The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-27
sP1Rxx or Tzn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
Upon Current TOpics-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening ToleErnph.
IN BEHALF OF JENKINS.

in BBdhllf OI JENhlNO.
From che NJ Y. World. f-. - Cd.
II ingratitude can properly be predicated of
republics, with still greater propriety can it
be attributed to the public. Those whoserve
the public faithfully and well, who minister
to its prosperity aud its pleasures, are repaid
with suspicion and scorn. OF this the hard
and thankless lot Of jenkins furnishes fami-
liar illustration. Jenkins exists but tosatisfy
the curious craving of the public. He fulils
the mission of his life with a laborious and
self-abnegating thoroughness; and he wins
the sneers and sarcasms of those for whom he
tolls Since the ingratitude Of the vegetables
to III. g., and their refusal to make remune-
rative the farm Of the philosopher who for
years had been the prophet of vegetarianism
and purely vegetable person in his private
diet, there has been no instance of ingrati-
tude so gross and inexcusable as that of the
public to its fond and faithful Jenkins.
The eminently prosaic jenkins, like sort
of reversed poet was made, not born. The
public demanded him, and he sprang into
being full armed with pencil and notebook
Or he may be said TO have been developed
from the ordinary reporter Of a former period
by the changed conditions of the modern
press. At all events he is not responsible for
his existence The public, whose tastes are
totally different to-day from what they were
fifty years ago, has compelled the journalism
of the period TO deal with social topics, in
stead of questions of political philosophy or
abstract morals. 1t has thus made Jenkins
necessity. Why, then, should it deride the
patient Investigator who collects the speci-
mems which the editor must use in his fire.
quent lectures upon the social strata, their
origin, their upheaval, their convolutions,
and their suggestive dip
The press during the last half century has
undergone change strictly analogous to that
which has modified the whole character of
English fiction. Once the novel-writers
whom Mrs. Radcliffe may be taken as an ex-
ample-refused to deal with anything purely
natural or approximately probable, but
peopled the world of their creation with pre-
posterous ghosts and intolerable phantoms.
To the unearthly novel succeeded the tale in
which heroes of impossible perfection went
through an inconceivable courtship with
heroines of irritating excellence Sir Wal
ter Scott, though his creations were actual
men and women, still insisted upon showing
them to us only when surrounded by halo
of romance that perceptibly removed them
from the prosaic people of everyday hfe 1t
has been left for the modern novelist-of
whom Anthony Trollope is the most perfect
type-to present us with novels in which the
commonplace people whom everyone knows
rehearse their commonplace lives, without the
slightest tint of romantic heroism or of senti-
mental poetry. And Trollope is the most
In like manner, the press has gradually
ceased to discuss the lofty theories of politi-
cal philosophy, or to teach the public morality
solely by sermons of churchly length and
solemnity, and has become mirror of social
life. People now read newspaper in order
to learn what other people are doing. The
progress of Russia towards the Himalayas in
terests them less than the progress of Prince
Arthur towards Washington. The probable
effect of the Suez Canal does not concern
them as closely as the actual occurrences at
the Charity ball. We are emphatically in the
age of sociology, and We demand that the
press shall tell us of the things which concern
us in our relations to our neighbors rather
than of the affairs of Thibet and Lapland
Wherefore Jenkins lives and moves and
has his inquisitive being. He satisfies the
curiosity of the public-a curiosity which
may sometimes be carried to excess, but which
is in the main strictly innocent, and is more
over a characteristic of the age in which we
live. The public insists upon knowing how
Mr.. James Fisk looks when in the act OF
thanking Corbin for his share in the success
of the gold corner, and in what priestly robes
Mr.. Horace Cooke arrays himself when he
repeats the comminated service with especial
reference to the editorial Fraternity. The
masculine public is interested in the tricks
and the manners of the women who con
spire to wrest the sceptre of po ner from
the men, and those of the fair sex who
are yet loyal to the lords of creation
are devoured by a curiosity to know how the
female champion of feminine rights really
look. 1t is Jenkins who supplies this thirst
for information. 1t is jenkins who ''inter
views" the fnancier in his opera house, the
clerical transgressor in his cell, and the
woman who talks in the stronghold where
she harangues her followers. The wondrout
tales which the benevolent Jenkins unfold
are eagerly read, and then the self-sacrifcin(
unfolder is denounced and vilifed. Surely
Jenkins is the most ill-used of men. He il
created, used, and scornfully maligned by
public which would be inconsolable at hi
loss How much more creditable would tn,
conduct of the public be were it to form so
cieties for the prevention of cruelty to Jen
kins, and to exert itself to ameliorate tn
physical and moral condition of its most in
dispensable servant!
THE NEW SOUTHERN BALANCE OF
POWER AND THE NEXT PRESIDENCY
From che NJ Y. Herald.
The bill passed for the restoration of Vir
ginia determined the final conditions to Mis-
sissippi and Texas, the two remaining outsid
States. Within few weeks on the sam,
terms, we expect they will be reinstated i
Congress and restored to the control of thei
local affairs, when the transition epoch O
Congressional edicts and Southern miitar,
district commanders will be ended and tn
new Union, under the thirteenth fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments of the Nationa
Constitution will be in full operation.
We have in these amendments create
revolution in the structure of the Governme1