The weekly intelligencer., 1896-03-28


written for Francis Chartreuse: Here
continueth to rot the body of Francis
Chartreuse, who, with an inflexible
constancy and uniformity of life, per-
sisted in the practice of every human
vice, excepting prodigality and hypoc-
risy; his Unsuitable avarice exempted
him from the first: his matchless impu-
dence the second 1 say this because
! want you to know that good,
healthy, long-lived, entertaining news
paper is not an easy blessing. but one
that comes to us through the fire.
First of all, newspapers make knowl-
edge democratic and for the multitude.
The public library is a haymow so
high up that few can reach it, while
the newspaper throws down the forage
to our feet. Public libraries are the
reservoirs where the great floods are
stored high up and away off. The
newspaper is the tunnel that brings
them down to the pitchers of all the
people. The chief use of great libra
ries make a few men and women very
wise. Newspapers lift whole nations
into the sunlight. Better have so, 000,-
600 people moderately intelligent than
100, 900 Solons. A false impression is
abroad that newspaper knowledge is
ephemeral because periodicals are
thrown aside and not one out of 10, 600
people files them for reference. Such
knowledge, so far from being ephem-
eral, goes into the very structure
of the worlds heart and brain, and
decides the destiny of churches and ma
tions. Knowledge on the shelf is of
little worth. 1t is knowledge afoot,
knowledge winged, knowledge pro-
jected, knowledge thunder-bolted. So
far as being ephemeral, nearly all the
best minds and hearts have their hands
on the printing press to-day, and have
had since it got emancipated. Adams,
and Hancock and Otis used to go to the
Boston Gazette and compose articles
on the rights of the people. Benjamin
Franklin, Dewitt Clinton, Hamilton,
Jefferson, Quincy, were strong in news
paperdom. Many of the immortal
things that have been published in
book form first appeared in what you
may call the ephemera1 periodical.
All Macaulay's essays first appeared
in q review. All Carlyle's, all Rus
<ins, all McIntosh's, all Sydney Smiths,
all Hazlitt's, all Thackerays, all
the elevated works of fiction of
our day. are reprints from periodicals
in which they appeared as serials.
Tennyson's poems, Burns poems,
Longfellow's poems, Emerson'spoems,
Lowelrs poems, Whittier's poems,
were once fugitive pieces. You cannot
find ten lite rary men in Christendom,
with strong minds and great hearts
but are or have been somehow con-
nected with the newspaper printing
press. While the book will always
have its place, the newspaper is more
potent Because the latter is multi
tudinous, do not conclude it is neces-
sarily superficial If a man should
from childhood to old age see only his
Bible, Webster's dictionary, and his
newspaper, he could be prepared for
all the duties of this life and all the
happiness of the next
Again, a good newspaper is a useful
mirror of life as 1t is. 1t Is sometimes
complained that newspapers report the
evil when they ought only to report
the good. They must report the evil
as we'll as the good, or how shall we
know what is to be reformed, what
guarded against, what fought down?
A newspaper that pictures only the
honesty and virtue of society is mis-
presentation. That family is best pre-
pared for the duties of life which,
knowing the evil is taught to select
the good. Keep children under the
impression that all is fair and right in
the world and when they go out into
II they will be as poorly prepared to
struggle with IL as a child who is
thrown into the middle of the Atlantic
and told to learn how to swim. Our
only complaint is when sin is made at
tractive and morality dulled, whom
vice is painted with great headings
and good deeds are put into obscure
corners. iniquity set up in great primer
and righteousness in nonpariel. Sin is
toathsome, make it loathsome. Virtue
Is beautiful, make it beautiful.
1t would work a vast improvement II
our papers-religious political, literary
would for the most part drop their
This would do better
justice to onewspaper writers Many of
the strongest and best writer's of the
country live and die unknown, and are
denied their just fame. The vast pub
lie never learns who thev are. Most of
them are on comparatively small In.
come, and after awhile their hand for
gets its cunning, and they are without
resources, left to die. Why not, at
least, have his initial attached to his
most important work? Railways gave
additional force to an article when you
occasionally saw added to some signifi-
cant article in the old New York Cour-
Ter and Enquirer j. w. W., or In the
Tribune H. G., or in the Herald ]. G.
B., or in the Times II. j. R or in the
Evening Post W. G. B., or in the Even
ing Express E. B. While this arrange
ment would be q fair and just thing
for newspaper writer's, 1t would be a
defense for the public.
It is sometimes true that things dam.
aging to private character are said.
Who is responsible2 1t is the I'VE" of
the editorial or reportorial columns
Every man in every profession or occu-
pa ation ought to be responsible for
what he does. No hon oral BILE man
will ever write that which he would be
afraid to sign. But thousands of per-
sons have suffered from the imper-
sonality of newspa pers. What can one
private citizen, wronged in his reputa-
ton, do in a contest with misrepresen-
tation multiplied into 10000 or So 600
copies? An injustice done in print is
done in private life. During loss of
temper a man may say that for which
he will be sorry in ten minutes; but a
newspaper injustice has to be written,
set up In type, then the proof taken |
off, and read and corrected, and then |
for six or ten hours the presses are |
busy running off the issue. Plenty of
time to correct. Plenty of time to |
cool off. Plenty of time to repent. |
But all that is hidden in the imperson-
ality of q newspaper. 1t will be a long |
step forward whom all is changed and
writer's get credit for the
good and are held responsible for the |
evil.
Another step forward for newspaper
dom will be when in our colleges and
we open opportunities for
candidates for the editorial |
chair. We have in such institutions |
medical departments and law depart