The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-04-28

II
to reap, aud the telegraph says to the
newspaper: "Fll rake while you bind; .
and the iron teeth of the telegraph are Sc
down at one end of the harvest-feld anC
drawn clean across, and the newspaper
gathers up the sheaves, setting down on,
sheaf on the breakfast table in the shape
of morning newspaper, and putting
down another sheaf on the tea table il
| the shape Of an evening newspaper; ane
that man who neither reads nor takes 3
newspaper would be curiosity. What
vast progress since the day when Cardi
nal Wolsey declared that either the
printing press must go down or the
Church of God must go down, to this
time, when
/ THE PRINTING PRESS AND PULPIT
are in combination, and man on the
Sabbath day may preach the Gospel tC
500 people, while on Monday morning
through the secular journals, he may
preach tha. Gospel to millions.
Notwithstanding all this that YOU
have gained in position aud Influence
men Of the press. how many words oil
sympathy do you get during the course
of a wear? Not ten. How many ser
mons of practical helpfulness for your
profession are preached during the
twelve. months? Not one. How many
words of exc0ridtion, and denunciation
and hypercriticism do You get in that
same length of time? About 10000. II
you are a typesetter and get the type in
| the wrong font, the foreman storms al
you. If you are foreman and cannot
surmount the insurmountable and get
the forms ready at Just the time, the
publisher denounce3 you. If you are a
publisher and make mismanagement
/ then the owners of the paper will be
| hard on you for lack of dividend. Ii
| you are an editor and announce an un-
popular sentiment, all the pens of Chris
tendon are flung at you. If yon are a
reporter you shall be held responsible
for the indistinctness of public speakers,
and for the blunders of type settlers, and
for the fact that you cannot work quite
so well in the Pickering gaslight and
after midnight as you do in the noon
| day. If you are a proofreader, upon
| you shall come the united wrath of
| editor, reporter and reader, because you
do not properly arrange the periods, aud
the semi-colons, and the exclamation
| points, and the asterisks. Plenty of
abuse for you, but no sympathy. Hav-
ing 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 sermon
to all those to whom this message may
come, and leading those not in the pro
| fession to a more kindly and lenient
bearing toward those wto are.
One of the great trials of this news
paper profession is the fact that they
are compelled to see more of the shams
of this world than any other profession.
Through every newspaper Office, day by
day, 60 the weaknesses of the world, the
vanities that want to be pufed, 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 editorial 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-brained
philosophers, with story as long as their
hair, and as gloomy as their finger nails,
in mourning because bereft of soap; all
the itinerant bores who come to stay
five minutes and stop an hour. From
the editorial and reportorial rooms all
the foIlies and shans of the world are
seen day by day, and the temptation is
to believe neither in God, man nor
Woman. 1t is no surprise to me that in
your profession there are some skeptical
men. | only wonder that you believe
anything Unless an editor or re-
porter has in his present or his early
home model of earnest character, or he
throws himself upon the upholding
graces of God, he must make temporal
and eternal shipwreck.
Another great trial of the newspaper
profession is inadequate compensation.
Since the days of HazIitt, and Sheridan,
and John Milton, and the wailing of
Grub Street, London, literary toll, with
very few exceptions, has
Yor BEEN PgoPsRLY REoUTrrED.
When Oliver Goldsmith received friend
| in his house, he, the arthor, had to sit
on the window, because there was only
one chair. Linnas sold his splendid
work for ducat DeFoe, the author of
2lS volumes, died renniless. The learned
Johnson dined behind screen because
| his clothes were too shabby to allow him
to dine with the gentlemen who, on the
other side Of the screen, were applaud
ing his works And so on down to the
present time, literary toll is a great
struggle for bread The world seems to
have a grudge against man who, as
they say, gets his living by his wits; and
| the day laborer says to the man of literary
toll: "You come down here and shove q
plane, and hammer a shoelast, aud break
Sobblestones, and earn an honest living
as do, instead of sitting there in idle
ness scribblinglh But God knows there
are no harder worked men in all the
earth than the newspaper people of this
country. 1t is not a matter of hare
times; it is characteristic of all times
Men have better appreciation for thai
which appeals to the stomach than fol
that which appeals TO the brain. They
have no idea of the immense financia
and intellectual exhaustions of the news
paper press. They grumble because they
have to pay five cents copy, and wish
they had only to pay three, or paying
three, they wish they had only to pay
one. While there are few exception:
and some few DO make large fortune.
the vast majority of newspaper people
in this day have a struggle for livelihood
and if in their hardship and exaspera
ton they sometimes write things they
ought not to write, let these facts be an
alienation. o men of the press, it will
be great help to you if, when yor
come home late at night, Jagged out
and nervous with your work, you would
Just kneel down and commend your cas-,
to God, who has watched all the fatigue
of those days, and who has promised Il
be your God and the God of you
children forever.
Another great trial of the newspape
profession is the diseased
|. APPETITE FOR UNHEALTHY INTELLI
GENcE.
You blame the newspaper press for Civ
ing such prominence TO murders an,
scandals. Do you suppose that SO man,
papers would give prominence to thes
things if the people did not deman,
them2 I go into the meat marke. of
foreign city, and I find that the butcher
hang up on the most convenient hook
meat that is tainted, while the mea
that is fresh and saYory is put ava
without any special care. come to tn
conclusion that the people in that cit
love tainted meat. You know YER
we'll that if the great mass of people i
this country get hold of newspaper
. aud there are in il no runaway matches
,, no broken up families, no defamation 0
men in high position. they pronounc
2 the paper insipid. They say: 1T j
!, shockingly dull to night" / believe
is one OF the trials Of the news
paper press that the people of thi