The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-25 00:00:00

THE CHICAGO FASTING CASE.

In a telegram from New York. dated June 21, the Cone,
spondent of the Daily News says
_ _

Mr. Grisconi, the Chicago faster, entered at noon
to-day on the twenty-fourth day. He is jovial, and
talkative. His physicians say he is in excellent con-
dition physically and mentally. Last night the pulse
was 35, respiration 15, temperature 94 4-10. lie talks
of extending his fast to fifty days.

An inquest was held on Tuesday at Warrington on
the body of a girl 0( 14, who, while on an excursion with a
Sunday school at Helsby Hills, commenced to run down a
steep hill, and, being unable to check herself, rolled to the
bottom and fell over a cliff, alighting on the rocks below, and
receiving such scrims injuries that she died.

JIIIOU i)/1! 4,0 PiOino.ppt (14.00 k...

SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE ON THE
NEWSPAPER PRESS.

In London, on Saturday evening, the eighteenth
anniversary dinner in aid of the Newspaper Press
4.i'und, which was established for the relief of neces-
sitous members of the literary departments of the
Press, was held at Willis's Rooms, under the presi-
dency of Sir Staficrd Northcote, Bart, M.P. The
Cora Pally consisted of about 200 gentlemen, including
the Hon. J. Russell Lowell, United States Ministt..
Lord Houghton, president of the fund, Cardinal Man-
ning, the Earl of Galloway, the Earl of Dunraven,
Viscount Sidmouth, Lord Colchester, Lord Crewe,
Lord Denman, Lord Ellenhoroiigh, &c., &c.

Minister, 1

After the usual loyal and patriotic toasts had been
proposed and responded to, Sir Stafford Nortbeote,
who was greeted with cheers, id 'proposing, Pros-
Perity to the Newspaper Press Fund," said :

The political character of the newspaper Press of
this or any other country is a most important element,
but it is necessary not to look at the matter from that
point of view alone. The existence of an intelligent
and an able and well-conducted Press is of the
highest interest to all classes, and I believe I should
not be going too far if I said that there is no change
which could more materially or more inconveniently
affect the social, private, domestib; artistic, educa-
tional, and professional life of this country than
would the sudden cessation of the newspaper Press.
(Cheers.) If you want to form some idea of what the
loss would be, bear in mind, first, how very much
the people are in the habit of relying upon their
newspapers for one purpose or another. Many persons
believe everything they see in a newspaper, and
nothing which they do not find there. (Laughter.)
What a terrible blank in the life of such as these
would be the deprivation of the staff upon which they
lean. (Hear, hear.) Some years ago there was a shock
of earthquake here—not a very usual occurrence in
England—and of course it was reported in the news-
papers. The day after I remember being much
amused by seeing a letter from a gentleman in the
affected locality, saying that he and his family had
been alarmed by the house being shaken, but they had
not the slightest idea it was a shock of earthquake
until they saw it in the newspapers ! (Laughter.) If
you examine the real chafacter of the Press yoti wiLl
see that there is no department of life which is not
represented by some branch of that great institu-
tion; and if in the lapse of ages the civilisation
and the history of this country were completely
destroyed, and if some historian of the future like
Lord Macaulay's New Zealander, could get hold of a
copy of the "Newspaper Press Directory," he would
be able to reconstruct the whole system of society in
England from that material alone, very much as
Professor Owen constructed the skeleton of a bird
from the discovery of a single bone. (Cheers and
laughter.) It is not so much the number of news-
papers, which is astonishing, though—l think their
exact number is I,BB6—as the remarkable variety of
the subjects to which they are devoted. We are best
acquainted, of course, with the political newspapers of
the day, in which the proceedings of Parliament, the
great events in foreign countries, and the principal sub-
jects of ordinary interest are chronicled; but you have
newspapers devoted to special subjects to an extent
which almost takes away one's breath. With regard to
all these publications' there is expended upon them an
enormous amount of labour, of genius, of good writ-
ing, of good drawing, and of acute criticism, result-
ing in a collection of information, at great expense
of time, of trouble, not unfrequently of danger to
life, and even sometimes at the cost of the actual
sacrifice of life. All this those who cater for us in the
Press are ready to undergo and risk, and are content
to accept—what? An anonymous reputation. (Hear,
hear.) Ido not say that it is universally anonymous,
for we know the names of some, at all events, of
those who contribute to our instruction ; but in a
very large proportion of cases the work is done anony-
mously, and good actions are left to be their own
reward. (Hear, hear.) But then we- have to con-
sider the work these newspapers do for us in the
political world. My excellent friend the Minister of
the United States has referred to the "inter-
viewer." Well, interviewers are a class, no doubt,
m for who we ought to entertain a good deal of res-
pect, though, at the same time, I think it would be
well that they should be kept within moderate
and manageable bounds. (Hear, hear.) I do not
know that I was ever prouder in my life than when
on my first landing in America I had a visit from an
interviewer, and saw next morning in the newspaper
that I was described as being more inclined to ask than
to answer questions. (Laughter.) The United States
Minister suggested that the first interviewer was
Boswell, but I think, if we go back to classical times,
we should find that there were earlier interviewers. I
call to mind one, a somewhat tedious gentleman, who
is specified by Horace as comting up to him in the Via
Sacra at Rome and asking him, as of one who is in high
quarters, and who approaches to the gods, "Have you
heard anything about the Dacians ? ' "And who is
going to get the farming in Italy and Sicily?" and
various questions of that kind, put with the gusto which
characterises the modern interviewer. (Laughter.) I
hope it will not be understood that I am putting these
little incidents as the main characteristics of the
political Press of the present day. On the contrary,
I wish to say distinctly that we who are engaged in
political life owe a debt of gratitude to the Press on
three different accounts. First, because they furnish
us in a convenient form and at great expense and
trouble to themselves, that information which we
should hardly be able to collect otherwise, but which is
of the greatest value to us, That is one of the great
services which we are all ready to acknowledge, and for
which we are all, I hope, duly grateful. Their next
service is that of reporting faithfully, and some-
times too indulgently, the remarks which we make.
I do not know that everybody is as grateful as
they ought to be for that. And thirdly, there is
what I feel to be a very great advantage—namely,
the criticisms which are bestowed upon us by the
gentlemen who conduct the Press. The criticisms
may not always be quite agreeable, but I am sure that
when they are made in a fair and candid spirit, as
they generally are, and when they are made in an in-
telligent spirit, as they almost always are, we may,
and I hope do, derive the greatest advantage from
them. Ido not believe it would be possible for the
political system of this country, or indeed the social
system either, to be conducted under the conditions of
the present day without the aid we receive from the
newspaper Press. Let me contrast the Press 150
years ago. Pope, in his " Dunciad," sketches the
newspaper editors and gazetters of the day :

