The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-03-28
The Fate of a Journalist.
IGlecnville News.

lIlecDEllle NeWS.
Ten years ago there was great Mill
tarv and civic parade in the city Of
| Charleston. Tie late Captain Dawson
was actively engaged in the conduct Of
the demonstration and the entertain
ment of guests and did not go to his
office that day; but next morning The
News and Courier aDDparcd with four
teen columns of accurate descriptive
work, covering every point and ihsS
dent-a model Of journalistic skill and
taste. As Captain Dawson looked over
the broad sheet his marvellously quick
and penetrating eyes glanced from one
column to the other, discerning every
feature Of arrangement, every detail
of headlines and reportorial work.
They found no flaw, nothing missing,
and lighted with the pride and elation
of his newspaper instinct, only to dar-
ken ard sadden as he said: ut makes
me feel as I fancy the ghost of old
Horace Greeley would do in visiting
the Tribune office. 1t is beautiful
work-and was all done without me-"
That expressed the paihos of the
newspaper mans life and death. By a
fantastic decree Of fate he spends his
life and labor in the making Of ma
chine so accurately trained, so charged
with the vitality he has given it that it
will not falter or make any sign how
ever suddenly the spirit that gives it
power and permeates it leaps through
the blackness Of the curtain hanging
between us and the beyond and is seen
and felt no more.
When the general who has ordered
an army falls, his battle line wavers, if
only for moment; when the states
man is struck down suddenly his loss
IS visibly felt throughout his party;
when the merchant or manufacturer
dies his business is suspended, for a
time at least, and bis absence isevident.
But the greater and more successful the
newspaper man is the less his presence
is missed, the more quickly he is for
gotten. The machine he has put to-
gether and made alive does not skip one
beat orthrob; the masses Of manuscript
pour into his office from mails and
wires and are received, digested and
shaped the day after bis death just as
they were the day before when they
were under his vigilant, tired eyes; the
intellects taught to put sside all emo
tions which cumber or hinder work
and to look on life and the world and
all the affairs of both with only profess
sional interest do not forget their lesson;
the trained hands miss never a stroke
of the pencil, the whirling Of the wheels
of the presses does not cease, the types
go true to their pIaces-in all the rooms
and on all the floors under the glaring
lights the work goes on, each man and
each piece Of mechanism fitting in
place and performing the nightly task.
The night wears on, the lights 60 out,
silence succeeds the steady stir and
rustic and click; when the gray light
falls through the windows on the white
face Of the dead man who was yester-
day the embodiment Of power and
strength, the newspaper of which he
was the eyes and hands and brain and
moving force appears at its appointed
time, clean, crisp and wearing its usual
daily aspect, giving no sign of what it
has cost.
Those of us who succeed build thing
to live after us; we build it so cunning
ly and we'll that our handiwork bears
no mark Of our hands, that the vitality
! we have distilled into it, drawn from
our own hearts and nerves, is forgotten
even while it is felt, that the names we
have hoped to link with its power and
greatness are not remembered in it.
The work Of mans life lives and it's
maker dies and is forgotten; the
thoughts of his heart and the know
ledge of his mind given out to the pub
lie three hundred and sixty-fve times
year are as often read, discarded and
| lost.
Verify, the reward is not great.