The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-04

their dOlngE, until IN TINS Day. Wnen
we have in this country many thou
sands of skilled stenographers n
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, I'll rake while
you bind" and the iron teeth Of the
telegraph are set down at n end OF
the harvest field and drawn clean
across, and the newspapers gathers up
the sheayes, setting down one sheaf on
the breakfast table in the shape OF a
morning newspaper and putting down
another sheaf on the tea table in the
shape Of an evening newspaper, n
that man who neither reads nor takes
a newspaper would be a curiosity.
What vast progress since the days
when Cardinal Wolsey declared that
either the printing press must go down
or the church of God must go down to
this time, when the printing press and
the pulpit are in hundreds Of glorious
combinations and alliances
TRIALS OF NEWSPAPER WORK.
One of the great trials of this Jews
paper profession is the fact that they
are compelled to see more Of the shams
of the world than any other profession.
Through every newspaper office, day
by day, go the weakness of the world,
the vanities that want to be pulled,
the revenges that want to be wrecked,
all the mistakes that want to be cor
rected, all the dull speakers who want
to be thought eloquent, all the mean
ness that wants to get its wares MOTTO
ed gratis in the editorial columns in
order to save the tax Of the advertising
column, all the men who want to be
set right who were right, all the
crack Drained philosophers, with story
as long as their hair and as gloomy 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 shans of the world are seen day
by day, and the temptation is to be-
lieve neither in God, man, nor woman.
1t is no surprise to me hat in your
profession there are some skeptical
men. | only wonder that you believe
anything. Unless an editor or a re-
porter has in his present Or in his
early home a model Of earnest char
acter Or he throw himself upon the up
holding grace Of God he may make
temporal and eternal 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 pro-
perly requited. When Oliver Gold
smith received a friend in his house,
he (the authOr) had to sit on the win
dow, because there was only one chair.
Linaeus 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 ap-
plauding his works. And SO on down
to the present time literary toll is a
great struggle for bread. The world
seems to have a grudge against a man
who, a. they say, gets his living by his
wits, and the day labOrer says to the
nan of literary toll, "You come down
here and shove a plane, and hammer
a shoe last, and break cobblestOnes,
and earn an honest living as 7 do in
stead of sitting there in idleness scrib-
bling" But there are 10 harder work.
ed men in all the earth than the news
paper people of this country. It is not
a matter of hard times; it is charac-
~teristic at all times. Men have a bet
ter appreciation for that which appeals
to the stomach than for that which ap-
peals to the brain. They have no idea
of the immense financial and intellec-
tual exhaustion of the newspaper
press. Oh, men Of the press, it will be
a 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 forever!
PERVERTED APPETITES.
Another great trial of the newspaper
profession is the diseased appetite for
unhealthy intelligence. You blame the
newspaper press for giving such prom
inence to the murders and scandals.
Dc you suppose that SO many papers
would give prominence to these things
if the people did not demand them? If
I go into the meat market Of a foreign
city and I find that the butchers hang
up on the most conspicuous hooks
meat that is tainted, while the meat
that is fresh and savory is put away
without any special care, | come to
the conclusion hat the people of that
city love tainted meat. You know
very we'll that if the great mass Of peo-
pie in this country get hold of a news
paper and there are in it no runaway
matches. no broken up families, no
defamation of men in high position,
they pronounce the paper insipid.
They say, 1T is shockingly dull to-
night" I believe it is one of the trials
of the newspaper press that the peo-
pie Of this country demand moral slush
instead of healthy and intellectual
food. Now you are a respectable man,
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