Smyrna times., 1886-07-28
For The Smyrna Times.
Some Other Habits.

matter as their well-flled columns at
test. 1t is safe to say that so large and
varied an amount of reading matter
laid at the peoples doors and at such
triaing expense should develop a we'll
informed class of readers everywhere,
which, however it does not, and this
too, chiefly from the influence Of two
circumstances artifcially acquired,
namely silent reading and reluctance
to speak of what has been thus read
afterwards. This finds favor if not an
excuse from the low purchasing price,
enabling everyone that can read to in
form themselves by this means.
There are readers, and plenty of them
of this kind, who can skim the pages of
the great dailies with the rapidity of a
stenOgrapher jotting down notes and
who lamentably fail when called upon
to read aloud a paragraph of a few
lines for the ediication of others. This
difference, trifing as it may appear,
between glancing at paper and of
reading it as last mentioned, becomes
more real than apparent when in
quired into as a means of imparting in
formation. So well known and to such
an extent has this been avaied of by
the publishers Of these dailies that the
makeup" ofnumbers of them conform
to it, by appearing with the more i'm
pOrtant news condensed at the heads
of columns in large-type headlines.
Under no other arrangement, doubt
less, could SO much literary food be
furnished each day by them be bOlted
down by the numerous readers and
leave something to spare in the way of
appetite for the next days ration.
The slow, systematic thinking so nee
essary in the case to aid literary diges-
tiOn being interfered with, the "hind
pig becomes the fattest." This reading
by the glancing method serves to cult
vate a morbid craving for the sensa-
tiOnal, at all times the opposite of
morality and the very cornerstone
upon which rests the output of the
great dailies and often their only claim
to notice. 1t is true much that is OBJ
jectiOnable in the details of murders,
rObberies and social scandals, that do
not rock, but dominates society to its
very centre are somewhat divested of
their similarity by being sandwiched
between the better class of foreign
cable dispatches and happenings of
local import, hedged in by stereotype
advertisements and which also serves
to subdue the glare that the sensa-
tional is apt to generate if left to itself.
Still, the outcome of such reading
tends not to progressive improvement
among the masses not near so much as
the sober and more carefully written
monthly magazines. With this single
exception policy among the dailies
ignoring news of a sensational charac-
ter and the substitution of the ethics of
Government and good manners would
be as fatal to their existence as would
the swapping asunder of the Atlantic
cable in furnishing foreign news for
their columns. The most helpful of
these aids to keep alive an adhering in
terest is politics; if of the State the
better, until the many changes that can
be rung upon them becomes wearisome
to follow, the more so as it is known
a few adroit leaders manage the whole
business Of " rings" deals and parcel
lings of the spOils of Office upon which
rest the entity of the State, not certain
ly inaugurating questions of State pol
icy in the editorial rooms of these pa
pers, and who, for all that, will spring
oftentimes the most absurd guesswork
upon their readers, concerning what is
locked up in the breasts of few men,
partaking more of the nature of twad-
die than of gossip, and from these
paps the men are reared who fall into
line under the lash of party and against
which the press is oftimes pOwerless,
rant and fume as it may. Here, then,
it is plain to be seen that the press is
at its greatest fault and while pander-
ing to financial success fails to strike at
evils affecting government. Through
no fault of its own it is true but
brought about by the careless habits of
reading among the masses and their
apathy TO correct manifest abuses of
power. And certainly, that while re-
spectful courtesy is due to a medium
that with tireless energy ransacks the
earth and culls every item of news for
its patrons. Some attention should be
paid to secure the maximum of good
from a source exerting so wide an in
fuence and consequently great reforms
of government and social order. have
their greatest enemy in those people
whose eager, rapid reading of matter
to be found in the columns of the great
dailies and which to them is nothing if
it is not sensational. S.