mainly amongst those who go down to the City in cabs, but also amongst country clergymen.
To many thousands of newspaper readers the money article, and the money page upon which it appears, is so much wasted space; a dull jargon of meaningless phrases, to be passed over, with the advertisements, in favour of the latest news and police court intelligence. It is the one part of the paper they never read; they do not realise that much care and expenditure are lavished over the financial intelligence department, all for their benefit especially if they have a little spare money to invest, or which might be invested to their profit.
They dis-regard the money page, although it forms a large proportion of the newspaper for which they have paid. On the other hand, there are those who open their newspapers first at the money article and keep it open there; which seems to show that some find a use for it.
\
A little observation will disclose that there are those who closely scan every line of the money article, who glance through the rest of the journal with diminished interest, or, in some extreme cases, do not glance through it at all. These people are to be found mainly amongst those who go- down to the City in cabs, but also amongst country clergymen. In short, whereas the literary and news pages of a newspaper are of some interest to the thousands they read for amusement the money page is of intense interest to the few they read it for pecuniary profit. "
What are they all doing ? " asked a lady of her husband, as they threaded their way through the noisy crowds of stockbrokers and stock-jobbers in Throgmorton Street, one afternoon. " They are doing each other," was the reply. As the lady had just been to her bank regarding a little investment, she might have been more usefully interested in a less witty explanation.
So is it with the money page of the newspaper? " What is it all about ? " is the usual question. " About to be passed over as useless," is the usual answer. But it might always be scanned with considerable interest, and frequently studied with considerable profit. Wrapped away in its forbid- ding columns of technicality and dry tabular arrangements of figures is often an item of news that does not find its way into the other columns of the journal until afterwards for the Stock Exchange and the Money Market are in the habit of receiving their news very early.
The readers of the money article of a certain evening paper were assured of the occurrence of the romantic Jameson Raid with its vast political significance many hours before the news columns of all the papers flared forth its details in big type. That is one instance of interest, and there are many minor instances every day.
As to the pecuniary profit to be derived from a perusal of the dry money page, .few will gainsay it. It is not the fault of the newspaper reader that he does derive such interest and such profit from the money article as he might; it is his misfortune that because of its technical terms he cannot understand it. This defect will be remedied, this wrong righted, it is hoped, in the pages of this little book. It is sought to define
popularly all the technical terms, to say something explanatory of all the abstruse allusions with which the money article of the daily paper abounds; there is an attempt to make its dry bones live; that not alone the financier and his small class may take an interest, but also the man in the street, and the woman at home, for the matter of that; that there may be no monopoly of the good things. The game of finance is not so intricate that only a few can understand it; the money article is not much more undecipherable to the uninitiated than the report of a cricket match. If it is not the fault of the general reader that he cannot understand the technicalities of the money article, it certainly is not the fault of its writer. Because of his subject, the writer must be precise; he must use the terms of the trade; he cannot stop at the end of every paragraph to explain his meaning for the benefit of the amateur financier.
the book details :Author: Charles Duguid
Publication date:1901
Company: London: E. Wilson
Download How to read the money article
the book details :
Download How to read the money article
