The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-06-24
Fran our, Extraordinary Co,rsspondsnt1
r. Emstal Gives EHis inexperienced.

LFrdps our -ErtI;dor rtlin1ty Go7Tespo ndsns
q r. Emsral Gives His E3perlenee.
New YoRK, June 19, 1856. ~ am lit
tie ut . loss II used TO. be great at q ioss
when i played poker, and therefore
abandoned the game years and years
ago, to know what 10 write to you about
this week. ] have conscienoe--a Pa
tent Metropolitan Journalistic conscience
and therefore dare not write anything
that is not strictly true. i was not al
ways thus, careful, but o year or two ago
I had an awful warming. and since then
have never ventured to let my imagina-
ton lead noe into exaggerations.
It happened in this way was IN as
sociate editor on the staff of one of our
New York papers, and there one day
came q necessity for me TO write para
graph of about stick-ful in length, in n
little less than no time ut all. The wea-
ther being intensely cold, my mental fa-
culties were active only i'll the direction
Of forcible denuDciation of the climate
My mind thus running on the subject OF
cold weather, wrote few lines stating
that the Gulf Stream had retired from
the coast, and that there was every rea-
son to believe that in course of two yeurs
at furthest, New York would be consi.
derably colder than Greenland.
Mark what followed, and then doubt,
if you can, the influence of the press.
That paragraph was gravely copied all
over the country, and in about three
weeks afterwards two sea-captains came
into port and announced that they had
found the Gulf Stream nearly 200 miles
to the Eastward of its usual course.
The confounded current had actually
taken ne ut my word, and had really
changed its course. repented bitterly
of my rashness, and begun to look for
ward to the cheerful prospect of freezing
to death amid the curses of my CONCEAL
ing friends, when some other fellow came
out In another aper with the statement
that the Gulf stream had approached
nearer than ever to our shores, and that
henceforth our climate was to become
tropical in point of heat don't believe
he had any more authority for his story
than I had fer mine, but somehow more
sea captains opportunely came into port
and confirmed his statement. Since then
the climate has remained Just as disa
greeable as it always hns been, but /
have never dared to allude to the Gnli
Stream from that day to this, and have,
moreover, registered Il VOW never to write
anything that is not strictly and literally
true.
That's the reason why am not mana.
ging editor of the Times, or dramatic
critic of the Herald. A conscience is IL
terrible obstacle to success in journalism.
Where would Bennett or Rhy mond now
be. had they been weighed down by such
u terrible moral handicap?
1 remember how forcibly this fact was
once brought to my knowledge some fif.
teen years ago. I wns then in charge oil
the San Jose Star, a California paper,
which by the way, was the first paper OF
which had ever had the management.
1t was owned by political chap, who
devoted his chief energies to the man
agement of a faro bank, and left me tc
elevate tie tone of Californian society
through the columns Of his paper. 1 had
instructions to pitch into everything OF
an immoral character. except gambling
and to advocate the Democratic ticket
through thick and thin. Every few days
my proprietor used to send me word to
puff Smith or Jones, or to give Brown OF
Robinson q vivid realization of the pecu
liarly distinguishing features of the in
fernal regions. OF course 1 obeyed or.
ders, and kept my editorial position. Ir
those days you could be reasonably Ger
tain that every man in California de-
served to be abused. and that if any one
was praised, anybody else would know
that it was barefaced nonsense, and
would fail to be misled by it. 1, there
fore, felt that was morally right in fol
lowing my proprietor's instructions, es
pecial!y AS he paid me very reasonable
salary.
Well, everything went on smoothly.
kept couple of old miners in the outer
office, who shot all the dangerous visi
tors who dropped in to avenge their per
sonal wrongs on the editor, and thongl
frequently foand one or two deac
bodies lying about the Office when Ca me
out of my sanctum, nothing unpleasan
ever happened to mar the peaceful sere
nifty of my daily life. So prosperous die
the future seem to me, that began to
seriously contemplate matrimony, and a,
preliminary process, walked deeply into
love with the daughter OF n Methods
clergyman, who was temporarily station
cd ut San Francisco.
One Monday morning, my proprietor
came into the Office in n purple state o
indignation. 'sLook hyur," snid he, "a
| cusS Of n Drea ch or hos hin abuaip' of m