The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1877-02-13

tia. # The great mass Of :he people in
thi. co0utry get hold of newspaper.
IN! there are IN /; no runaway matches
II brok-n-ap families, 10 defamation Of
inca IN high position. they pronounce
the paper insIpii. They say L. i.
Il ckingly duh tonight" believe il
: one 0: the trials Of the newspaper
j press, tha, the people Of this countr,
demand moral slush Instead Of healthy
Intellectual food. Now. you are re-
spectabIe man. Al intelligent man and
paper comes into your hand You
open /. and there are three columns Of
spleutidly written editorial r,com
fnending some moral sentiment or
evolving some scientific theory In the
neat column there Is miserable con
temp'ible divorce case Which do you
read first You dip into the editorial
long enough to cay: well, that's very
ably written" and you r.ai the
divorce case from the long primer"
type at the top 70 tho "nonpareil" type
AZ the bottom. and then you ask your
wife if she has read 1t, q. i. i. only a
case Of supply aud demand. News
paper men are not fools They know
what you want and they give it to you.
| believe that if the church and the
world bought nothing but pure. honest,
healthful newspapers. nothing bu: pure.
honest and heAlthful newspapers would
be published. If you should gather Gil
the editors and the reporters of this
country IN one great convention. and
I.r u gf xgt.> -
they would prefer 10 publish. believe
they would unanimously say We
would prefer to publish an elevating
paper So long as there is an iniqui-
tous demand. there will be An iniQui-
tous supply, | make no apology for .
cebauched newspaper, but l Am saying
these things III order to divide the re-
sponsibility between those who print
and those who read
Another temptation Of the newspaper
profession is the great allurement that
surrounds them. Every occupation and
profession has temptations peculiar to
itself, and the newspaper profession
Is not an exception. The great draft.
as YOU know, is on the nervous force and
the brain is rscked. The laundering
political speech must read we'll for the
sake of the party. and so the reporter
or the editor has to make it read well,
although every sentence was q catas-
trophe to the English language. The
reporter must hear all that All inaud-
bic speaker. who thinks it is vulgar to
speak OUT. says. and it must be right
next morning or the next nigh. in the
papers. though the night before the
whole audience sat with its hand be-
hind ITS ear. In vain trying to catch it. !
ihis man must go through killing night
work. he must 60 into heated Assem-
blases and into unvcntilpted audience
rooms that are enough to take the life
ont of him. He must visit court-rooms |
which are almost always disgusting !
with rum and tobacco. He must cx- !
pose himself at the fire. He must
write in tetii alley-wsys. Added TO /
all that. he must have hasty mastica-
tion and irregular habits. To bear up
unier tins tremendous nervous strain |
they are tempted to artificial stimulus,
and how many thousands have gone
down under that pressure God. only /
knows. They must have something TO
counteract the wet. and they must have /
something to keep out the chill. and
after a scant nights sleep, they must |
have something to revive them for the |
morning work. That is what made !
Horace Greeley such a stout temper !
ance man. lie told ne that he had !
seen So many of his comrades 60 down /
under that temptation.