The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-21

/ by to allow him 10 dine with the gentle
| men who, on the other side of the screen,
/ were applauding his works. And so on
| down to the present time literary toll Is
| great struggle for bread. The world seems
| to have a grudge against q man who, as
! they say gets his living by his waits; and
the day laborer says to the man of liter
! ray toll: You come down here and shove
| a plane, and hammer a shoe-last and
| break cobble stones and earn an honest
! living as / do, instead of sitting there in
| idleness scribbngr' 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 char
| acteristic at all times. Men have a bet
/ ter 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 exhaus-
| ton 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 ia
/ tisues of the day and the night, and who
has promised to be your God and the God
/ of your children forever
! Another great trial OF the newspaper pro-
fession is the diseased appetite for I'M
healthy intelligence. You blame the news
| paper press for giving such prominence to
| murders and scandals. Do you suppose
that 50 many papers would give promi-
| nence to these things If the people did not
! demand them? If l go into the meat mar
/ ket of 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, l come to the
! conclusion that the people of that city
love tainted meat. You know very well
| that If, the great mass of people in this
| country get hold of a newspaper, and there
are in it no runaway matches, no broken
up families, no defamation of men in high
| position. they pronounce the paper inspid.
| They say, at is shockingly duh tonight"
| believe 1t is one of the trials of the news
| paper press, that the people of this coun-
| try demand moral slush instead of healthy
| and intellectual food. Now, you are re-
/ spectacle man, an intelligent man, and
paper comes into your hand You open
| it, and there are three columns of splen-
| didly written editorial recommending
| some moral sentiment, or evolving some
scientific theory. In the next column there
/ is a miserable contemplate divorce case.
| Which do you read first? You dip into the
editorial long enough to say "Well, that's
very ably written" and you read the di-
vorce case from the long primer type at
the top to the ''nonparsil type at the
bottom, and then you ask your wife if she
has read it! Oh 1t is only a case of sup
ply and demand Newspaper men are not
| fools. They know what you want, and
they give it to you. l believe that If the
| church and the world bought nothing but
! pure, honest, healthful newspapers, moth
ing but pure, honest and healthful news
| papers would be published. If you should
| gather all the editors and the reporters of
| this country in one great convention, and
ask of them what kind of a paper they
would prefer 10 publish, believe they
would unanimously say, I'VE would pre-
fer 10 publish an elevating paper" So
long as there is an Ubiquitous demand,
there will be an Ubiquitous supply. l make
no apology for debauched newspaper,
but 1 am saying these things in order to
divide the responsibility between those who
print and those who read.
Another temptation of the newspaper
profession is the great allurment that sur
rounds them. Every occupation and pro-
fesson has temptations peculiar to itself,
and the newspaper profession is not an
exception The great demand, as you
know, is on the nervous force and the
brain Is racked. The laundering political
speech must read well for the sake of the
\ party, and so the reporter, or the editor,
has to make it read well, although every
sentence were a catastrophe TO the English
language. The reporter must hear all
that an inaudible speaker, who thinks it
is vulgar TO speak out says; and it must
be right the next morning or the next
night in the papers, though the night be-
fore the whole audience sat with its hand
behind its ear, in vain trying to catch il.
This man must go through killing night
work. He must go into heated assem-
blages and into unventilated audience
rooms that are enough to take the life
out of him. He must visit court rooms
which are almost always disgusting with
rum and tobacco. He must expose him
self at the fire. He must write in foetid
alleyways. Added to all that, he must have
hasty masticaton and irregular habits
To bear up under this tremendous nervous
strain, they are tempted TO artificial
stimulus, and how many thousands have
gone down under their pressure God only
knows They must have something to
counterfeit the wet, they must have some
thing TO keep out the chill and after a
scant nights sleep they must have some
thing to revive them for the mornings
work. This is what made Horace Greeley
such a stout temperance man. l said to
him: Mr.. Greeley, why are you more
eloquent on the subject of temperance
than any other subject?" He replied: II
have seen so many of my best friends in
journalism go down under intemperance. -
oh, my dear brother of the newspaper
profession, what you cannot do without
artificial stimulus, God does not want
you to do? There is no halfway ground
for our literary people between tectotalism
and dissipation. Your professional sue
cess, your domestic peace, your eternal
salvation will depend upon your theories
in regard to artificial stimulus. | have
had so many friends go down under the
temptation, their brilliancy quenched
their homes blasted. that 1 cry out this
morning in the words of another: Look
not upon the wine when it is red when 1t
giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth
itself Alright; for at the last il bitch like
a serpent, and it stingeth like an adder. 4"
Another trial of this profession is the
fact, no one seems to care for their souls
They feel bitterly about 1t, though they
laugh. People sometimes laugh the loud-
est when they feel the worst They are
expected to gather up religious proceed
ings. and to discuss religious doctrines in
the editorial columns, but who expects
them to be saved by the sermons they
-s--------------------------------
When the children are
hungry, what do you give
] Z ~