Next plunged a feeble but a desperate pack, •
With each a sickly brother at his back ;
Sons of a day ; just buoyant on the flood,
Then numbered with the puppies in the mud.
Ask ye their names? I could as soon disclose
The names of these blind puppies as of. those.
And monumental brass this record bears,
These are—ah, no—these were the gazeteers.
(Laughter.) I ask you to look upon that picture and
upon the picture presented by the newspaper press of
the present day, and to tell me if you can trace the
faintest resemblance between the two. No; the work
of the newspaper press now is of a high class and of
a high character. We know u hat power the directors
of the press wield. We knJw how in every depart-
ment of politics, how even in general life, it is in their
power to wield a mighty influence; how much good
they may do, an€l how much, if they were so disposed,
of evil they might effect ; and it is greatly to their
credit that, having this power, there should sun
through the great body of the English Press a spirit
of truth, of justice, of loyalty, and of religious
feeling in its broadest sense, which constitutes
the surest guarantee for the continued greatness
of the Empire. Ido not think it is necessary to
say anything more in commendation of the Press;
but for the particular institution for which I
plead, I would remind you that you are asked to
contribute to a-f Lind which is to provide for those
who, while engaged in the work of the Press, fall
into distress and poverty. The high pressure under
which of necessity newspaper work is conducted ac-
counts for the failure of health to which so large a pro-
portion of journalists are subject. They are, as a
class, sensitive men who shrink from duplicity, and
who if not relieved secretly, would not consent to be
relieved at all. In conclusion, I ask the assembled
company to drink " Prosperity to the Newspaper
Press Fund," coupled with the name of Lord
Houghton, arid to show your interest therein by the
liberality of your contributions. (Cheers.)

_
Lord Houghton, in the name of the society, thanked
the chairman for the intelligent and practical speech
he had delivered. The right hon. baronet had spoken
of the value of the Press without exaggeration or
adulation, and had done so as became a British
statesman who recognised its value, without in any
degree submitting to its autocracy more than to any
other. There was nothing be regretted more than
submission to the mere voice of the Press by any
statesman when he ought to have his own individual
opinion. - -
_

Subscriptions to the amount of eleven hundred
pounds were announced.