The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-10-10
NEWSPAPER READERS.

something in the paper, and wandering up
and down the columns in distracted and
weak-minded sort of a way, looking for the
theatrical advertisements among the births,
deaths and marriages, or getting lost among
the mazes of the Stock Exchange. Down
in the remote country villages reading the
paper is not a thing to be done with levity.
| The village politician would wonder at the
extravaganza of your town young gentle
man, who skips into the train at King s
Cross with an armful of papers, which he
has picked all the news out of long before
lac gets to Moorgate street. All he wants
to know he knows by that time, and he
leaves the paper for the benefit of the rail-
way porters, who are themselves rapacious
newspaper readers in those brief moments
which are ironically known as their spare
time" Now, in the country the paper is
valuable possession, treated with cere-
mony. and lent from one to the other, and
every atom Of news in it is discussed aud
debated again and again. Not until his
work is done does the old laborer look at
the paper: it is when the heat of the day is
over, and the sun is well nigh setting, that
the old man asks for his spectacles to be
reached down to him, and takes up his pa
per and his pipe, and sits in the chimney
corner in winter, or at the lattice window
in summer, laboriously spelling out tine
news. chuckling now and again if the paper
is lively, taking few more whiffs of the
pipe or pulls at the ale if the paper is dull.
Light articles he does not care much about,
and he is somewhat irate when in spring.
time he finds the paper filled up with
''writing about pictures and such like rub
bish:'' but politics are the love of his heart
and he knows as much about the interior
workings of Mr.. Gladstone's mind as his
forefathers used to know about the machin-
atoms of the Pope.
Given railway carriage full of people,
all reading the papers, it does not need the
eye of a magician to tell at once what part
of the paper they will turn to first. That
smart-looking. neatly-dressed young man
in the corner, with the square jaw and the
observant eye, viii look straight at the news
of the Stock Exchange, which is TO him
the Alpha and Omega of life. Let the
greatest national calamity have happened.
the most fearful catastrophe have occurred.
and my gentleman will pass it over until
he has noted the gyrations of the bulls and
bears of that mysterious region. Next to
him sits a careless-looking prosperous man
with sheaf of papers in his hand, any and
every kind. he does not seem to have any
strong predictions whatever. He is turn
ing straight to the amusing parts of the pa
per. and Swimming the social articles
through When he has got to the bottom
of the page. if the social article turns over.
it is nine chances to one whether he will
take the trouble to cut or turn the leaf for
the sake of continuing the article. OPP
posite to him sits a grim female in a coal
scuttle bonnet, also reading paper-not
in the desultory way of her neighbor, but
with an immense intentness. Sheis reading
the Murders Innocent. As she looks, she
revels in the details of the escapes and APP
prehensions of the various delinquents,
and her mind is perfect Newgate Calendar
or chronicle of past crimes.
Next to her sits pretty girl, in neat
sensible dress. with little bag of papers
with her. and rather business-like APP
pearance. The people in the train know her
well by sight for she comes uplike the city
man, by particular train every morning.
She is a lady clerk at one of the town offices,
and so punctual and so regulars her ways,
that the city clerk, up late last night, and
flying rapidly up the Strand, knows by the
exact place where he meets this girl in the
morning whether he is in time or not If
he espies her as he goes by Holborn Via
duct. he knows it is all right; but if he
to Cheapside. he knows there will be an
awful row at the Office. This dainty little
lady. with her dark brows slightly knit, is
opening her daily paper in very business
like manner, and turns straight to a lengthy
article ON Woman Suffrage. She is evil
IDENTIFY somewhat advanced in her ideas, yet
not deeply, darkly, beautifully blue. She
prepares to immerse herself in the lengthy
column, when suddenly fashion article
catches her eye. Her expression at this
moment is good to see; she looks irresolute-
" from one to the other--and the woman
who hesitates is lost. She is only human,
after all: she will read the suffrage article
afterward, but ten to one she will read the
fashion article first.
We began by CHASING man as an animal
who reads the paper. We might Tow sub
divide him into two classes-the man who
reads his paper in the train and the man
who reads his paper at home. The man
who ''reads as he runs is generally a bach
elor. to whom it would never occur to
order in paper in regular manner: he
prefers to buy heap AS he goes, and fling
them aside for the benefit of the railway
porters. Reading the paper at home means
getting up to breakfast and having every
thing orderly and regular. Some men are
perfect autocrats in the matter of the pa
per. They like to find ii neatly folded be-
side their plate at breakfast, and woe to
the irreverent member Of the family who
should venture to look at it before papa
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