The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-06-11
DEVOTION OF JOURNALISTS.

DEVOTION OF JOURNALISTS.
Tacoma, Washington Territory Ledg-
er, May %: While newspaper men, as Q |
class, have just cause to complain of the
Sights of fortune visited upon nearly siI
of them, their chief grievance. after all,
Is lack of appreciation, and the black in
gratitude manifested towards them by
communities, which they have erected
and maintained as no other human
agency could. It is too late TO deny the
power of the press, as the architect and
builder of ali kinds of enterprises, COM
msrcial, intellectual and municipal. ats
past, at least, is secure" and to even dis
cuss its utility and indispensable aid. is
to elicit ridicule. The publisher plods
along, as best he may, with very little
sympathy or assistance even from the
constituency he represents. Disappoint-
ments and reverses are always ungrudg-
Inglyh is, while the creations Of trade and
barter OF young cities and improved so
cial life, which spring up, measurably
through his activity and encouragement,
are usually too selfish and Ihankless to
modestiy share with him some of the
fruits which they unstlntedly enjoy by
reason of his prescience, industry and
self-sacriflce. Not the bests of the field
alone should the Maintain harp apply
the epigFam, sic Vos non vobis. 1t be-
longs peculiarly, and by all right, to the
craft Of publishers, and should they eyer
seek crest and legend in the hersld's col
lege, cross with this inscription should
be the design 70 do poetic justice to
these craftsmen.
A most striking example of the self
devotion of the publisher of q journal
followed, of course, by an utter want OF
appreciation and sympathy, is witnessed
in the case of Major Burke, director
general of the New Orleans exposition.
For many years since the war, as chief
editor and proprietor of the New Or
leans Times-Democrat, he has DEVOTED
his time and unusually tine abilities to
the success of this Journal, and TO the
mercantile reconstruction and prosper
ity of his city. He has succeeded IN
both. The war had crippled every in
dustry in the Crescent city, and corrupt
local government under the lead of both
political parties had almost paralyZed
trade. Major Burke rallied the mer-
chants when dependency had seized
them, and wrote vigorously and plead
earnestly for LOuIsiana's awakening.
He encouraged immigration, worked in
season and out of season for the appro-
priation aiding Captain Eads and his
jetties where the Mississippi pours its
rash, tumultuous tribute into the Gull
of Mexico, and thus opened New Or
leans to the commerce Of the world. At
periods. only too frequently, the M;ssis-
sippi and the Red river eXcavate the
vast alluVial bottom lands OF the south
ern states, peculiarly Louisians, when
flood and storm sweep away cities and
villages and plantations, destroying life
and property, and leaving behind IN its
fertile Ooze a sufficient supply of
malaria to- stock that region with a
surfeit of yellow lever. To build
levees and fight back these tor
rents, and acquire safety for the future,
no gentleman OF the south has done more
through his influential newspaper and
by personal solicitation before congress
sional committees than MIR. Burke. De-
sirous of making better known the city
of his favor and signal devotion, he was
among the first to agitate the importance
and advantages of holding universal
exposition there. Congress first appro-
prlated q round million for this enter
prise, and day alter day when the work
began, with Major Burke as director
general, the world could see growing
there one OF the most marvellous fairs of
modern times. Refusing all compe nsa-
ton for his services, Maj. Burke threw
himself into the work, and showed
what the young south could accom-
pllsh. Financial misfortunes overlook
the work, against which 1t was i'm
possible either to calculate or defend,
and here 1t is that was exhibited the un-
selfish character of this gentleman, for
upon the altar of his city's pride and in
tegrity he pledged his own and his wite's
fortune to pay some of the pressing liza
bilities of the exposition and keep its
doors open to visitors from every cline.
Another appeal was made to congress
for help, and not in vain, tor this per-
sistent, self sacrificing Journalist had ex-
hausted every argument and invoked aid
from every official quarter to secure it.
While carrying on his shoulders these
Atlas burdens of care and responsibility,
his hair has bleached, and the SHOWS of
old men, twenty years his senior, have
fallen on him, like civic honors by which
nature would fain distinguish and pro-
ole him xyannrah1a With
of 100000 ingulfed in his zeal for New
Orleans. its citizens haye not only not
taken any steps to even partially reim-
burse him, but they have had the braZen
Impudence to seek to e.elect him direc-
tor general of the expedition, and con-
tinue Its career for another year. This
Major Burke has sensibly declined.
We know OF few instances in all his
tory of such unselfish devotion of ones
city. We naturally joy in the fact that
Maj. Burke is journalist and that his
public spirited, enterprising conduct re-
fleets fresh lustre on the newspaper fra
ternity, on that vast army of i'll paid,
patient, struggling and always enthusias-
tic publishers, found in every country
Office unde: our flag where commerce
seeks hospitality, where intelligence
needs an advocate, good moral friend,
the public schools an ally, and progress
never discouraged champion. Cheerily,
day IN and day out, and from week To
week, they steadfastly work, as we have
known many of them to do, building up
the community around them, inviting
immigration and capital Where others
are lost in dependency, they are gener-
GUS with their enthusiasm, when if their
own private cash account, and even
their family larder were consulted, they
could in verify exclaim.
Little they know who delight III the strain,
How the heart of the minstrel is breaking"
Time at last vIndicates their judg-
ment and "sets all things eVen," except
tor them. Fruit from the tree they have
planted falls ripe in other laps, not into
theirs. 4 teemlng city covers what was
prairie upland when Vol. 1, No. OF
their Gazette, Times or Herald was car
ried to a score or two of dwellings on
the main street" by vigorous STRIPPING
brimfull of hope and vim, who was his
OVID editor, composition, pressman and
carrier. He is an old man now wearing
out his eyes perhaps as proofreader or
the very paper he established; rich only
ia "reminiscences, or in the memory of the
sacrifices made for others. This is
strange world, my master, and this topic
sets one to bordering; not so much on
the gratitude OF the masses, but on the
incOmprehensibly stubborn question,
why this ingratitude should concentrate
its unnatural strings on only one class,
and that class the newspaper craft,
whose bounty was once the fruitful
womb, wherein took lie the future bust
ness successes, political triumphs or CIVIC
advancement of many of its thankless
offspring
Fatal Shooting.
New York, June g. Benjsmine Hop
kins, q saloon keeper, attempted TO muir
der his mistress at 10 O'Clock this morn
fnr ua raeidad NJ 0OR Eopr4h avapua