The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-08-20
those consounding Cables.

one of the marvels OF the age An electric
spark, traversing the slender wires which
stretch from the Old World to the New,
brings rival Continents within speaking dis
tance, and allows New York to hear, as it
were, the dull echoes from the banks OF the
Moselle and Rhine. And yet the ocean
cables as they are now used, and the whole
telegraphic system, corrupt our language,
confuse our ideas, and make our knowledge
Of the events of the. day Us jerky and scrap
py as the click-clack Of a magnetic battery.
There is no even and continuous stream OF
information From the telegraphic alpha
bet, the reading public are expected to form
plain words and ineligible phrases. As
we'll might one-in the South at least-un-
dertake to interpret cuneform inscription,
or to solve the hieroglyphic riddle Of two
thousand year old mummy.
The almighty dollar, through the te!e-
graph, plays havoc with the purity Of Ian
guage. To the "English" tongue, and the
american tongue, is added the ''telegra-
'.phic" tongue-a tongue in which eminent
men are interviewed" houses are ''bur'
"glarized, /" trains and vessels 'collide," and
some unfortunate s.suicided," either ''smorn-
sing" or ''sevening." As every word is paid
for, the press reporters exert all their inge-
nuity to make one word take the place of a
half Dozen They might strip their dis
patches OF useless adjectives, and rhetorical
flowers, and use compact nervous English.
But this would take time, and the worried
Journalists, of small calibre, seek refuge in
the bastard phrase-words OF which an exam
pie has been given. They have the excuse
that newspaper proprietors do not want to
pay for ten words when FIVE will do, and the
slang dictionary becomes every day larger
and more disgusting.
In ordinary times, the work Of the wires
lis tolerabg satisfactory. The market re-
ports cannot very well go wrong, and the
quick:trayelling mails I'LL up the gaps in the
daily dispatches. But in days like these,
in times OF wars and rumors Of wars, the
despairing Journalist and confounded public
are tempted to regret an earle. period when
news arrived only once a week, and one
event could be well digested before it was
pushed aside ,py another. Then, carefully
written and comprehensive letters explained
the condition OF domestic and foreign affairs,
and side by side with the accomplished fact,
came the explanation Of Its cause and dis
cussion OF its probable result The public
was not always on the tenter.hooks Of anx-
iety. Between the receipt OF the one mail
and the arrival of the next, there was ample
time for cogitation; there was the opportu-
nifty Of overcoming the gloom OF disaster
and the wild joy of victory. Nous drons
change tout celia !. A. battle. takes place in
Europe, and the fact is known before the
smoke drifts from the field OF carnage And
so it Is with every important event, at home
and abroad. The papers print each morn
ing condensed account OF the history OF
the world on the previous day. The fall Of
empires, or a rise in stocks, is done up in a
sentence, or disposed Of in paragraph.
| No one will complain OF receiving news a
week, or a month. earlier than it was re-
ceived in the coaching-times. That is not
the trouble. Where the telegraph confounds
/ us is, in its omissions of necessary facts, in
| its disconnected statements in its contradic-
tory reports. Who can tell, for instance,
what the French and German armies have
been about during the last week: There is
a bushel basket of dispatches, and we
are little wiser at the last than at the first.
Both OF the belligerenu governments exercise
! a strict surveillance over the wires. Abso-
lutely trustworthy information is difficult, il
not impossible, to obtain. The public, how
ever, demand the news, and they get it after
a fashion. a correspondent in London hears
that correspondent in Berlin has received
q private letter from the vicinity OF Metz, in
which it is stated that the Prussians have
.swhipped 'em again. This is sent with hot.
haste to New York. Another correspondent
learns from correspondent at Paris that
the French have driven the Germans into
the sea. And this, likewise, IS dispatched
/ over the wires. In the morning the unfor-
fortunate public have the two accounts
before them. No doubt, one is as truthful as
the other. Which is to believed? You pay
your money and you take your choice.
Armies run to and fro; hundreds OF thouS-
ands of men are moved with miraculous
rapidity; whole corps are destroyed one day
to turn up unharmed the next. And when
there is a scrap of truth, it is 80 bald and
bare that no mortal man can make head or
tail oft. We cannot tell, as yet, what
were the circumstances OF the battle at
Hsgenau or Woerth. The Prussians were
victorious-that is all we know. Only now
are we receiving the particulars Of that little
affair at Saarbrucken, where the mitrau,enls
are said to have played havoc with the OPP
posing bat.a.ions And the Southern papers
are worse Of thai their big Northe: breth-