Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1857-01-30

CO. Any man ofIolerably fair sense and reasonable
powers of observation, who will spend few years in
the editorial business, will see aud hear good many
queer things, besides being enabled to estimate more
properly the claims and pretensions OF public men.
That he will find good deal of humb1g among poll
icans there is little dorbt, but it is to be questioned
whether lie will find an ota more OF that sort OF
thing in politics than in any other walk OF llte
Caveat emptor is safe rule in all things. Look out
for what you get, and don't buy pig in poke.
Among the assumptions 20 he met WITH and which
may be regarded as amusing simply disgusting.
according as they are viewed is The small aectatlon
of class of shallow politicians one half of whose
stock IN trade consists in sneering at the newspaper
press of the country and its conductors They don't
Care--6o they say-what the papers say-ihey never
read such things, etc. We never saw man ii the
habit of so talking who not sensitive in fact
rs though he had been fayed and every touch was
on the raw We never saw really able and infuen-
tial PAPER to the management Of which more tact
and talent were not devoted every year than would
set up several such politicians with stock for lite
time, and there few really able and independent
papers OF any standing that have not been forced 10
build up and pull down many such great men as are
those who think an essential Of their greatness to
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sheer at the press
We notice good deal of such stuff in connection
with the investigation of the charge of corruption
recently brought forward in Congress--a good deal
of this aectation on the part of obscure practtion
ers or back woods politicians, who, out of place, are
nobodes, and who have neither talent, information,
nor honesty sufficient for the requirements of success
full journalism any than they have The astro-
nomcal knowledge requisite to calculate the eclpses
for the year 1857.
Such persons belong to that class who talk about
"puttng down" such and such papers, and generally
succeed in stopping their own copy and reading a
copy borrowed from their neighbor or neighDos. Of
course, no paper worth prospecting was ever affected
in any way by such things.
We hear every now and then stale platitudes
repeated about the power of the press-sot of 4th of
July hurrahs, in at one ear and out at the other.
There is doubt truth-a portion of truth, at least,
in all this Such power IS within the reach of the
press; but 10 wie.d this power it must first respect
itself and enforce respect from others. Its conduct
ors must abstain from indulgence in that coarse
inveclive and bitter elimination towards each other
which is the too common disgrace of our Journalism,
and they must mark for what they are worth all
those shallow -pated political upstarts who think it
very smart to reflect upon those by whose exertions
alone such people are enabled 10 raise their heads
above the political dismal swamp to which they
legtmately belong. There is no doubt about it
the press is responsible for manufacturing big men
out of rather small material, and these men, like
beggars on horseback, are somewhat inclined to ride
to the devil, Or, like overgrown babies, think they
can not only stand alone, but actually afford to
throw mud at their indulgent dry nurses, the editors
An amusing and ridiculous nuisance of this sort 0
trash is the anfaronade delivered some time since in
Raleigh by Mr.. Rayner-a politician whose course
deserves all the repobation with which it has been
visited but who is not entitled by influence, ability
or anything else, to the attention he has received,
or to the prominence which that attention has con-
ferred upon him for the time being. His TRADE is Of
such a character as to make even his own friends
hang their heads and for such men TO indulge III
language OF contempt and dsparagement towards
one half of the press of the State is simply conemp
! bic Daily Journal Monday last.