, 1886-04-18

go into the meat market Of a foreign city,
and | find that the butchers hang up on the
most conspicuous hooks meat that Is tainted,
while the meat that il fresh and savory is put
away without any especial care. Icome to the
conclusion that the people OF that city love
tainted meat You Know very well that II
tho great mass OF people in this country get
hold Of a and there are in it no
runaway matches, no broken-up families. no
defamation OF men in high position. they pro
nounce the paper insipid- They say, at is
shockingiy dull tonight" | bolicve it is one
OF the trials OF the newspaper press that the
people OF this country demand moral slush
instead Of healthy, intellectual food. Now, you
are a respectable man, an intelligent man, and
a paper comes into your hand. You open It,
and there are three columns OF s~plendidly
written editorial. recommending some moral
sentiment, or evolving some scientific theory.
In the next column there is a miserable, con-
temptible divorce case. Which do you read
firsti You dip into the editorial long enough
to say: well, that's very ably written, . and
you read the divorce case from the long
primer" type at the top to the ~''nonpareil'
type at the bottom. and then you ask your
wife II she has read It'll o, II Is only a case
OF supply and demand. Newspaper MEN
are not fools. They know what you
want, and they give 1t to you l believe that
If the church and the world bought nothing
but pure, honest, healthful newspaper,
nothing but pure. honest and healthful news
papers would be published. II you should
gather all the editors and the reporters of
this country in one great convention and
then ask Of them what kind OF a paper they
would prefer to publish, l believe they would
unanimously say: w would prefer to pub
hsh an elevating paper" SO long as there Is
nm t,t...tfA... ~..l -. Iii l. -.
iniquitous supply. / make no apology for a
debauched newspaper, but i am saying these
things in order to divide the responsibility
between those that print and those who read.
Another temptation OF the newspaper pro
fession is the great allurement that surrounds
them Every occupation and profession has
temptations peculiar to itself, and the news
paper profession is not an exception The
great draught, MS you know. is on the nervous
forces, and the brain is racked The blunder-
ing political speech must read well for the
sake Of the party, and so the reporter, or the
editor, has to make it read well, although
every sentence was a catastrophe to the
English language. The reporter must hear all
that an inaudible speaker, who thinks 1t is
vulgar to speak out, says; and 1t must be right
the next morning or the next night in the
papers, though the night before the whole
e1A~h 80 WIN IS AAAAAAa nm 10 cur LII
VAN trying to catch it. This man must go
through killing night work. He must go into
heated a~ssemblages and into unventilated
audience rooms that are enough to take the
life out OF him He must visit court rooms,
which are almost always disgusting with
rum and tobacco. He must expose himself
at the fire. He must write in fptid
alleywayS Added to all that be must
have hasty mastication and irregular
habits To bear up under this tremendous
nervous strain, they are tempted to artificial
stimulus, and how many thousands nave
gone down under that pressure, God only
knows. They must have something to coun-
teract tho wet, they must have something to
keep out the chill, and after a scant nights
sleep they must ave something to revive
them for the mornings work. This is what
made Horace Greeley such a stout temper
ance man. He told me that he had seen
so many Of his comrades go down
under that temptation. o, my brother
OF the newspaper profession, what you
cannot do without artificial stimulus, God
does not want you TO do. There is no half
way ground for our literary people between
tsetotalism and dissipation Your profess
sional success, your domestic peace, your
eternal salvation, will depend upon your
theories in regard to artificial stimulus. /
have had so many friends go down under the
temptation, their brilliancy quenched, their
homes blnsted. that | cry out this morning,
in the words Of another: Look not upon the
wine when 1t Is red, when it moveth itself
Alright in the cup, for at the last 1t bit til like
a serpent and it stingeth like an adder"
Another trial of this profession. is the fhct
that no one seems to care for their souls
They feel bitterly about 1t, though they
laugh. People sometimes laugh the loudest
when they feel the worst They are expected
10 gather up religious proceedings, and to
discuss religious doctrines In the editorial
columns, but who expects them to be saved
by the sermons they photograph, or by the
doctrines they discuss in the editorial col
umnsi The world looks upon them as pro
fessicnal Who breaches to reporters ana
editorsf Some of them came from religious
homes, and when they left the parental roof,
however regarded or disregarded, they come
of with a fathers benediction and a mothers
prayer. They never think of those good
old times but tears come into their eyes, and
they move around this great, roaring metrop-
oils homesick- o, IL they only knew what
a helpful thing it is for a man to put his
weary head down on the bosom OF a sympa-
thetic Christi He knows how nervous and
tired you are. He has a heart large enough
to take in all your interests for this world
and the next o, men OF newspaper press,
you sometimes get sick OF this world, it
seems so hollow and unsatisfying. II there
are any people in all the earth that need
God. you are the men, and you shall have
him, If only this day you implore his mercy.
A man was found at the foot of Canal
street. As they picked him up from the
water and brought him to the morgue they
saw by the contour of his forehead that he
had great mental capacity. He had entered
the newspaper profession He had gone
down in health He took to artificial stimu-
luz. He went down further and further.
until one summe day, hot and hungry and
sick and in despair, he flung himself of the
dock. They found in his pocket a re-
porter's pad, a lead pencil, a photograph
Of some one who had loved MIN long ago.
Death, as sometimes it will, smoothed
out all the wrinkles that had gathered pro-
maturely on his brow, and as he lay there
his face was as fair as when seven years ago
he left his country home, and they babe him
good-by forever. The world looks through
the window Of the morgue, and says: Its
nothing but an outcast;' but God says it was
a gigantic soul that persisted, because the
world gave him nc chance
Let no ask all men connected with the
printing press hat they help us more and
more in the effort to make the world better.
l charge you in the name OF God, before
whom you must account for the tremendous
influence you hold In this country, to conse-
crate yourselves to higher cndeavors. You
are the men to fight back this invasion OF
corrupt literaturs Lift up your right
hand and swear new allegiance to the
cause Of philanthropy and religion
And when, at last, standing on the
plains OF Judgment, you look out upon the
unnnmb throngs over whom you have
had influence, may II be found that you were
among the mightiest energies that lifted men
upon the exalted pathway that leads to the
renown OF heaven Better than To have sat
in editorial chair, from which, with the
finger OF tvpa You declded TIA destini,. If