The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-04-22

| the butchers hang up on the most conspic-
uous hooks meat that is tainted, while the
meat that Is fresh and savory is put away
without any especial care. | come to the
| conclusion that the people Of that city
! love tainted meat. You know very well
that IL the great mass Of people in this
| country get hold Of a newspaper and there
are in il no runaway matches. no broken
| up families no defamation OF men in high
I position. they pronounce the paper in
I sipid They say, at is shockingiy dull
tonight believe u il one OF the trials
I 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 paper comes into your hand. You
open It, and there are three coll
umns OF splendidly written edi-
torial. recommending some moral
sentiment. or evolving some scientific
theory. In the next column there is mis-
cradle. contemplate divorce case. Which
do YOU read first? You dip into the edi-
torial long enough to say: "Well, that's
very ably written" aud you read the
divorce case from the Tong primer type
at the TOP, to the "norpareil" type at the
bottom. and then YOU ask your wife II she
has read it, o. il is only case o; supply
and demand. Newspaper men are no foo.s.
They know what YOU want aud thew give
il to Won. believe that il the church and
the world bought nothing hut pure. honest
and healthful newspapers, nothing but
pure. honest and healthful newspapers
would b, published. II YOU shDIld gather
all the edit ire aud reporters OF this coun-
try in one great convention, and then ask
Of them what kind Of e paper they would
prefer to publish, believe they would
unanimously say: 1--WE would prefer 10
publish an elevated paper" So long as
there is an inquitous demand, there will be
an inquitous supply. make no apology
for dcbauchel newspaper, ut am say
ing these things in order to divide the re-
sponsibility between those that print and
those who read.
/ Another temptation of the newspaper
profession is the great allurement that
SURROUNDS them. Every occupation and
! profession has temptations peculiar to
itself, and the newspaper profession is not
an excep>ion. The great draught, as YOU
know, is on the nervous forces. and the
brain is rackad. The hlund ering political
speech must read we'll for the sake Of the
rartv, and the reporter, or the editor,
ha- TO make IL read well, although every
sentence was a catastrophe 70 the English
language. The reporter must hear all that
an inau1ible speaker, who thinks il is vul-
gar to SPEAK out. saws; and it must be
right the next morning or the next night
in the papers. though the night before the
whole audience sat with its hand behind
its ear in vain tryinZ N catch il. This
man must go through kiln nightwork.
He must 90 into heated sssemhlages. and
into unventilated audience-rooms that are
enough to take the life ont 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 fntid allev-ways, Added
to all that he must have hastv
masticatiOn and irregular habits. To
hear up under this tremendous nerv-
, Gus strain they are tempted to arti-
fetal stimulus and how many thousands
have gone down under that pressure God
/ only knows. They must have something
to counterfeit the wet, they must have
something to keep out the chill and after
scant nj ght's sleep they must have Somea
thing to revive them for the mornings
work. That is what made Horace Greeley
such stout temperance man.
Another trial of this profession is the
fact that no one seems to care for their
souls. They feel bitterly about il, though
they laugh. People sometimes laugh the
loudest when they feel the worst. They
are expected to gather up religious pro-
/ ceedngs and to discuss religious doctrines
in the editorial columns, but who expects
them TO be saved by the sermons they pho.
nograph or by the doctrines they discuss
in the editorial columns: The world looks
! upon them as professional Who preac hes
to reporters and editors? Some of them
| came from religious homes, and when they
left the paternal rool, whoever regarded or
disregarded, they come off with fathers
benedicton 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 metropolis
homesick. o, if they only knew what a
helpful thing it is for man to put his
weary head down on the hos N of a SYM
pathetic Christ. He knows how nervous
and tired you are. He has a heart large
enough TO take in all your interests in this
world and the next. o, men of the news
paper press, you sometimes get sick of this
world, it seems so hollow and unsatisfying.
If 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.
Let me ask all men connected with the
printing press that they help US more and
more in the effort to make the world bet.
ter. | charge you in the name of God. he-
fore whom YOU must account for the tre-
mendOus influence you hold in this
country, to consecrate yourselves 70
higher endeavors. You are the men 70
fight back this invasion - corrupt lit
erature. Lift up your right hand and
swear new allegiance TO the cause of phil
anthropy and religion. And when. at
last, standing on the plains of Judgment
you look out upon the unnumbered throngs
over whom YOU have had influence, msy
it be found that Won We're among the
mightiest energies that lifted met upon
the exalted pathway that leads to the re-
nown OF Heaven. Better than to have sat
in editorial chair, from which, with the
finger of type, you decided the destimies
of empires, but decided them wrong, that
YOU had been some dungeoned exile, who,
by the light of window iron grated. or
scraps of New Testament leaf. picked up
from the hearth, spelled out the story Of
HIM who taketh away the sins of the
world.
| In eternity Dives is the heggar!
Wei. my friends, we will all soon get
! through writing and printing and proof
hot 70