The Morning herald., 1876-08-05
:ros.sHrR1Y1.!
ISAAC GRUBB.
FOR coRoxm,s
DAVID G. ROSE.
EDrToRIAL CoRREsPonDENCE.

EplToRIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
The hoCsneennial.Why Corresp ondents
Faal-The Mouse trying - Shoulder
the Cat Something about Naked
Are-Mow MOAesGy has been over.
ceme-Boarding Heuse Mystery
ana Philadelphia Conversatton-A
Ptctnrs Of Thomas Paine.
PHILADELPHIA, August 4, 1875.
The Centennial has been written until
ii has been written badly. 1t is one Of
those things that coltcsl ondent, unless
he possesses powers Of versatility, and
knows the taste of the reader for spice in
his newspaper refreshments, cannot make
letter interesting upon. He writes daily,
and unfortunately he has to write the same
thing, which but for slight change Of
subjects would be dry repetition Of what
he has canvassed before. Correspondents,
too, attempt descriptions as the most
graphic manner, in which to convey an
idea of curiosity, after sight. But in
this they must be as painfully aware
themselves that they fail as the reader is,
but it is orders from those by whom they
are employed, and there is no escape from
what to them is more racking to the
brain. than to the reader who pushes
through it with ideas confused as to how
to connect the descriptions Of part treat
ed in one sentence with that treated in
another. Imagine, for instance, cores
pondent whose knowledge of machinery
extends no further than the management
of bed room stove, attempting to des-
cribe the great Corliss engine. 1t is like
the mouse attempting to shoulder the cat.
His indifference to technical terms is as
tenishing, and when he has wound up, a
machinist would have no more idea Of what
the great Corliss engine is like than thou
sands gain of Niagra Falls after reading
pen pictures Of them. It was Charles
Dickens who visited Niagra. He had
read pages upon pages in futile attempts
of their description. Yet when he at
tempted it his imperial pen was stilled, and
in twenty lines he had said all that he
could; his prodigious descriptive powert
were baffled in the treatment Of this great
work Of nature.
The embarrassment of the Centennial
correspondent must be precisely the same
The giant correspondents of our country
do not attempt the Centennial as matter
Of daily work. Townsend shuns 1t as 6
dull monotonous labor, Russell Young was
there few days and lei.. Don Plat, who is
alight gossipping correspondent has never
attempted it, and the leading papers have
allowed their high zeal and patriotism II
simmer down to an occasional men
ton. The great trouble with CORES
pondents is that, there is so much to TAX
hold Of that they do not know where t
commence. There is no method in wha
they do, and before they are aware Of
have grappled with a mountain and ar
attempting to dissect it without KNOWN
the commencement. One thing / do nc
notice al an intelligent person must d.
!. who has knowledge Of newspaper worl
and reads any of these entennial letter
that matters which would be Of local ir
terest to those papers for which they writ
are eschewed almost entirely. These al
readered subservient to the great sho
and its thousands of curiosities. State il
terests are regarded as but drops Of watt
to make up the great ocean, or as but OF
person in a large crowd, and at the san
time it should be recollected that that pc
son has his friends, and there are tho
who know him, and if you talk TO peop
at the place where that one person Of Il
q great crowd resides, he is the one they vii
"a to hear most about.
I have noticed in the exhibition trai
ing influence that art has over the Amel
can mind. American women have in the
composition q strong Ingredient Of VIII
is termed modesty. To this art in SUI
phases as are sometimes furnished at t
& J Centennial contributes an enemy, and
N who're can these enemies be mo
kuad than in the Art .