National Republican., 1873-01-06
AN ENGLISH OPINION on JOURNAL.

I
But the hypothesis Is not altogether defensible.
| IL Ia true, perhaps, that women read more OF the
trash OF fiction than men do, But does not at all
| follow that because q man does not read trashy
novels, therefore that what he does read Is worth
| reading. on the contrary, there Is probably
quite as much unworthy reading among men
who read At all as among women. The trash
| upon which men waste their time Ia not
| so much the trash Of novels as Of newspaper
Il Is true, perhaps that an excessive devotion to
| newspapers does not produce such palpably bad
effects as are produced by an undue devotion TO
novels. But the evil done Is nevertheless real and
Sss na, essns hsw,spaper leading
| or nll the mind with all softs Of absurd fancies
| about friends and enemies; about the tyranny Of
poetry OF an unreasonable or unlawful attach.
| ment; but Il Is nevertheless q sure destroyer Of
mental health. Its effect Is to corrupt the
judgment, TO weaken the sense OF mental dis
elimination, to discourage intellectual inltia-
| tive, and generally to deaden the mental pow
| ers by substituting q habit OF mechanical for
habit Of intelligent reading. The confirmed
newspaper reader = the man who reads
through, at least, the Times before going TO
business In the morning; who, after business
sstte and digs INTO the Bcho and Gobs, only yary-
ing or amplifying his studies according TO the
day OF the week, or the amount OF his leisure
time, by an excursion Into the prolific regions OF
the weekly, the monthly, the comic, aud the
Illustrated periodicals. and who nnds that all the
time he can spare for reading Is fully occupied
IN the pursuit of this fugitive llterature--is de-
stroying his brain power as surely as the man who
smokes short pipe at every spare hour Is destroy
ing his digestion. And yet there are thousands OF
reasonable and fairy well-educated men who are
| more or less slaves TO such q sloyenly habit Of
| reading. Their mode OF operation Is as follows
| They take up a newspaper and turn first Of all
| 10 the teleguins. This they do, not because they
are IN the least anxious about the course OF al
fairs but because they have got into the habit of
wanting 10 be fed with the latest intelligence
They desire TO know the news, not because OF lts
| antecedents or Its consequences, but simply be-
| cause II IA the 'news,' and because they have
contracted a craving for II, a. for snun or for
sherry anu bitterA. Having read all the news,
home and foreign, great and small, with an equal
amount OF interest and an equal lack Of reiec-
ton, they pass on to the leading articles. Some
| few years ago, before the Pull Mall UdEstts anu
| the Echo were started, they used to read the
leading articles OF one or two of the morning
| papefs with certain amount Of attention, sell
| dom, indeed, with view Of COnside ring whether
| what was said in any column was tine or exag.
geTattd or altogether erroneous, or OF compaT-
ing their own previous notions on any subject
with those OF he writer, but with sufficent care
at all events to enable them To make out TO their
| own satisfaction the general drift of what was
written. The more intelligent among them would
take some trouble to ascertain, for instance,
| whether the Times did or did not consider such
| piece OF foreign news TO he important, or what
the Duly Isiegrdph thought Mr.. Gladstone would
| do In consequence OF an adverse vote, or what
| the Standard had TO say in disparaRement Of any
Liberal success, partly because they wanted to
get hold OF something simple and tangible on
which TO rest their vague and floating cOncep-
| tons, aud partly, also, because they wanted
| something To produce In conversation. But
| now the necessity for taking ever so much men
tai trouble Ia removed. The short paragraphs In
| the evening papers, IN which II Ia SO neatly and
| clearly stated what the TiBss informs u.s. what
| the Ddng Telegraph believes aud what the
Standard laments, answer all The purpose with
| tenth Of the trouble They come out In plenty
| OF time for dnner-table talk, and being done by
| professionals, are Of course absolutely trust
| worthy. Consequently all that the inveterate
news reader nov does Is languidly run his eyes
over the leading articles In the hope OF encoun-
| tering an anecdote or q statistical paragraph
| which shall put facts In q new or surprising
