The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-02-25

some or their doIngs, until IN this day,
when we have in this country many
thousands of skilled stenographers and
newspapers sending out copies by the
billion. The press and the telegraph
have gone down into the same great
harvest field to reap, and the telegraph
says to the newspaper, Ill rake while
you bind, p" and the iron teeth of the
telegraph are set down at one end of the
harvest field and drawn clean across,
and the newspaper gathers up the
sheaves, setting down one sheaf on the
breakfast table in the shape of a morn
ing newspaper and putting down an
other sheaf on the tea table in the shape
of an evening newspaper, and that man
who neither reads nor takes newspa-
per would be curiosity. What vast
progress since the days when Cardinal
Wolsey declared that either the print
ing press must go down or the church
of God must 60 down to this time, when
the printing press and the pulpit are in
hundreds of glorious com binations and
alliances
Trials of Newspaper Work.
One of the great trials of this news
paper profession is the fact that they
compelled to see more Of the sham
the world than any other probes
Through every newspaper office. u
day, go the weakness of the
vanities that want to be putfed,
venges that want to be wreaked, al
mistakes that want to be corrected, Il
the dull speakers who want tc
thought eloquent, all the meanness th";
wants to get its wares noticed gratis IL
the editorial columns in order to save
the tax of the advertising column, all
the men who want to be set right who
never were right, all the crack brainea
philosophers with story as long as their
hair and as 'loomy as their finger nails,
all the itinerant bores who come to stay
five minutes and stop an hour. From
the editorial and reportorial rooms all
the follies and shams of the world are
seen day by day, and the temptation is
to believe neither in God, man, nor
woman. 1t is no surprise to me that in
your profession there are some skeptical
men. | only wonder that you believe
anything. Unless an editor or report
er has in his present or in his early
home model of earnest character or be
throw himself upon the upholding grace
of God he may make temporal and eter-
nal shipwreck.
Another great trial of the newspaper
profession is inadequate compensation.
Since the days of Hazlitt and Sheridan
and John Milton and the wailings of
Grub street, London, literary toll, with
very few exceptions, has not been prop
erly requited. When Oliver Goldsmith
received friend in his house, he (the
author) had to sit on the window, be-
cause there was only one chair. Lin
naus sold his splendid work for a
ducat De Foe, the author of so many
volumes, died penniless. The learned
johnson dined behind a screen because
! his clothes were too shabby to allow
him to dine with the gentlemen who on
the other side of the screen were APP
plauding his works. And SO on down to
! the present time literary toll is great
| struggle IOT DT6du. lu6 WOTlu s66Lus W
! have a grudge against a man who, as
they say, gets his living by his wits,
and the day laborer says to the man Of
literary toll, lyon come down here and
shove a plane, and hammer a shoe last,
and break cobblestones, and earn an
honest living as do instead of sitting
there in idleness scribbling." But there
are no harder worked men in all the
earth than the newspaper people of this
country. 1t is not matter of hard
times; it is characteristic at all times.
Men have better appreciation for that
which appeals to the stomach than for
that which appeals to the brain. They
have no idea of the immense financial
and intellectual exhaustion of the news
paper press. Oh, men of the press, it
will be great help to you if when you
get home late at night tagged out and
nervous with your work you would just
kneel down and commend your case to
God, who has watched all the fatigues
of the day and the night and who has
promised to be your God and the God Of
your children foreverl
Perverted Appetites.
Another great trial of the newspaper