BRISBANE

A biography, says the blurb, of the ""Demosthones of the Barber Shops"", Arthur Brisbane. Entertaining reading, handled in good, popular, quick-paced vein. In spite of the definitely popular handling of the material, it has a ring of authenticity, and is based on sound factual material. The opening section deals with the father, who was his complete antithesis, dreamer, socialist, unworldly. At 18, Arthur, the son, was a reporter on the World, and revolutionized the newspaper formula by his terse, monosyllable paragraphs, and his insertion of the melodramatic. But -- a cash register mind soon sells out to the money-bags, and he transferred allegiance to Hearst, thus making a combination of the greatest publisher and the greatest editor of yellow journalism. Brisbane built up an enormous increase in circulation, his salaries, in all capacities, rated $250,000 per annum. His power was fantastic, and he specialized in cheap sensationalism, mud slinging, fakes, hoaxes and the ability to mirror the completely average mind and play it up. A biography that will arouse some controversy in the newspaper world, but that is good reading.