The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-06-12
MISCELLAN EOUS.
THE RURAL JOURNALIST.
A. Drawn by FIT. Cooper. Esq.

THE RURAL JOURNALISTS
As Drawn by r. Il. Cooper, Esq.
In his Temperance Address at Raymond
our friend and contemporary, F. 7. Cooper,
Esq, essayed to draw the picture Of the coun-
try editor and to point out some Of the glorles,
trials and tribulations which properly attach
to him. The speaker claims to have some IA
miliarity with the subject and to know the
nature Of him. In previous effort at Jackson
he sketched the New Orleans Bar Keeper, and
dwelt touchingly upon the pleasant relations
which have always existed between him and
his friends the saloon men. What connection
the country editor has TO whisky are hardly
able to see, but we presume his introduction
here is subtle attempt the part of the
lecturer to bring out the best illustration he
could think of without letting anybody else
into the mystery.
Notwithstanding his familiarity with the
subject. our cCHtTere seemed to approach il
with difidence. Il have never. said be, de
Hberately and with malice aforethought, set
myself up as a speech-maker. My life for the
most part has been spent in a printing office.
have sought fortune and fame upon the Edi-
toTIaI Tripod, nd so far / have accidentally
missed both. 1t is true that in the checkered
course of my career have upon a few occa-
sI0ns been drawn out to speak to the people;
but never made an effort OF the kind without
feeling ike the Rev Mr.. Jonah did when he
made his voyage to Tarshish in the whale
dug out, rather embarrassed and not n my
proper element. | have never been overcome
with enthusiasm at the idea that there slum-
bered in me a Mount Etna of eloquence ready
on the first fair opportunity TO burst out and
electrIfy the world. And If these distinguished
gentlemen of your town who have got me
fi,yv harA inf fol-o f,r
azine of Oratory, always prepared for cxplo-
sion or a Chicago bank ready to go off at a
moments warning, they make appalling
mistake.
THE EDITOR.
| wish to De understood before l proceed
further that ! am not oratorical bombsheu
nor an American Savings Institution Guer-
rilla. | simply harmless newspaper
man, and you all know what that is. l am
one of a class of men who hold themselves
aloof from the contamination of bank stocks
and out Of the reach CT financial panics. We
newspaper men are supposed to live on glory
for the most part, and l am sorry that the
truth cOmpels me to say that many of us have
little else than glory to live upon, and a very
poor article of glory at that Your regular
newspaper man Is thought to be a kind of airy
ubiquity. He is expected to be everywhere
and TO have something 10 say about every
thing at the same time, If he don't do this
. .alls below his mission and ought to sell
out to somebody who can. He must have the
compass at once, and the hundred hands of
Briareus to strike OUT simultaneously all crea-
ton. He must spread himselfOut on theology,
temperance, fine arts, war, song and poetry.
He must iook after local matters and comment
upon his neighbOrs crop and everything else
that IS interesting to his neighbor not omit
ting his neighbor house, nor his wife, nor his
servant, nor his maid, nor his OK, nor his
mule, nor anything that Is his.
Importance is attached to the country edi-
tor not so much on account of his intrinsic
worth account of the fact that he Yields
few fonts of
MAGICAL TYPES
which are symbols of power and influence
whatever may be thought of their manipula-
tor. But how he lives, what sort of meat
he feeds on, ire matters about which the pub
lie hecd is not much disturbed. So that he
does live-so that he is on hand wheu wanted
and viii say clever things when required
THIS is enough for the public. They don
care to penetrate the sanctUaa sancto1uu of his
private life, and find out exactly how he man
ufactures his thunder. They are not likely to
connect with his business a bread and meat
diagnosis If he wakes fat this kind of
pabulum it is well. Thew are generally glad
Of 1t But If he grows lean and lank, like
Caius Cassius, and longs for more nutritious
diet, if he shows signs of general evaporation
into thin nothingness, this same public are
apt to consider that he is out of his sphere, |
snd don't clearly appreciate the dignity of his
calling.
AS neutralizer of spontaneous impiety. |
and As protecting bTeakWater to other in |
situations against promiscuous swearing,
and as the preserver of the moral status of
the community, the country press ought to
be ostered and encouraged.
1t can stand more cusslng with less harm, |
than anything else | know of. | knew a
man once who was gifted with more than
ordinary capacity in this department of
popular bellies letters, who undertook to do |
justice t. the case There was a paper
which had been coming to him with dis
tressing regularity for six years. He had
been patronizing it all that time and never
had paid a cent Tor it. He had been eXer- |
cising his skill on it at intervals and keep |
ing himself in practice during this whole |
period of six years. 1t had served to absorb |
all the wicked expletives he had in him. and
to give him truly pious tendency to treat |
all other subjects in the spirit of christian
resignation. Atlength, however, the pub
Usher brought prominently to his no.
tce the mmaterial fact of his arrears for
six years, This piece of impertinence I'M
locked the flood 9 ates of his vocabulary
He set himself to the work with foaming
enthusiasm. And he made a success of it. |
He cusSed that paper-he cussed it blue. |
He held it up between his thumb and fin |
ger and poured out a whole canister of i'm
pious grape upon the editorial paragraphs.
He turned loose an unorthOdOy volley of
heavy COlumbiads at its stale Jokes and in
sipid poetry. He turned it over and, mass
ing his forces, gave its patent outside broad |
side after brOadside from the Devils I'm |
abridged Dictionary; until rising to the
grand climax of the great occasion, he tore
the paper into a thousand shreds threw il
out of the window. and fell exhausted. 1t
was powerful effort, but it christianZed
him. By and by he was a changed man.
He said the job was too big for him--he |
couldn't do it justice-and meant to give up
in disgust the whole business of swearing. |
The man was reformed, and he owed his re- |
formation to that newspaper. Will any
man say after this that newspapers are not
great moral reformers? | thought the
paper was cussed to death, but it wasn't |
phaZed. 1t went on just the same as ever
if not with a little more sameness than
ever. From all of which L draw the infer |
ence that weekly newspaper cannot be |
killed by the simple act Of cussing, how
ever much practice a man may have in it |
or however skillfully it may be administer |
ed.
But my friends, there is a bright spot |
even in the journalistic oasis. 1t would be |
hardly fair to consign us to perpetual |
drudgery and give us no chicken pie, no |
sunshine and no flowers With us news |
paper men it is regarded as a peculiarly |
lucky circumstance to have our sayings |
caught up and reproduced in other jour |
mails. or pasted in somebody's scrap book, or /
stored away in the memory to be quoted |
upon future occasions. And consider
THEvAsT UTILITY
of the country press as a universal recep-
tacle for the eXuberant profanity of the
country, In this respect it operates as a |
sort OF safety-valve for public morals. If |
the average newspaper reader aud critic,
after having spent an hour in perusing his
weekly, was not abieto throw it down con-
temptuously and to say, Dash this mis-
cradle sheet! There isn't derned thing in
it!'-there is no telling what direction his
irregular excitement might take. 1t might
force aim to exercise his powers upon the
Legislature, or upon Congress, or upon a
fashionable saloon, and thus compromise
the religious standing OF those high places.
" SPEAKER Corn of the Arkansas
I .eniSl att1ra l. n1,itn donf Aon.L: |