Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1893-10-26
DANA ON JOURNALISM.

. IL GitC olOtS Dull 1OOo iOT
Newsp per Men to Know.
Charles A Dana, of New York,
delivered the first lecture of the
fall curse at Union College,
Schenectady, last Friday, His SUBJ
ject was "The Press and Jouunl-
ISM" AIR. Dana said, among other
things:
"The number of intellectual
young men who are looking at this
new profession, which, tor the
want of a better name, we call tn G
profession of journalism, is very
great. [ suppose that [ receive my
self every day, taking one day, with
another, half a dozen letters from
men, many of them college gradu-
ates, asking for employment and
an opportunity of showing what is
in them. Generally the rule that
is observed in all we'll organized
newspaper Offices is that the boys
who began at the beginning are
taken up step by step in accordance
with their faculties and their
merits. The boys who begin at the
bottom come out at the top. AT
the same time these boys do not
all start out with the best outfit,
that is to say, with the best educa>
ton; and [ have known very dis
t~inguished authorities who doubted
whether high education was any
great use to a journalist. Horace
Greeley told me several times that
the real newspaper man was the
boy who had slept on newspapers
and ate ink. Although 1 served
him for several years, and we were
very near in our personal relations,
[ think he always bad a little
grudge against me because [ came
up through a college.
"Give the young man a first class
course of general education, and, if
could have my way, every young
man who is going to De a newspa-
per man and who is not absolutely
rebelious against it, should learn
Greek aud Latin, alter the good
old fashion. l had rather take a
young fellow who knows the Ajax
of S%ophocies and who has read
Tacitus and can scan every ode OF
Horace would rather take him
to report a prize fight or a spelling
match, tor instance, than to take
one who has never had those adj
vantages. | believe in the colleges
1 believe in high education,
cit is indispensable to a maj
who means to fill an important
place in journalism to know pol
!tics. and in order to know politics
there must be in the man some
natural disposition for politics. I
have often been appealed to by
friends, who said: Cant you take
this young man and give him ems
ployment?' Then l will watch that
young man for a month or so, and
see what it is that he takes up in
morning. Ii he takes up the news
paper and turns to the political
part of the paper, and is interested
in that. why that is a good symp~
tom of his intellectual tendencies;
but If, instead of that, he takes up
a magazine and sits down to read a
love story, why you cannot make a
newspaper man out of him.
IAN American who thinks an
other country is better than this
should not 60 into journalism. You
must be tor the stars and stripes
every time Or the people Of this
country won't be for you, and you
won't sell enough papers to pay
your expenses,
"There are some books that are
indispensable to the kind Of educaa
ton that We are contemplating,
and to the profession hat we are
considering; and OF all these the
most Indispensable, the most useful,
he one whose knowledge is most
effective, is the Bible. There is no
book from which more valuable
seasons can be learned. | am con-
sidering 1t now, not as a religious
book, but as a manual of utility, OF
professional preparation and pros
fessional use for a journalist. There
is perhaps no book whose style is
more suggestive and more instruc>
tive, from which you learn more
directly that sublime simplicity
which never exaggerates; which re-
counts the greatest event with
solemnity, of course, but without
sentimentality or afectation, none
which you open with such conf.
dence and-lay down with such res
verence; there is no book like the
Bible. When you get into a COM
~troversy and want exactly the
right answer, when you r look
ing for an expression, what is there
that closes a dispute like a verse
from the Bible? What is it that sets
up the right principle for you,
which pleads for policy, for a cause,
SO much as the right passage of
Holy Scriptureg"
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