Omaha daily bee., 1890-09-14


deafening. That his views have no ra-
tional foundation goes without saying.
| 1t Is generally accepted fact that the
| great newspapers Of today are one of the
| best and cheapest methods Of cduca ton
which are offered to the public All
| subjects are discussed from "a sec ular
| standpoint, and the opinions OF the edit
ors may be accepted or rejected. If at
! sch oOl the teacher tells the child that
| something is true the child believes it.
| If at church the parson says so and 50 is
true, for the most part the believers of
the creed insist that it must be true.
But the editors opinion is an unbiased
one, given from Il knowed &c of all sides
of the question under discussion, and If
it is not believed it can at least do no
! harm whether it is read hastily or
| whether it is accorded careful perusal.
| A newspaper If enterprisng, in these
days caters to all tastes. 1t may be
lil<ened, in that regard, to- bill of fare
at first-class hotel. Yet because it
| gives all the news there is no more rea-
| son to read so much of it as to cause
headache than there would be in order
ing so much dinner because the viands
were en- enumerated on the bill of fare as to
cause stOma ch-ache.
If man wants to read the foreign
news or the domestic news in ~ Sunday
newspaper he glances over the head
lines, which indicate the nature of the
article, and reads those tll ings in w hich
he may have an interest. So when he
sits down to dinner in his hotel, because
the bill of fare happens to start off with
soup of half dozen varieties, it is
neither ompulsory nor expected that
the guest will order them all, though it
would appear that this is the way the
eminent doctor would go about his din
ner. One may be interested in the con-
greSsional proceedings found in a news
paper, while another would read the
sporting column and another some hing
else, but no one would read tho details
of sensation unless he had an interest
in them. The heading would convey to
him an idea of what the article con-
tained, and with the many columns of
other matters in which he would be in =
terested he would only be a glutton if
he felt that he must read the entire
pa per whether he wanted to or not, in
order to get his moneys worth.
Statistics everywhere prove the truth
of the proposition that if it were not 70 r
illiteracy, there would be a large e de =
crease in the number of Grim inals, and
it has remained for Mr.. Russell to read
what was called learned paper b efore
the Social Science Association of Amer
lea to prove that any kind of general
knowledge begets crime. Even if his
ideas were correct his hypothesis is
ne wspapers do not print ''vul =
gar and uncanny news" They
may recte the history Of some delicate
episode Or scandal in high or low life,
yet such occurre noes always point a NOR
al as well as adorn tale. The doctor 5
scientific view would lead us to believe
that if one We're TO read an account in a
wicked Sunday newspaper of anattempt
ed robbery, itwould follow that he would
mmediately become Il ahighwaym
The Sunday newspaper OF today, with
its well-flled and many columns of in
formation gather red from all sources and
contributed by the brightest minds
apart from its news service, which in
itself is a marvel, has proven boon not
only to the well-to-do, but more espe
cially TO the poor, who could not afford
to purchase such inior nation in any
other way and who only find time for
general reading on Sunday. 1t unques
tionably stands as one of the greatest
educators of the nineteenth century. II
would appear in order for Dr.. Russell, al
the next annual meeting of the Ameri
can Social Science association to give
advanced ideas on the proposition thai
the moon is made of green cheese and
what has been generally supposed to be
a man in it, is nothing but wiggly
maggot