Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-02-26
Trials of Newspaper Work.

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 puffed, the re-
venges that want to be wreaked, all the
mistakes that want to be corrected, all
the dull speakers who want to be
thought eloquent, al the meanness that
wants to get its wares noticed 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
never 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 all 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 modelof earnest character or he
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 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 great
struggle for bread The world seems to
have q grudge against man who, as
they say, gets his living by his wits,
and the day laborer says to the man Of
literary toll, "You come down here and
shove plane, and hammer 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 Appctites.
Another great trial of the newspaper
profession is the diseased appetite for
unhealthy intelligence. You blame the
newspaper press for giving such promi-
nence to murders and scandals. Do you
suppose that so many papers would give
prominence to these things if the people
did not demand them? If ! go into the
meat market of foreign city and find
that the butchers hang up on the most
conspicuous hooks meat that is tainted,
while the meat that is fresh and sayory
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 CT
newspaper and there are in it no runa
way matches, no broken up families, no
defamation of men in high position,
they pronounce the paper insipid. They
say, at is shockingly dull tonight. l
believe it is one Of the trials OF the news
paper press that the people Of this coun-
try demand moral slush instead of heal
thy and intellectual food. Now you are
a respectable man, az intelligent man,
and paper Genes into your hand. You
open it, and there are three columns of
splendidly written editorial, recon-
mending some moral sentiment or evolv
ing some scientific theory. In the next
column there is miserable, contempti
BILE 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 divorce case
from the long primer type at the top to
the nonpareil type at the bottom, and
then you ask your wife if she has read
it. Oh, it is only case Of supply and
demand Newspaper men are not fools.
They know what you want, and they
give it to you. ] believe that if the
church and the world bought nothing
but pure, honest, healthful newspapers
nothing but pure, honest aud healthful
newspapers would be published. If you
should gather all the editors and the re-
porters of this country in one great con-
yention and ask of them what kind OF a
paper they would prefer to publish,
believe they would unanimously say,
"We would prefer to publish an elevat-
ing paper" So long as there is an in
iquitous demand there will be an in
iqnitous supply. make no apology for
debauched newspaper, but am say
ing 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 allurement that
surrounds them. Every occupation and
profession 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
On Ia ,,f +bo Marty ond so tha renOrter