The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-11-20
RepOrtOrial Padding a Potent
Cause of Insanity.
From San Francisco Argonaut.

Cause of Insanity.
From San Francisco Argonaut.
The system of every man
who has brains enough to go crazy is
at the mercy of the daily newspaper.
But the most blood-curdling, soul
soaring, heart-breaking announce
ments of terrible accidents, brutal
murders, fatal casualties, devastating
scourges, and shocking scandals have
no other effect upon his mind than to
tone it up and brace it with double
vigor for the business of the day. 1t
is the intensely anxious but fertile
hunt for ideas in the bewildering
mazes of words, and the constant,
ne~ver-ending disappointment in not
finding them, that drive the eager
reader mad by degrees.
Every morning the well-balanced cit
izen settles himself down to a repast
of breakfast and newspaper. Nine
tenths of his anticipated pleasure is
in his newspaper. He chances over
the attractive captions of the differ
emit editorials, articles, and news items
as a bee hovers and buzzes over the
flowers of a garden. But while the bee
gets at least a taste of honey at ev-
cry dab it makes, the poor reader
vainly lunges his intellectual proboscis
into a thousand deceptive frauds, and
after wearing himself out by persist
ent and frantic efforts to collect a few
IL - - So, N ~ A.1rAh 1,.ao ,sy NY ocfn IF
words, he finally, reluctantly, disgust
eddy, despairingly, and gaspingly
abandons the hunt. Under like cir
cumstances every bee would go star
ing mad and would sting itself to
death.
Sarah Jones, a five-year-old-gir has
fallen out OF a fourth-story window,
and has died of theinjuries sustained.
The sad fact, when brought to the
knowledge ofthereader of adaily morn
ing paper at his breakfast, would have
only the wholesome effect of awaken
ing in his heart a kindly pity for the
unfortunate child; but, as set forth
by the reporter, it will raise in his
breast only the bitterness of impa-
thence, anger, and disgust. The head
ing of the item will be made attractive
and sensational by the liberal use of
large type; the reader will be eager to
ascertain the name of the child and
the result of the accident. Thereport
will commence with the creation of
Adam; it will inform the reader that
Adam was never O. boy--therefore,
much less could he have been a girl
therefore, that an accident like the
above could not have happened in the
Alan family until after at least one
girl had been raised. Then q good
joke about raising Cain. Next, chill
dren, in general-girls in particu-
lar-their nature and peculiarities;
the nature and peculiarities of the
young of other animals. In what
respects the nature, peculiarities, and
habits Of children resemble those OF
the young of other animals. The
initiative faculty of the ape. A dis.
cussion on the Darwinian theory.
Anecdotes OF monkeys; to show how
the initiative faculty breeds trouble al
ways and disaster frequently. A refer
ence to t~heprevailing custom Of China-
men cleaning fourth-story windows,
and thereby increasing danger to life
by standing on the projecting window
sill outside the window. An apropos
and humorous suggestion of Coroner
O'Donnell's probable wishes concern
ing the fate of Cinnamon thus exposed
to danger. A full account of the orr
gin of glass windows and the discovery
of glass. A probable theory OF how
the little girl came to be tempted to
initiate a Chinaman by climbing out Of
the window. Several theories as to
how she became frightened and fell.
And the brilliant article may end with
out either giving the name of the child
or stating the result of the accident.