Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-06-15

has sunk beneath the contempt and tar be-
meath the patronage of every manly man.
So it should be in our profession, gentle
men, and SO it will be if we are true to
principle, true to interest, true to each
other and true to ourselves.
But while q few such evils as this will
occasionally infest fair and legitimate
Journalism, 'sfor ways that are dark and
for tricks that are vain," these
|. PAPERS WITH FOREIGN BOWELS
are "peculiar." Within a very few years
companies have been organized in some OF
the western cities and In New York tor
editing and printing one entire side OF
full sheet, and then, instead of sending
1t out as other city publishers do, to &C.
tual subscribers, they furnish it to certain
feeble country Offices cheaper than regu-
lar publishers can buy their blank paper.
The companies can afford to do this be-
cause they secure remunerative advertise
ments, for many business men are green
enough to suppose that they enjoy
tremendous circulation. The same half
printed sheet is furnished to large num-
ber of different offices, sc that the cost of
editorial labor and of composition is
saved. To suit all the different shades of
opinion, certain number are worked off
containing one or two strong Republican
articles, then another batch with those
articles left out and strong Democratic
articles, written by the same pen, inserted,
so that at length these ready-made opinion
moulds have actually advertised their
productions as either publican, Demo-
cratic or Independent, to suit purchasers"
Such an accommodating disposition
would hardly secure them much patron
age if they had to go before the sturdy
people for it, but it serves them a profit
able end, since their only patrons are
those country publishers of prostituted
principles, who are willing to deal ont
the product of such hash mills at second
hand. What is it that people take
paper for? Partly for its news, partly
for its views, and partly for its advertise
ments. And yet the news of these sim
sides" is always a week or more older
than that of legitimate papers; their
views are those of men who publicly pro-
claim that they ride three horses in diff
ferent directions at the same time, and
their advertisements are of necessity all
foreign from the locality where the paper
purports to issue.
Therefore, go far as one entire half OF
the paper is concerned, it falls far below
that standard of interest which freshness
and nearness always give, and as for the
other half, it is what might be expecfed
from men who find it impossible to make
whole newspaper, and are therefore
willing not only to deceive their patrons
but to disgrace the profession. which has
always been accredited with some prin-
ciples and some brains, by going into the
market to hawk about other peoples
wares SO far as my knowledge goes, not
a single newspaper ests blishment IN the
country of any recognized standing and
influence has adopted the system, and in
a great ma jority of cases the papers are
dated at little villages where in fact they
are not issued, and are issued from places
where they are not in sufficient demand
to support an establishment. They are
fraud on advertisers, fraud upon sub
scribers, fraud upon the government IN
the matter of postage, and scandal on
the honest and laborious press. They
are "half and half" of that which is old
enough to be stale, and that which is fat
enough to be dishwater. and never, since
; Barnum attached the tail of fish to the
body of an Egyptian mummy and adver-
tised it as "the beautiful, original and
genuine siren of the sea-" has greater
! humbug been put before the world.
} FEARLESS CRITICISM.
? If there is one duty which we owe to
ourselves, to each other and to the world
3 that we neglect more than any other, 1t
is the duty of independent, discriminate
ing and fearless criticism. We owe 1t to
! ourselves because we cannot afford to
. hazard our reputation by passing slip
, shod opinion; to each other because the
; country press cannot maintain local re-
3 porters in all parts and must of necessity
depend upon its cotemporaries, and to the
world because the people have right to
! be protected from humbugs by those
{ whose business it is to know and report.
Take for instance.
THE TRAVELLING SHOW BUSINESS.
, The country is a field in which these
i rangers think they have only to Craze and
grow fat They dread nothing but COM
{ petition, expecting to encounter no cul-
tivated and exacting tastes, and tearing
, no lash which an advertisement and a
: complimentary ticket can avert Doubt
less YOU have all had the curiosity more
than once to watch the notices of the press
as the show gradually approaches, and
!, then been to see it yourself only 10 have
l vour expectations dashed ruthlessly upon
: the rocks of disappointment. Quite likely
o YOU have copied what your brethren have
9 said, and thus have victimized your read
ers. Every one of these mountebanks
counts upon the country press as a pow
erful ally, and thus, every year, thousands
Y of dollars are taken from our people by
= our kindly stupid liberation, without one
q single moral lesson being taught OF ele-
d waiting influence exerted in return.
= There are some entertainments-aye
? travelling entertainments-tha are wor'
q thy, and ought to be patronized by all
q But if all alike are pleasantly spoken OF
d in those haclneyed phrases of reporters,
e how are we to know-how are the people
g not familiar with our respective styles to
e l1now-which is wheat and which Is chatt
e The pulpit condemns the theatre in gen
o eral. and the provincial theatre in partic-
It ular; and yet the people will go to it Just
q the same, and, hard as it may seem, truth
It compels me to say that some of them will
l. be more instructed, more elevated and
l. more purified by it in a single nigh tthan
o by whole year of preaching in churches
r which they mistakenly think are toe
o grand. too sanctified and too stiff for theil
}, plain and humble needs. But whatever
4 the pulpit may do, the press can neither
q sweep back the sea nor exalt itself above
o its wash. 1t is obliged to take things as
b it finds them, and if it will only report
I" them as it finds them, how soon it will
drive out every "periwig pated fellow
who seeks only to "spllt the ears of the
Z, groundlings" with his vulgar ribaldry
o and thereby not only encourage the health
full and artistic show, but vastly improve
2 the public taste.
j. At last I come to speak of
4 -e... OUR REWARDS,
20 and the rewards, L notice. generally come
Y last Why is it that as a class, editors O
il Vermont are comparatively poor Why
/, do they grow prematurely old, and finall.
1. =a4;.o na+ aa tha nrudent merchant can