Nevada County picayune., 1886-05-26

heaI!sick, by the dim light of a nickering gas jet, with never q word of praise or sppreciatloa? Ii q proof reader, has not been show cred upon your head?
 "One of the greatest trials Of q news paper mans life arises from the fact that all the shams Of the world make ths newspaper ollice their Customary stamping ground. Cranka of all shades and types congregate there and harass the weary toilers with their senseless rawlings. Dumb meanness is there too, which wants to get its wares praised in the editorial column and thus escape paying for an adver- tisement. Crack brained, addle- pated philosophers file in, with with stories as long as their hair and as gloomy as their finger nails. People wonder that news paper men are irreligicuS; but for my part 1 wonder that a ncwspa- per man, confronted as he is, day by day, with the pettiness, the fol- ly of mankind, belie'e es in any thing, Were it not for tho early training at his mothers knee out o,a the farm, lessons which can never be entirely ctiaced, he would cease believing altogether.
 "The most crying injustice which a newspaper man has to contend against is inadequate compensa. ton. Newspapers have gone down in price. Formerly they cost five cents, then four, then three, then two. and finally one, and there are some who would like to sec the price down to half q cent. From the days of Grubb street down to to-day literary toll has never been properly appreciated or numer- ated. Oliver Goldsmith sat on the window sill when his friends visit ed him, because his garret con tsined but one chair. Do Foe
 wrote 2lS volumes. hut. died in abiect penery. Tho clothes of the
 great Johnson were so shabby
 that he could not sit at same table
 with his noble friends, 80 he ate
 his dinner behind n screen and
 listened to them praise his works
 Butler. who threw the world iutc fit of laughter with his Hudibras died for lack of d crust! Nopews
 paper should be printed and sold , for less than five cents a copy, ano vet when reduced to three, mer
 grumble and say: "Can't you mako
 it two?" And so the reduction il made and the mill grinds merrily
 on, and in it is ground up the body
 and blood and bones of countless
 millions of men and women.
 "There is another trial whicl l the newspaper man has to under 90, and that is tho diseased appe
 tite abroad in the land for unheal' I thy and dcmoralizing sensation t: People wonder why the newspa pcrs give prominence to this bru r tai murders aud that disgusting di
 yorce case. The answer IS plain
 it is because the public crave such , stuff. You take up your newspa n per in the morning, and yon hn' f in if three solid columns of well , written editorisl; while on opposite parc is a column Of mean old al vorcc case. Which do you read B You glance over the editorials , and exclaim: That Is a splcndit f niece of work. That will improve , and civilize any man." And ther , you turn directly to that miserable
 divorce case and you read every word of it. When you have finish , ed, and not before, Sou ask your wife if she has read it. Newspa per men are not fools. They know what you want, and they give it to you. Yet, if a conven. ton of editors and reporters was held morrow, aud the question
 was nut to them, "Which sort of
 news would you prefer to send forth!, lam confident that they
 would reply with one voice, "W c would prefer to send forth elevat-
 ing literature.
 1 It was his thorough knowledge
 of the temptations of journalists
 life that made Horace Greedy such an uncompromising advocate of
 temperance. He once remarked to me: II have seen so many we'll
 beloved comrades, so many le- spected associates, go down under