The Osceola times., 1886-08-07

THE grasping after notorlety seems
to be a weakness peculiar to the
american character. People will do
aud say all manner Of ridiculous
things in order to attract public at
tention. The great majority seem
apparently satisfied if they but sue
ceed in getting their names in the
local papers among the "Personal
Mentions" The love of public no
torietY has led men to attempt al
most impossible feats, such as jump
ing off the Brooklyn bridge; shoot
ing over the Falls of Niagara, cross
ing the ocean in a she'll; searching
for the north pole; breathing the pes
tilential miasma of central africa, in
the hope of discovering white race
Of negroes; running the politics and
eontroling all the Offices Of a county
and other equally daring and fool.
hardy ventures ust for the sake OF
the transitory notice such cratic dis,
plays usually attract from wonder
ing and gaping world. 1t would be
strange indeed, however, if on the
other hand, out of the vast multtudes
which inhabit this globe there were
not a few, who, moulded of finer clay,
shrink from the gaze of the vulgar,
and studiously avoid public notice,
and like the humble daisies which
spring at our feet under the shade Of
the grass, modcstly emit their sweet
perfume unseen and unnoticed by
their more gaudy and pretentious
neighbors. These thoughts were
suggested by a little episode: the re-
suit OF II communication which ap-
peared in :he last issue of the TINES
from our Golden Lake correspondent
:" A Voter" With the lack Of expe-
rience so necessary to a successful
newspaper correspondents career,
out Of which grows the knowledge
that pncrringly discrininates be-
tween those who are susceptible Of
being tickled and those who are not,
or between the asthetic big sunnow-
er and the modest daisy, said Voter
inadvertently alluded TO one of his
neighbors as a "bloated aris.ocrat,"
not thinking but that he belonged
to the great family of notorie,y seek
ers, who would be proud to be class
ed among the monied men of our
great nation, and never once sus-
pecting that he belonged to the mod
est class. OF course, he took ofl'cnse
at seeing his name payaded before
the public through the county paper,
and calling at the Office peremptorl-
ly demanded the name of the author
of the communication, and at the
same time forbade his name ever ap-
pearing in the TIMES again. OF
course we were only too glad to be
able to furnish him the name Of the
author, whom he interviewed, and
after some talk and blustcr the mat
ter was dropped over glass OF beer.
1t only remains for us to again Of
fer little friendly admonition to
our aspiring correspondents: BE
careful whose name, aud how you
handle it, in your notes to the pub
lie. 1t frequently happens that with
private individuals as with newspa-
per editors, name is all they pos
sess. 1t makes ne ewspapcr man as
mad as a wet hen to be even suspect
ed Of having bank account when
hls family is living on the few vege-
table sent around by the neighbors,
lust to get notice in the paper. In
our capacity as a newspaper man for
the past fifteen years, we have time
and again fought shy of many ),
sound thrashing by little judicious
discretion IN matters of this kind.