The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1889-08-22
Ignatius Donnelly on Editors.

with the speech of the celebrated
Mlnnesotian, Ignatius Donnelly, ad-
dressed to the Wisconsin press,
whose guest he was on their recent
excursion. It abounds in trenchant
wit and terse statement:
sit is not so important to you that
you should listen to an address from
me, as it is that you have an address
made to you. I can hardly expect
to tell you anything new, but it is es-
sential that the forms and ceremonies
of such an occasion as this should be
maintained. The Englishman cele-
brateS every important event with a
feast-the American with speech
which shows the superiority of our
race; for while our brethren across
the sea appeal to the stomach, we
appeal to the mind; and hence it has
come to pass that the English upper
class are recognized as the best-fed
people in the world; while the whole
American population are the most
intellectual on the face of the earth.
We are willing to concede this much
to the Englishmen and to ourselves !!
The editorial function is the highest
known to civilization. It's business
to acquire facts and disseminate in
formation. Facts are the bricks, the
stones, the masonry out of which the
temple of knowledge is constructed.
The newspaper is based on the great
primal instinct of mantle desire to
know. The business commenced
when Eve ate of the tree of knowl-
edge. If she could have subscribed
at that time for a frst-class news
paper, she would have learned all
about good and evil; and the apple
might have rotted on the tree for all
she would have cared for it. And
think of the consequences!-think of
a Wisconsin or Minnesota Legisla-
ture that knew no guile; wandering
around Madison or St. Paul next
winter, with the thermometer at forty
degrees below zero, clad in bland
smile and fig leaf.
Three hundred years ago the wom-
en- used to gather at some neighbours
house, and the men on the benches
at the front door of the tavern, and
there they discussed the news of the
vicinity or of the nation. They
would take man or a Woman's rep
utatlon and tear it into tatters, into
very rags; not that he held any NAL
ice against either of them, but be-
cause the human mind lacks news,
Graves excitement, wants to know"
as the Yankee says.
The newspaper has, to a great ex-
tent, abolished Rumor with it's thou
sand of painted tongues. 1t has re-
duced the narration of events to a
certainty; it can be depended upon to
tell the truth about everything-ex-
cept its political opponents ! 1t has
abolished the feminines lander-Circle
of old times. At these cannabalist
feasts the young, and fair and frail
were served up, boiled, roasted and
steWed. 1t has widened the mind of
the public, until it is no longer salts
fed with the gossip of the village
it must have the scandals of the
whole world. The peccadilleos of
Mrs. Jones, in the next block, fade
before the amours of Prince of
Wales or Queen of Spain.
Here we have the very beginning
of the system which has eliminated
in the London Times and New York
World. How strangely do Cymbal's
two rooms, his few clerks, his manu-
script letters, filled with the gossip
OF BARRIERS, tailors, porters and water
men, compare with the gigantic sys-
TENS of Reuter- in Europe and the
AssociatedPress Company in Amer
lea, with telegraph lines under all
the oceans, and to all the towns and
cities of the continents and islands;
and with vast army of newsgathers
and correspondents over all the
world. And think of those few
clerks making written copies of Gym
balls weekly letters, to be sent out
to a score or so of subscribers
throughout the kingdom, and com
pare them with one of Hoes gigantic
Lightning Presses, which from web
of paper four miles long can print
$4,000 copies of an eight page news
paper in an hour. When we consid-
er Cymball's two rooms and then
look around upon the world we live
in one feels like sending up shout
of praise to God that he cast his lot
in such perfected and tremendous
era. We can not help feeling of
pity for all who lived in those little,
mean, dwarfed, helpless ages of the
worlds history. If Brown-Sequard's
discovery is reality, and he can, to
paraphase Burns, "Mak auld men
maist as good as new we will stay
here and enjoy this magnificent
world, where all things are conjoined
for mans happiness, until the over
crowded Younger generations oct nm