form, so a. to afford him a sensation. All the
rest he leaves TO the scissors man OF the evening
lournal,-who certainly exacts for him the essen
tAl thought OF leading article far more sklllfuy
than he could do II for himself From the lead
ing articles he passes on with sensible altera-
ton In his frame Of mind to the home and foreign
correspondence. lie skins the letter from Dub
lin In search Of fenlan outrage, and the letter
from Paris In search Of Rn intrigue or a duel
Nine times out Of ten he puts the paper
down, after long Investigation, with the In
preston, with the important conclusion, that
there Is nothing In IL but this does not deter
hun from taking up another and going through
IL In much the same manner, and with much the
same result. All this time he Is doing very little
more than exercising a mechanical art OF read
ing. What he thinks makes no sort Of impress
sion upon him; or, at best, Affects him about as
much as Aristotle says that the misfortnnes OF
the living effect their dead relatives. 10 passes
through his mind Ike water through u sieve; or
sounds to him as the voices Of the great and
middle-sized bears did to southeys little girl"
In the above extract we have very forclbly
and ably presented the views Of certain
dilettante class, happily becoming each year
smaller and smaller, who look upon the daily
newspaper with an affectation of horror.
England is not the only country and the
ReUieto Office the only place where the pro- |
fession of similar sentiments may be occa-
sionally heard. In our own United States
there lisa little coterie Of authors, reviewers,
diylnes and politicians who put on similar
airs, and seem to think that denunciatiOu
OF the daily newspaper Is an evidence Of
superior wisdom and greatness Of intellect. |
II sometimes crops out in the pulpit, In the
magazines, and occasionally In Congress. |
II has frequently been our fortune. or misfor- |
tune, to see one Of these gentlemen In the
Senate or House rise with the utmost gravity,
and pompOusly declare that lie never paid
any attention to what appeared in the news
papers, and thon make personal explana-
tion, which showed that he was not only
paying good deal Of attention to them, but
that he was keenly sensitive to newspaper
criticism.
The sweeping assertion Of the Repieio that |
the EFFECT of newspaper reading IL to cor
rupt the judgment, to weaken the sense OF
mental discrimination, to discourage intel |
lectual initiative" &c, Ia simply an asser-
ton, and must not be received with unques-
tioning faith simply because II Ia made in the
able and brilliant pages Of that periodical. |
We do not know what effect the English
Journal has on the average English mind and
understanding. 1t may be, as our cynical
critic says, to corrupt the English Judgment,
but 1t Is certainly not the facts so far as the
American journal Is concerned. The Ameri-
can people, perhaps We should say the people |
Of the United States, are the greatest news
paper readers and patrons in the world. In
fact, the great majority Of them read nothing
else excepting possibly their bills, and II GER
tainly cannot be said that their judgment has
thereby been corrupted, or their sense of
mental discrimination weakened. In fact the |
exact opposite effect II written In letters Of
light not only all over the continent, but |
almost over the entire world. II was the |
daily press that led In the great struggle |
against slavery and educated the American |
conscience TO higher humanity than IL had |
known before. No great moral or physical |
work has been accomplished during the last |
quarter OF a century In which 1t has not been |
the principal Inspiration and the most ellec-
tive ally.
The Repie'O Is disgusted that the people
will insist upon reading kilograms aud dis
patches-in other words, "the latest lntslll-
gence Instead Of some useful work In
German or French" In our opinion the
public in this only shows Its good sense. For
what, after all, can be more interesting than
this same --latest intelligencel' To be sure,
It Is Fugitive literature" but fugitive litera-
lure which h passing into history. French
aud German poetry are Of immense
Talue, and we gladly turn to the one or the
'ther when we cant but we are every day
making grandor history than Mchilet or
iismondi wrote, working out greater poems
han Schiller or Goethe conceived, Must We
urn from the wars and the campaigns Of