St. Paul daily globe., 1889-05-13
Some Well-Known Men Given
to Airing Their Opin-
I ions.
"Pro Bono Publico," "Citizen'
. and the Rest Of
: 6 Them.
Newspaper Experiences With
Valued Correspondents
l. and Their Writings.

to the papers to defend or upbraid Tom
Lowry, it may be of interest to specu-
late on the rise and fall of the Ameri-
can correspondent. However he got
his start in life he is here, and here he
means to stay.
There are two general classes of
newspaper correspondents who
have advice to give and those who have
questions to ask. The latter cover a
wider range individually, taking in all
classes of society, from the man who
wants to know how deep the ocean is
off Newfoundland banks to the girl
who is not sure on which finger the en-
gagement ring should be worn. The
other class is composed mostly of old
men who have been in pnblic
Office at some time and feel
an intense personal responsibility
for the entire government ever
afterwards. Or they are old settlers
who see or think they see the commu-
nifty going to the dogs, and. want to beat
the CANNES out of their prey. Some
times they are antiquarians,s simple. hon
est and without malice. At other times
the correspondents an interested party.
and beneath thin veil of philanthropy
are more or less afflicted with vanity.
They like to see their names in print,
and to carry the paper round the neigh
borhood, and perhaps run for street
commissioner ON the reputation of hav-
ing fOStered some much-needed reform.
ONE OF THE FINEST OF EXAMPLES.
of the antiquarian was an old gentle
man who bored the morning papers for
month with communication about
'sThe Old Red School House," The
managing editor of the first paper read
it and saw it was of no earthly interest,
and turned it over to the city editor with
instructions to run an abstract. The
city editor fired it back at the man.
aging editor, the managing editor
lost it. Then the author began
was not printed. The managing editor
was never in, and he would catch re-
porter and give him prOlix history of
the writing and delivery of the manu-
script and ask him to tell the managing
editor he wanted it back. Five times
he visited the Office on this errand, ,once
climbing the stairs, without obtaining
any satisfaction. Then he went away.
All correspondents are not SO laborious-
ly useless. A communication from Doc
Ames on Bill King, or from Bill King
on Doc Anles was in the
early days Of this republic con-.
sidered as good news as fire
or burglary. Few people VINO read
Ames' letter addressed to "Bills King
and Washburn" but got an enlarged
idea of the capacity of the English Ian
guage. Old Thaumaturgus before he
Of the ready writer, aud could have
given JuniuS cards and spades and
beaten him. 9 +
SOME WELIrKNOWN CORRESPONDENTS
Then there was that spirit of the vastly
deep N. T. Hauser. What has become
of the ancient of days, with his long,
laHk, weird-looking manuscripts that
drove the printers to strong drink and
the editors to suicide?
His brother in the trade, Judge N. H.
Hemiup, is still with us, however. He
writes very little now, though, and his
lurid opinions about the Dog Star are
sadly missed.
Joel Bassett, is more of a speech
maker than writer. He sits upon the
Opposition bench'' of the board of
in the '1Ouse," and discusses every
thing from Canadian reciprocity to local
retrenchment, but he spares the papers.
The old boys are passing away, but
new generation is rising up to take
their places. C. j. Buell. is one of the
shining lights of the new era. He has
written by measurement 1926 inches of
letters to the papers, which have been
printed alta cost in composition of not
less than $50, besides the wear and
tear on editorial brains answering them.
And still Mr.. Buell. is as fresh as a
daisy.
Another letter-writer who seems to
have bOttOmless lnk-hOrn is w. G. III.
Smart, whose reformatOry ideas are ex-
emplified always in open letters.
1t is seldom c. A. Pillsbury signs
communication, but when he does he
nails lie and peels the bark off wher-
ever the shot strikes.
Ed Stevens composes in a flowing
style of thought and says cutting things
that bite and sting.
Rev. Edwin Sidney Williams COM
municatiOns read like an extract from
st. Nicholas Magazine.
Elder Stewards fine Italian hand
would enable him to put the whole
New Testament OH a postal card, but
he prefers to write secular notices for
retractiOn on his pOstals.
The eminent labor agitators, j. p.
McGaughey and T. H. Lucas. are
not writing to the papers so often now.
but the vOx populi season has hardly.
begun.
John Swift has not favored his con-
stituents with an address since the
court house commission got to work.
He used to write to the Journal, offer
ing to do the foundation if Erickson got
the Job to nail the jOiSts together and
put ON the framework of the court
house.
The Wilson-De::L ::Laittre correspondence
over the latter's criticisms of the park
commission were very racy reading,
for De Laittre.
u Judge DOnOhue's promised letter on
the Barrett trial has not yet appeared
in any of the ''public prints" 1t is
possible he means to evade his duty.
THE OTHER CLASS OF CORRESPONDENTS
lave no thought of advancing the car
of civilization by any exertiOns of their
own. The people who write to the |
to ask for answers to CO.
nundrums are generally lazy indi-
yidvals who don't want to do the |
work of research for themselves. Pre-
facing their requests with the apollo |
getic remark, ITO settle bet will you
etc." they perpetrate the most hesrt-
rending puzzles and are indignant if |
the answer does not appear the next |
morning. When the colleges of jour-
nalism get their curriculum set up in
stead of having the students jerk logar-
ithms OIL blackboard they want to |
have them struggle with the answers to
a few sample questions like these:
How big was Alexander?
How deep is the Atlantic halfway |
between two given points?
What is the difference between a
pneumatic tube and pneumonia wind
pipe?
How long is the Yang tse Kiang? |
And how wide at the bridge?
What were Mai. Pitcairn's exact |
words at the battle of Concord? and how |