The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-09-20

roundings, however, man quickly |
lapses into certain rough, Bohemian
condition of body and mind, and the
exact degree of his decline may be
accurately measured by the style of
press which he patronizes.
"At home the line between the
press proper, and that nondescript
medley of popular paragraph 'gos-
sip coarse jest, and real humor
which characterizes the conglomera-
ton of publications which hang on
its outskirts, is fairly distictly drawn,
and man is Judged, as he should
be, by the paper he roads Abroad,
it is different, and one and the same
man will be seen to patronize two
papers as opposite as the poles in
their distinctive styles. Why should
this be2 A man may be driven by
circumstances to cultivate the com
pany of those with whom he has no
tastes and sympathies in common;
but with paper a man makes a
deliberate choice, and if he chooses
an inferior article, or allows his taste
to be satisfied by both vulgar and
refined publications, it shows that
there is something seriously out of
gear with his intellectual apprecia-
tion.
"We have already said that once
away from the social restrictions, re-
finements and intellectual friction
of our great centres of civilization, a
man quickly falls into a slovenly
state, both mentally and physically,
but more especially the former. He
allows himself to first tolerate, and
finally to like a style of humor which
would at home have filed him with
disgust, and he perforce of habit,
perhaps, admits into his house
journals which at home would have
hardly been allowed to enter the
kitchen. At home he was apt to
think the street arab who hailed him
with Hi! Gov'nor, who's your hat
teri as vulgar and wholly deprav-
ed little urchin; but away from the
social environment of home and an
intellectual atmosphere, he finds
it possible to read with relish
column after column of personalities
in vilest English not one whit superb
or to the above remark, and redo
lent of the public-house bar and
East-end music-hall wit"
1t may be said to the credit of
Hawaii that every attempt to estab
lish personal journalism here has
been an egregious failure. When
ever new bantling of that feather
appears, with great big 'I' repre-
senting one of a very small fry, peo-
pie have become habituated to feel a
pitying wonder as to the dupes who
shell out good money to give the
foul bird its initial fight. A small
minority of the community, how
ever, seem to think that the new
conner fills longfelt want, and that
it is only matter of time when it
will supersede the old-fashioned,
even if progressive, journals of fact
and opinion. This minority COM
prises those people who are always
bothering the conductors of the
legitimate press with suggestions
that they should hay, roast or burn
up certain other people. They are
also those who are the most sensitive
to having their own little breaks
published, often in their anxiety
being the first to acquaint the press
with events they don't want pub
lished, when they come to ask to
keep it out of the paper"
Our Japan contemporary goes on
to give the following account of per-
sonal journalism and its results just
as we see it in Honolulu:
at requires but very little ability
indeed to be personal. We have al
ready suggested that the accom-
plishment thrives naturally in the
slums of our cities, and in any OF
the haunts of vice and ignorance.
To run paper whose raison d'etre
is to be personal and as Extensively
personal as possible, costs little, as
the man to run it can be picked up
anywhere if only he is sought for in
sufficiently disreputable corners.
The harm which personal jour
nails may do takes longer to
enumerate than the qualifications
necessary for it's editor. In the
first place, journals of that ill'
strike a death-blow to loyalty
veneration, self-respect and ambition
They destroy the standards to which
men naturally look up; they create
and foster a socialism of the very
worst sort; they breed spirit OF
discomfort, and fever of uncharit,
ableness; they encourage and foster
oil tbot ;c yuoTct in MON an5 Snot ha,