the 1890s, many of

them were packaging the news

"as a series of melodramas and

atrocities, of titillating events

covered as spectacles, com-

plete with illustrations."

Fox had sensed the enor-

mous potential audience

among the wage earners of the

Gilded Age. To workers seek-

ing escape from dull jobs-or

just relief from the Victorian

ethos-his G...