The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-12-03
The Professional Swagger of News
papers.

The canon Of good breeding which
requires that man shall not celebrate
himself is evidently suspended in the
case of newspapers, which do certainly
blow the most prolonged blasts upon
their own trumpets, and in the most
resonant manner tell listening world
of their enterprise and public spirit,
and their superiority to ali competi-
tors. We learn from the papers them
selves of the immense interest which
their articles awaken, and of the gem
eral recognition of the fact that their
news is fresher and more spicy than
that of any rival, and that the social
or other movement which they have
initiated is proceeding prosperously TO
triumph, and that the president, or the
governor, or congress, has wisely heed
ed the advice which they have given.
The excellent journals attest their own
fidelity to principle and religion, and
give Us their word that they act upon
the highest motives.
Now the boaster, as we have already
seen, may be the hero that he de-
scribes. The Gascons gave their name
to gasconade, but they were doughty
fellows Notwithstanding, and if Pink
ney was solicitious about his frills and
cravats, he was none the less peerless
in debate. The journal which trum-
pets its own energy, enterprise, and
prosperity may be merely telling the
truth; and there is one consideration
which seems to abSolve the proprietor
or the editor aS such from the obliga-
tions of social comfy which rests upon
him as a man. The same person who,
as editor or proprietor, brags and
boasts like q quack doctor or cheap
jack upon the comic stage, shall be in
private intercourse very Mercutio,
the most urbane and modest Of gentle
men. He brags professionally, not
personally. He swaggers and dogma
tizes not as Snug the joiner, but as the
lion, in the play that he has undertake
en- to perform. As your guest he,
would shrink and blush to assert true
ulently that he is superior to anybody
at the table. But as the editor or
proprietor he does not hesitate to an
nounce in the most strident type, so to
speak, that he altogether outstrips all
his comrades of the press.
Why does he do it? Simply because
nobody else will do it for him. 1t is
essential for the success of his Journal
that its character should be known.
But beyond quarrclling with it as an
esteemed contemporary, and compli-
menting it upon new font of type,
one journal takes little notice of an
other. They are rivals, and as their
profits arise largely from the receipts
FOR advertising, they do not advertise
each other for nothing, and conse-
quently each must advertise itself. All
the blowing of the journals trumpet in
honor of its own energy, enterprise,
superiority, etc, ETC., is advertisement.
The brag and boast are merely profess
sional, like the swagger of the actor in
his part; and as the player lays swag-
ger aside with the costume of the char
acter, and appears to you, as he essen
TALLY is, the most quiet and retiring of
men-like the admirable comedian
Finn, for instance, fifty years ago-so
the editor leaves the robes of his fam
ing self-puffcry behind him in his Of
fee, and emerges the most genial and
simple Of men.
1t is plainly as unjust, therefore, to
suppose that the editor who celebrates
his paper so eXuberantly is the most
ridiculousiy conceited and ill-mannered
OF men as to suppose that, because Mr..
Jefferson is Rip Van Winkie upon the
stage, he is constantly sitting about
upon tables in private life, and drink
ing your health and your family's in
ever-renewed bumpers. = Ge0Tge UIU-
aa1l CltrtiS. tlg AGrper'S Magazine for
y AOUent6er.