The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1885-02-07
nur NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

lam grieyed beyond measure to know
that even one honorable member OF our
honorable Legislature is displeased win
one newspapers manner OF reporting
legislative proceedings in general and the
mart played therein by the said honorable
member in particular. My life employ
ment MS mere philosopher removes me
perhaps from active sympathy with the
renortcrs-tllc worlds most important and
most seyerely criticised historians, for they
write the history Of to-day for to-day.
Sa;,I,or have had time or inclination TO
JShhlc in the turbid pool OF politics. II
am ANYTHING worth being ain
cIoseIv oLseryant. Out OF the iullnesS
oTo carried observation have determined
that II nv country shall ever call me 70
anv nnblic service, however high or how
a as Hn,nhte. / will avoid riot with the
reporters. should have motold oEea5
that in cold.blooded revenge they S9uaa
lei mo sternly but politely alone, unless,
indeed, it were to please them 70 lay my
bare before the world lust IS happeheu
to be, not as / might desire TO seem.
Either horn is uncomfortable Tor q puoiic
man IL ait on. Tiiopublic man shows to
the hest advantage in leDgtbened per,
snect;ve. and the best Of him might recoil
from being placed under q microscope; not
that "thcfe is no healthin him. but thas
he Is human.
Sometime ego member Of the Austrian
p..,,.,o,,. oom,lained that his speech
had not been fairly reported ina certain
newspaper OF Vienna, and suggested that
the Offending reporter DO denied TIE
privilege OF tho chamber. The whole
nrood Of Parliamentary reporters took up
tho cudeels and--wllat do you think they
did? They let tie Austrian Parliament
coldIy and calinly alone; and to this day,
/ believe, none OF the speeches oil that
body are reported. Herr sGhweineke-
heinekereinz may deliver the great
eat effort OF his liie;" Herr
Pooplesocks may work of an
Grafton that would pickle Cicero green
with enyy-it is all the same. The orr
cles are dumb. The other day there was
complaint in the Pennsylvania Legisla.
tire. as in our own. Somebody suggested
that reporters WeIc plS9StN ~ ''S $3.50
tesy OF the Senate"-or perhaps 1t was
the House. A clever rascal representing
Philadelphia newspaper filed his protest
against that doctrine by saying In ms dls,
patch that certain member consumed
TWENTY-FIVE minutes in speech when ne,
that is TO say the reporter, condensed into
three lines OF exclamation points, asterisks,
interrogations, daggers and that sort oil
thing.
Does any aspiring statesman think Of q
worse state Of affairs than this? How IS
lie 10 win s.the bubble reputation" II he is
10 be cut of in this way like q quarter OF
ward OF six cent calico? He knows I'M
der his waistcoat that he would rather
suffer any wrong than the torture OF per-
sistent neglect. So eminent a man as
Nice President Colfax ran 4 tilt with the
Knights OF Newspaper Row in Washing
ton, The correspondents did not neglect
Mr.. Colfax. They merely banded togett-
ar formed in line OF battle at the Phila-
loIphia convention OF 1877, and prevented
his denomination on the Grant ticket.
FINALLY they drove him from public life
and made him wanderer on the face OF
me billboard and the lecture platform.
Is there anybody in the West. Virginia
Legislature who desires TO try his hand at
grubbing a living out OF the lecture tleldr
K.
Go slow with tho reporters. They draw
large salaries but are not proud. They
would rather salve wound than saw a
lep of. In the nature of their employ.
ment thew cannot be hero-worshipers; and
indeed any century producestew heroes to
be worshipped. They arc not more inial-
liblc than men in public life, but they
serve a more expcctant constituency, are
more directly personally responsible"
and make fewer mistakes. al! experience
teaches that they cannot make q great
man out Of inferior timber. The reporter
plays star part in our ciyiliza-
lion. He writes the most readable
things that come from the preas-the
author and theeditor are commonplace in
comparison. Reportersdo notlack courage
or the spirit OF adventure. They suffer in
the Artics and die in equatorial climes;
they are knocked down in riots, and inthe
far.away soudan within month three Of
them have died in battle. All this is to
say that the reporter is a very good fellow
in his place, and 60 Is an honorable mem
Der OF an honorable legislative body.
X
A friend tells mo this little story: He
nka.n aOH tTtutisuA fnF