Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1870-02-18

"IIinkensale,n the we'll known
Iowa correspondent, now one Of the
editors of the Chicago Post, comes to
the relief of country editors in the
following sensible article. There is
o mine of truth in what he says:
1T Is my deliberate opinion that
no class of men Is so little appreciated
AS the editors of what we call coun-
try newspapers. do not even ex-
cept country pastors. And every one
who keeps his eyes open has observed
the little less than horribleness of
their situation, resulting from the
prevalent deaconism. Deaconism
may be called an institutional Span
ish inquisition for the Protestant
clergy. 1t is REFRESHING institution
of great and desolating power. Rum
sellers are the terror of society not
more than Deaconism il the terror of
the pulpit. Deaconism demands
that the clergy shall preach, not
christianity as the clergy understand
it, but as the deacons understand it.
That is, the clergy must pIeach Dea-
conism, and it, more's the pity, not
crucliied. The Methodist Episcopal
Church shrewdly avoids the worst
effects of Deaconism by its per!pa-
tetic ministry. 1t surely never
would have adopted the unhappy
plan of having its ministers forever
homeless, wanderers evermore in the
land, but as choice against the in
fluence of Deaconism. .-
In this bad institution of Deacon
ism to which we refer, every Deacon
is an inspired Instructor of the in
structor of the church. He is the
chap who hands the minister the cue.
He is the man whose nod of approx
al makes things happy, whose nod of
disapproval may turn the preacher
adrift and ruin his happiness and in
iluence for years. Every deacon be-
longing to this institution of Deacon
ism, thinks he can preach three SER
mems every Sunday and as many dur
ing the week, to none of which
would fault attach. There used. to
be story of one of them who tried
iton. He get into the pulpit; looked
around very much like petit-larcen-
list caught in the act; announced his
text: from the Apostle of the Epis-
tle;" heard a litter; announced his
text again: from the Apostle of the
Epistle to the Callithumpians; :" OBJ
served a surprise in the general con.
gregation and awful frowns on the
faces of the other deacons; and, with
the remark, well, brethren, if you
think you can preach, just get up
here and try it," made q straight
coat-tail for the bosom of his family,
and was forever afterwards convinced
that some people could do some
things % well as others If not better.
The evils of this bad Bind of deacon
ism are very great. One can see that
no man of spirit will let his deacons
do his preaching for him. The dis.
putes and unhappiness it causes are
innumerable. An old-settled pastor
is rare thing.
In every country town there are
majority of people worse on their |
journals than this institution of Dea.
conism on the clergy. City editors
have greatly the advantage of coun-
try editors i'm this respect. Of the
100000 Inhabitants of Chicago, there
are POS, 900 who freely admit that
they cannot run a newspaper. But
In city of 10000 souls out on the
Massissiniway, you will find nine
out of ten of the inhabitants who
are a" fat in the newspaper line.
Out of these, there are nine out of
len who could not write an auc-
uoneer's advertisement unaided, to
save their lives. But they can run
n newspaper! No man, without ac-
tual experience. can imagine the |
trials and troubles, and downright
insults, to which editors in the coun-
try are constantly subject, from ina
pertinent men who know no more of
the profession they criticise than
they know of the inhabitants of the
sun. The editors Of daily newspa-
pers, in cities of from eight to say
twenty thousand people are most
painfully subject to these bores.
Every line of business, every line of
loafing, and every profession has
each its representatives running
down the newspapers-wo wondering |
why they do not have four or five |
columns of telegraphie news, two or
three columns of editorials, as much
correspondence, more selected mat !
Ter, and a whole page Of city and |
intelligence! These |
papers are thus constantly
with the metropolitan |
injustice so manifest to
those who understand the difference.
shat 1t is amazing any one should be
stupid and mean enough to make the
The country journalists Of the
Northwest have i'm their ranks many |
men of notable talents, and culture,
and influence. Some of our best |
members of Congress, some of our
best administrative officers, SEINE of |
our most distinguished Hterateurs,
were graduated from the country
printing office. When we consider
what they accomplish, and the |
difficulties under which they labor, |
not forgetting the storm of croaking
in which they forever live, we must |
accord to them an amount of useful |
ness under difficulties entitled to our
warmest praise and heartiest graft !
tude. / know of no life more per-
sonally unpleasant or more generally
useful than that of an independent,
conscientious, laborious country edi-
tor.