The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-05-13

love tainted meat. You know very well
that if the great mass OF people in this
| country get hold of newspaper and there
are in it no runaway matches, no broken.
/ up families, no defamation of men in high
| position, they pronounce the paper in
sipid. They say, "It is shockingly duh
| 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 respectable man, an Intelligent man,
and paper comes into your hand. You
open it. and there are three col.
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" and you read the
divorce case from the "long primer" type
/ at the top, to the "nonpareil" type at the
bottom. aud then you ask your wife if she
has read it! o, it is only case of supply
and demand. Newspaper men are no fools.
They know what you want aud they give
4
the world bought nothing but pure, honest
and healthful newspapers, nothing hut
pure. honest and healthful newspapers
would be published If you should gather
all the edt,rs and reporters of this coun.
try in one great convention. and then ask
| of them what kind of paper they would
prefer to publish, 1 believe they would
| unanimously say: "We would prefer 70
publish an elevated paper" So long as
there is an iuquitous demand, there viii be
| en- inguitous supply. I make no apology
| for a debauched newspaper, hut am saw
| ing these things in order to divide the re.
| sponsihility between those that print and
| those who read.
Another temptation of the newspaper
profession is the great alIurement that
| surrounds them. Every occupation and
profession has temptations peculiar to
itself. and the newspaper profession is not
an exception. The great draught, as YOU
know, is on the nervous forces, and the
brain is racked. The Numbering political
| speech must read we'll 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 it is vul-
| gar to speak out, says; 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 trying to catch ii. This
man must go through killing night work.
He must go into heated assemblaees, 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 fetid alleyways, Added
| to all that he must have hasty
| mastication and irregular habits. To
bear 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 nights sleep they must have some-
| thing to revive them for the mornings
work. That is what made Horace Greeley
| such stout temperance man.
| Apother trial of this profession is the
| fact that no one seems to care for their
| souls. They feel bitterly about it, though
| they laugh. People sometimes laugh tire
| loudest when they feel the worst. They
| are expected to gather up religious pro.
| ceedings 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 breaches
| to reporters and editors? Some of them
| came from religious homes, and when they
| left the pateroal rool, whoever regarded or
| disregarded, they come off with fathers
benediction and 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, il they only knew what
helpful thing it is for man to put HE
weary head down on the bosom Of q syn,.
pathetic Christ! He knows how nervous
| and tired you are. He has 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 ali the earth that
| need God, you are the men, and you shall
have Htm if only this day you implore His
mercy.
| LIST 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, be.
| fore whom you mast account for the tire.
| mendous influence you hold in this
country, to consecrate yourselves 10
! higher endeavors. You are the men to
| fight back this invasion of corrupt lit
erature. Lift up your right hand and
/ swear new allegiance to the cause of phil.
anthropy and religion. And when, al
last, standing on the plains of Judgment
you look out upon the unnumbered throngs
over whom you have had influence, may
| it be found that you were among the
mightiest energies that lifted men 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 des,inies
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 M