Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-22
Riches, Culture and Newspapers.
 rFrom the NaH York Sun,1

1 New York correspondent of the Phild6eI- p1li0 IInaes, writing of our newspapers, makes | this sage remark
 ''To make daily paper for rich readers, or even for highly cultured readers, is mis- take. The constituency IS not numerous enough. Besides, rich men have usually nothing to give a newspaper but their sub scriptions. The banks, factories, mines and wholesale houses they own do not advertise. Still more, rich men are usually not intelli- gent out of their own lines of money making. 1 have known many examples of the Croasus type, and can recall but three or four who were generally well informed and could ap- preciate good newspaper. For the most part, the very rich are ignorant, ignoble, sordid, mean spirited fellows"
 We can imagine no one except stupid snob who would undertake ''te make daily paper for rich readers" In the first place, the rich people form 8 small fraction only of any community. Nor, so far as we know, have they any peculiar tastes in the way of newspapers which could be appealed to. Be- cause a man gets rich, that is no reason why he should want different sort of news from that demanded by people less lucky. And what concern is it of a newspaper whether the people who buy it are rich or not Riches to the individual who possesses 1 them are very nice things to have, unless they are held in such shape that the man is distressed by the mere caring for them. Even then they are so tolerable that we do not hear of any capitalists, no matter how hard pressed to get investments for money to their liking, who are disposed to reduce their financial cares by distributing any burden some surplus among their needy friends. They hold on to their assets until death wrenches them from his grasp.
 And what does 8 newspaper want from rich men besides their subscriptions? No man who takes paper is obliged to advertise fvNSk An1 xybr aog of fnr1 fa hRr1r their goods or to employ their labor read the paper, those who do advertise are sat- isfied.
 Nor are all rich men stupid and sordid. It takes, on the average, pretty bright man to get rich. It is true that oftentimes the mere faculty for accumulation is greatly overrated in comparison with others, and that when it is cultivated and developed disproportion- ately, it makes of it's possessor a very unde- sirable being as companion. He may have nothing to say worth listening to, unless he talks shop; and the mercantile habit of reti- cence may make his discourse in that direction utterly uninteresting and valueless. He is apt not to be half as agreeable or half as profitable companion as mechanic, who thinks as he works. There is very little to be got out of him in a social way.
 Still we do not believe there is in New York rich man, who knows how to read at all, who does not read the newspapers. They
 
 people, and perhaps his indifference to all other literature may make him an exception ally industrious newspaper reader. And what everybody else likes to read is what he wants Thers is no such thing as 8 rich mans paper. Nor is rich man any readier than the poor man to pay more than the cur rent price for an article. Ask tradesmen and professional men generally, and they will tell you that the closest buyers and the most dilatory clients in the matter of payments are likely to be rich men.
 The true newspaper is published for every body, rich and poor, good and bad, and men and women of all degrees of intelligence. And the more highly cultured' such 8 pa- per is, in the best and most correct sense, the higher will be the general appreciation of it. The trouble is, vulgar fellows, who know nothing of the tastes and demands of cultivation, may undertake to appeal to what they imagine it to be. They neither satisfy critical requirements nor are they able to deceive the average good sense by their pre- tensions.
 Of course no one but fool would try to make paper for strich readers'' specifically. But it is nonsense to say that journal which suits the highly cultured' must be unsuc- cessful Like good many other people who use that language in these days, the cerre- spondent of the Philadelphia Tunes evident ly does not know what culture is and what it wants, nor can he discover it's indications when they are present. He only knows the slang use of the words.