Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-12
THE LAST STRAW.

swer for. Its power is said to have ex-
erted baneful influence upon oratory,
for the speaker now addresses rather the
reporter than the audience. The decs-
dence of attendance upon pulpit oratory
is especially charged to the press, because
people have come TO prefer the Monday
morning resume of the sermon. Legisla.
tive brilliancy is said to have been eclipsed
in like manner. Thorough reading has
declined, it is alleged, 10y reason of the
immense amount of random reading
matter presented through the columns
of the press, and which largely
satisfies the public demand. Supericiality
increases, it is asserted, because the people
are content with the historical, scientific,
and other information thrown to them in
scraps by the same agency. Looseness OF,
thought and expression are encouraged, be-
cause OF the like evil that mars the es.
cutcheon of the modern press in short, a
column catalogue might be compiled, brist-
ling with grave charges against that public
offender, the press charges full of sadness,
and as mournful as marble angel weep
ing over the shattered column of disap-
pointed hopes in the most dismal and dole
full of rural cemeteries. But all these
things the press, conscious of the rectitude
of its course, could have borne all these
indictments it might have pleaded to with
unblushing front and the courage born of
innocence. But it was found unprepared
for the latest and most cruel charge of all,
and before that it bows its shamed head
in humiliation, for we have it on the au.
thority of the grave and sedate Nation
that the decline of the circus is due to the
power of the press.
Indeed, this is too much. Nothing
under the sun, we believe, could induce
the true journalist to impede the circus
car of progress. We would not handicap
it by q feathers weight. 1t is the one re.
naming relic that still links the conten.
tious present with the peaceful memories
of the past, and makes the men of to. day,
for q brief hour or two, the boys of the
departed yesterdays Certainly, and with.
out reservation, we are the friend of the
circus, the next friend of all its charms
the silent approver of it's wondrous oontor-
ton Of the truth upon dead walls and
fences. We admire, above all other things,
the supreme audacity and marvellous cour-
age Of its best man-its agent, sent out as
a forerunner to handle the "press fellows"
or muzzle them, if need be. There is
delicious aroma of the good old past linger.
ing about the circus stretch of canvas, the
boxy wagons, the gaudy band. chariot, and
the side shows, with their stoutIuuged
orators who proclaim the attractiveness of
the fat woman and the living skeleton
the wonders Of the interminably entwined
anaconda, and the awful coils of
the deadly boa. We confess to
fondaess for the folly of the ring,
the glitter of the spangles beneath the
half light of the cavernous space aloft
the aerial flights of gossamer clad fairies,
and the wondrous feats of the modern
Hercules. In common with an appre-
ciative public we endure martyrdom upon
hard and backless benches, lost in an
ecstacy of retrospection, as through the
present medium of the senses the mind
turns backward to the good old days when
the hight of cunning achievement was to
effect an entrance beneath the dusty and
corded canvas, to the discontinue of the
callous. hearted wretch at that sinuous pas
sage, beyond which were hidden from i'm.
pecunious mortals the mysteries of "the
show"
With all these considerations in view,
We fondly believed the press had not inter.
fered with the circus-that this one house
of refuge bore none of its impious finger.
marks upon its lintels. But here comes
the critic already named, and charges that
the SAVIOR of the old.time circus has de.
parted, and, among other causes, says:
The part taken in the performance by the clown
Is much less attractive than it formerly was owing
to the fact that q great deal Of the talent which
once found its way into this business goes into
journalism, the mental outfit Of really able funny
man" being very much what that of successful
clown used 70 be. The press makes business of
supplying daily Just such jokes the circus used to
provide, and ambitious humorists, who would
formerly have worn stripes and spangles In the
ring. now entertain the public through . news
paper.
Really, now, this bit Of incisive wit is
two-edged, falling frst upon the hspless
crowns of the press-wite, adding one
more count to the ponderous indictment,
and descending with crushing force like
wise upon the wags of the ring, by the as
sumption that the vocation of public fool
has been successfully usurped. Alas for
this last straw to break tie back of the