Wichita eagle., 1888-06-24
NYE ON JOURNALISM.
He Launches Forth q Few Rcraarixs On
Big Subject.

He Launches Forth q Few Remarks on q
Big Subject.
am glad TO know Cornell university is to
establish department of Journalism next
September | have always claimed that
journalism could be taught in universities
and colleges just as successfully as any other
athletic exercise. OF course you cannot
teach boy how to jerk giant journal from
the clutches Of decay and make of ii robust
and ripsnorting shaper and trimmer of pub
lie opinion, in whose counting room people
viii walk all over each other in their mad
efforts to insert advertisements. You cannot
teach this in a school any more than you can
teach boy how to discover the open Polar
sea, but you can teach him the rudiments and
save him good deal Of time experimenting
with himself
Boys spend small fortunes and the best
years of their lives learning the simplest
truths in relation TO journalism. We grope
on blindly, learning this year perhaps how
to distinguish an italic shooting stick when
we see it, or how TO eradicate type lice from
standing galley, learning next year how to
sustain life on an annual pass and sample
early rose potato weighing four pounds and
measuring eleven inches in circumference.
This is slow and tedious way to obtain
Journalistic training If this can be avoided
or abbreviated it viii be great boon
AS | understand it, the department in Cor
nell university VIII not deal so much with
actual newspaper experience as it Will with
construction and style in writing. This is
certainly a good move, for we must admit
that we can improve very greatly our style
and the purity of our English For instance,
select an exchange at random, and on the
telegraphic page / find the details CT a hor-
rible crime. 1t seems that IN old lady, who
lived by herself almost, and who had amassed
between SIC and ST, was awakened by an
assassin, dragged from her bed and cruelty
murdered The large telegraph line reads:
'Drug from her bed and murderedp This
Is Incorrect in photography, syntax and
prcsody, bad in form and inelegant in style.
Carefully parsing the word drug as it ap-
pears here, find that it does not agree with
anything in number, gender or person do
not ike to criticise the style of others when
know that my own is so faulty, but ] am
sure that the word drug should not be used
In this way.
Ex-Mayor Henry C. Robinson, Of Hart
ford, Conn, if | am not mistaken, suggested
school Of journalism at least twelve years
ago, but 1t did not meet with immediate and
practical Endorsement Now Cornell comes
forward and seems to be in earnest, and am
glad Of it The letters received from day to
Gay by editors, and written to them by men
engaged in other pursuits, practically admit
and prove that there Is not now in existence
an editor who knows enough to carry liver to
bear.
That is the reason why every means should
be used to pull this profession out of the
mire of dense ignorance and place it upon
the high, dry soil which leads TO genius and
consapguinity.
The above paragraph 1 quote from a
treatise on journalism which / wrote Just be-
fore knew anything about it.
The life OF the journalist is hard one
and, although it is not 50 trying rs the life Of
the newspaper man, it is full of trials and
perpleXitieS. If newspaper men and journal
lists did not stand by each other | do not
know what JOY they would have Kindness
for each other, gentleness and generosity,
even in their rivalry, characterize the con-
duct of large number Of them.
There are many reasons why the establish
ment OF department of journalism at Cor
nell will be a good move, and believe that
while it viii not take the place of actual ex-
pe-ience. it will serve to shorten the appren-
eiceship of young newspaper man and the
fatigue OF starting the amateur in journal
ism win be divided between the managing
editor and the tutor 1t VIII also give the
aspiring sons of wealthy parents a chance to
toy with journalism without interfering with
those who are actually engaged III it.-Biu
Nye in New York World