The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-18

| sheaves, setting down one sheaf
/ on the breakfast-table in the shape OF
| a morning newspaper, and putting down another
sheaf on the tea-table in the shape of an evening
newspaper. and that man who neither reads nor
| takes newspaper would be curiosity. What
| vast progress since the day when Cardinal VOL
sey declared that either the printing press must
| 60 down or the church Of God must 60 down. to
this time when the printing press and pulpit are in
/ combination, and a man of the Sabbath-day may
preach the gospel to FIVE hundred people, while
on Monday morning through the secular jour
| mails, he may preach that gospel to millions
| Notwithstanding all this that you have gained
in position and influence, men of the press, how
many words of sympathy do you get during the
course of year? Not ten. How many sermons
| of practical helpfulness for your profession are
| preached during the twelve months? Not one.
| How many words of excoriation, and denuncia-
| ton. and hypercritcism do you get in the same
length of time9 About ten thousand.
you are type-seatter' and nd get as.m the
storms at you. If you are a foreman and
cannot surmount the insurmountable and
get the forms ready at just the time the pub
Usher denounces you. If you are publisher
| the paper will be hard on you for lack of divi-
| dend. If you are an editor, and you announce
an unpopular sentiment, all the pens of Chris
tendon are flung at yon. If you are reporter
ness of public speakers, and for the blunders of
| type-setters and for the fact that you cannot
work quite as well in the Pickering gas-light and
after midnight you do in the MONDAY. II
| you are a proof reader upon you shall
come the united wrath of editor reporter and
| reader because you do not properly arrange the
| periods, and semicolons, and the exclamation
points and the asterisks. Plenty OF abuse but
| no sympathy. Having been in position where
could see these things going on from year to
| year. have thought that this morning would
| preach sermon on the trials of the newspaper
| profession, praying that God may bless the ser
come and leading those not in the profession to
| a more kindly and lenient bearing toward those
| who are.
| One of the great trials of this newspaper pro-
fesson is the fact that they are compelled to see
| more of the shams of the world than any other
profession. Through every newspaper Office,
day by day, 60 the weakness of the world the
vanities that want to be puffed the revenges that
| want to be wreaked all the mistakes that want
to be corrected, all the dull speakers who want to
| be thought eloquent all the meanness that
wants to get its wares noticed gratis in the edi-
| torial columns, in order to save the tax of the
| advertising column, all the men who want to be
| set right who never were right, all the crack
| Drained philosophers, with story as long as
their hair and AS gloomy as their finger nails. in
mourning because bereft of soap; all the timer
ant bores who come to stay five minutes and
stop an hour. From the editorial and reporter
ial rooms, all the follies and shams of the world
| are seen day by day, and the temptation is to
| believe neither in God. man, woman It is
| no surprise to me that in your profession there
are some skeptical men. / only wonder that you
believe anything Unless an editor q reporter
| has in his present or his early home a model of
| earnest character. or he throw himself upon the
| UNFOLDING grace of God, he must make temporal
and eternal shipwreck.
| Another great trial of the newspaper profes-
| sion is INADEQUATE compensation. Since the days
| OF Hazlitt, and Sheridan, and John Milton, and
the wailings of irub street London, literary
toll with very few exceptions, has not been
properly requited. When Oliver Goldsmith
ceived friend in his house, he. the author had
to sit on the window, because there was only one
| chair. Linn9us sold his splendid work for ducat
DeFoe the author of 2l8 volumes, died penni
less. The learned johnson dned behind
screen, because his clothes too shabby
to allow him to dine with tho gentlemen who, on
the other side of the screen, were applauding
his works. And so on down to the present time,
literary toll is a great struggle for bread. The
world seems to have grudge against man
| who, they say gets his living by his wits; and
the day iaborer says to the man of literary toll,
"You come down here and shove plane, and
hammer shoc-last, and break cobblestones, and
earn an honest living as do, instead of sitting
there in deness scribbing" But God
knows that there are harder
worked men in all the earth than the
newspaper people of this country 1t is not
matter of hard times; it is characteristic of all
times. Men have a better appreciation for that
which appeals to the stomach than for that
which appeals to the brain They have no idea
| of the immense financial and intellectual
haustions of the newspaper press. They grumble
wish they had only to pay three. or,
| paying three, they wish they had only
| to pay While there few ex-
| ceptions-and some few do make large
| fortunes-the vast majority of newspaper peo-
| pie in this day have q struggle for livelihood;
| and if in their hardship and evaporation they
sometimes write things they ought not to write,
let these facts be an alienation. Omen of the
press it will be great help to you if, when you
| come home late at night tagged and nervous
| with your work, you would just kneel down and
| cpmmepd your case to God, who has watched
all the fatigue of the day. and who has promised
| to be your Goo and the God of your children for
| ever.
Another great trial Of the newspaper pro-
| fesson is the diseased appetite for unhealthy
intelligence. You blame the newspaper press
for giving such prominence to murders and
| scandals Do you suppose that so many papers
would give prominence to these things if the
people did not demand them' I go into the
meat market of foreign city, and l find
that the butchers hang up on the most con-
spicuous hooks meat that is tainted, while the
without any especial care / come to
the conclusion that the people of that city love
tainted meat. You know very we'll that II the
great mass of the people OF this country get hold
matches. no broken-up families no defamation
of men in high position, they pronounce the
paper insipid They say: "It is shockingy dull
tonight" / believe 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 re-
spectacle man, all intelligent man. and paper
comes into your hand Y GU open it; and there
are three columns of splendidly written editorial
recommending some moral sentiment, or evolving
some scientific theory. In the next column
there is a miserable, contemplate divorce case
Which do you read irst9 You dip into
the editorial just long enough to say:
''Well, that's very ably written" and you
read the divorce case from the '1ong
primer type at the top to the '.nonpareil' type
she has read it! o. it is only case of supply
and demand. Newspaper men are not fools
They know what you want, and they give it to
holio hat 4hon huroh and fha Suor