The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-04-23

Tuesday Morning, April 90, 1867.
Cleaning. from the Provincial, Press.
PORTLAND.

tsIcnnings from the Provincial Press.
Before closing this article the reader will
probably come to the just conclusion that IL il
headed with misnomer The cleaner is usu.
ally able to gather up something but in
u somewhat careful manner we have looked
through the daily issues for week past of
some half dozen Provincial papers, without
being able to CLEAN more than two or three
items worth transferring to our columns The
constant reader of our American papers, who
is entirely unfamiliar with the manner of get
ting up papers in the Provinces, is ill prepared
to appreciate the general dullness which per-
vades their columns; dullness as we are accus-
toned to understand that word.
| We would not assert that the provincial pa
pers are devoid Of TALENT that would be gross
ly unjust. Many Of them show evidence of sig
nal ability, and this is particularly the case
with the leading journals of Montreal and of
Canada West. But then John Bull is a yery
SOBER commonplace, matter-of-fact gentleman
At home, on his manorial estates or looking
out upon his pleasant parks, he may cultivate
poetic moods, and indulge in writing or read
lug contributions to the light literature of the
day, but it is very sure that neither poetic John
Bull nor John Bull with a soul baptized in
the waters which Sidney Smith, Dickens
Thackeray and Punch have delighted to dis
turb, has left home and home comforts to
build up dependency of the crown on this
side of the Atlantic At any rate, such are
not the representatives of John Bull who ill
provincial editorial chairs, make up the news
papers, and contribute to form and educate the
taste of the reading public among our proyir-
cial neishbors. h- "l
% We are not aware Of the existence of a sim
| gle humorous paper in the Provinces, and it Is
seldom that we find one of them heartily en-
gagged in discussing issues that take deep hold
OF the throbbing, active, beating heart of hu-
manity Everything seems graduated to a
conservative scale, after the English fashion,
so that if a statesman at home takes a new
pinch of snuff all of the provincial statesmen
feel bound to sneeze, and If one of them is
spit upon by foreigner our neighbors, in the
exercise Of a loyal spirit, feel called upon to
hiss. .'.sd 8hI -
Speaking of dull, dry newspapers,-is it not
barely possible that our own papers are grayi-
tating with too much force towards some "Dry'
intellectual "Tor tugas," or towards mode of
composition and makeup that only half salts
fes the rational wants of the reader? We
have sometimes thought newspaper men were
prone to forget the fact, that the Creator has
furnished the human face with muscles to
| pull it up as well as to draw it do,cn; that
laughing is more healthy than crying, and that
relaxation is as necessary to q strained mind
as sleep to an exhausted body. A few days
! sinee--in the absence of the assistant who
| usually attends to such matters,-we tried to
find in large pile of exchanges enough hu-
morous miscellany to fill column upon the
last page Of this paper, but after unfolding
and looking and refolding till the exercise be-
came absolutely irksome, we were obliged to
give up in despair, and to fill more than half
the column with matter more appropriate to
the atmosphere of q graveyard than to that Of
a May Day festival. Political papers, almost
without exception, Danish every thing like sto-
ry reading, and sneer at Sylvanus Cobb and
Bonner, and besides the space filed with acri-
monious discussion of party politics they fll
up column after column with market reports,
gold quotations, and the dryest details of bust
ness, while not a word is allowed that affords
relief to the overtaxed nervous system or takes
the strain from an overworked brain They
will give every varying quotation of the gold
market, and show how the STANDARD" of val
ues is made shuttlecock between the "Bulls"
and Bears, /" but are very sure to exact twen-
ty-ave or fifty cents for the insertion of death
or marriage notice qA .1rrt ta ea sa
Time was when almost every private house,
at intervals more or less remote from each 9th |
or, but especially in the long winter evenings,
rQanu nded with tho so.1x,d &c
Young people did not feel Obliged to 20 be-
yond the sacred limits of the home circle to
find amusements, and plenty of them
The neighbors would be invited in, and some
one OF the number, owning d fiddle" and
knowing how to play it, would be sure to bring
the instrument, and while the younger portion
OF the party would play Blind Mans Buff"
| and Copenhagen" the elderly people would
look on with approving smile, while still 9TH
ers, keeping step to the measure Of the VIOLIN
would occupy another room In the inyigorat-
ing exercise of social dance. Even good pi-
Gus people saw no harm in such domestic
home amusements, and while they were kept
up the gilded ballroom and the seductive sa
loon found very few patrons. But in an evil
hour, the spirit Of something-we will not at
tempt to name it-faised its gloomy head, and
in sepulchral tones denounced all such things
as the work of the EVIL One" and forbade
their entrance into or federation by any re-
spectacle and particularly a piousz society.-
! The fiddle, the dance and all the concomitants
OF pleasant amusement, were banished from a
| large class Of households, and then it was.
taking advantage Of human necessity--that
the ballroom and the drinking saloon formed
closer alliance, and those who had been con-
tent to find their pleasure in the home circle
and beneath watchful parental eyes, sought
| these places, where late hours, temptation,
stalking vice and Thousand forms OF exposure
both of soul and body, seem found in close if
notinseparable communion. The result of all
this is that the young, to find the rational
amusements which were once tolerated and
sought at home, now seek them in places of at
least questionable propriety, where thousand
forms Of doubtful influence are liable to be en-
countered. SIl-l ofiA - 20 1'-
And are not our family newspapers-tho
which are the most constant visitors at our
houses and flresides, undergoing change not
entirely unlike that to whichwe have referred?
| Till lately it has been common to give to dry
business newspaper light shading. The politi-
cal discussions about tariffs and banks and isms,
1 were relieved by stories pleasing to old and
young, anecdotes, Jokes and witticisms, and
! the paper that did not, to some extent, cater
j to various tastes was not considered worthy of
being called family papsr.1 While the man of
business would find enough to satiate his thirst
in the line of stocks and quotations and mark
I ct reports, and the commercial man had his
fill of marine news, and even the farmer could
read about the price of grain and poultry and
the best mode Of raising calves and manuring
his potato patch, the ladies and children of the
houshold were not overlooked, for poetry,
stories and matters that touch the heart
as we'll as educate the head were sure to find
place in the family newspaper. Those were
not the days when Ledgers and Clippers, and
Chimney Corners sprang up and thrived on
plethoric subscription lists, for every paper, to
a greater or less extent, occupied ground that
has now been abandoned to these.
But this has all changed, OF is fast changing
The common newspaper is but record of dry
facts, a prosaic array of figures, collection of
problems, and three-fourths of it-except to
| special readers-is not more interesting, as
reading matter than a common dictionary; far
less interesting than the average advertise
ments that fill its columns. The result Ia
that those who can find no portion of meat"
for themselves in the morning or evening ma
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