Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1885-09-24
REMINISCENT.
Bill Nye's Recent Address to the
Wisconsin Press Association.

am sure that when You so kindly in.
vited me to address you to-day. YOU did
not anticipate lavish display of geniu:
anu gestures l accepted the invitation
because 1t afforded me an opportunity
10 meet .you and to get acquainted with
YOU and tell you personally that for
years l have been a constant reader OF
your valuable paper and like it. You
are running it just as / like to see a
newspaper run.
need not elaborate upon the Won
derful growth of the press in our coun-
try, or refer to the great power which
journalism wields in the development
OF the new world. need not ladle out
statistics to show you how the newspa-
per has encroached upon the field of
oratory and how the pale and silent
man, while others sleep, complies the
universal history of day and tells his
mighty audience what he thinks about
II before he goes to bed.
OF course, this is but the opinion of
one man. out who has better oppor-
tunity to Judge than he who sits with
BIS lihger on the electric pulse of the
world, Judging the actions of humanity
ut SO much per Judge, invariably in adj
Vince?
1 need not tell YOU all this, for YOU
certainly know it if YOU read your pa
per- ard hope YOU do. A man ought
L" read his own paper, even if he can
NOT lndorse all its sentiments
80 naapc.o,,- boc <b,
Journalism become to the progress and
education OF our country that the mat
ter of establishing schools where Young
men may be fitted for an active news
paper life, has attracted much attention
ana discussion. 1t has been demon
s'rated that our colleges do not fit a
young man to walk at once into the
acuve management of paper. He
shCOld at least know the difference be-
tween vile contemporary and Gothic
scoop.
1t is difficult to map out proper
course for the student in school of
journalism, there are so many things
connected with the profession which the
editor and his staff should know, and
know hard. The newspaper of to-day
IS library. 1t is an encyclopedias, a
poem, biography, a history, a proph-
ecy. a directory, timetable. n ro-
nance. a cook book, guide, horo-
scope, an art critic, a political resume,
a muItunn IN parr0. 1t is a sermon, a
song, circus, an obituary. a picnic. a
shipwreck, a symphony in solid BREWER
a medley of life and death, a grand
aggregation of mans glory and his
shame. 1t is, in short, bird s-eye
view of all the magnanimity and mean
ness, the joys and griefs, the births and
deaths, the pride and poverty, of the
world, and all for two cents-some-
times,
l could tell some more things that the
newspaper of to-day is if you had time
to stay here and your business would
not suffer in your absence. Among
Others it is 4 long-felt want, nine-col-
umn paper in tive-column town, a w.
ing sheet, a feeble effort, a financial
problem. a tottering wreck, political
tool and sheriff's sale.
If were to suggest curriculum
for the young man who wished to take
a regular course in school of Journal
ism, preferring that to the actual ex-
periencc, IwoUld say to him. devote
the first two years to meditation and
prayer. This will prepare the young
editor for the surprise and consequent
temptation to profanity which in few
years he may experience when he finds
that the name of the Deity in his double
loaded editorial is spelled with little
''g," and the peroration of the article
is locked up between death notice and
the advertisement of a patent NOUS
tache coaNer which is to follow pure
reading matter every day in the week
and occupy the top of column on Sum
dav If.
The ensuing five years should be de-
voted to the peculiar photography of the
English language.
Then put in three years with the
dumb bells, sand bags, slung shots and
tomahawk. La my own journalistic ex-
perience l have found more cause for
regret over my neglect of this branch
than ANYTHING else 1 usually keep on
my desk during heated campaign,
large paper weight, weighing three or
four pounds, and ia several Instances
have found that l could feed that TO
constant reader of my valuable paper
instead of a retraction.
Fewer people lick the editor, though,
now, than did so in years gone by.
Many people in the last two years
have gone across the street to lick the
editor and never returned. They in