The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-03-24
THE COUNTRY EDITOR.
From a Speech by Champ Clark Of
Mlssouria, in the House.

The rural editor-God bless him
is the most persistent of teachers.
Like charity as described by St. Paul
in the 18th Chapter of First Corinthl-
ans, he "sufereth long and Is kind, he
envieth not himself, is not pulled up
doth not behave himself unseemly !; !
seeketh not bis own is not easily pro-
voked, thinketh no evil rejolceth not
in iniquity. but rejoice!h in truth
beareth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things"
He is the packhor.e of every COM
munity, promoter of every laudable
enterprise, the worst underpaid laborer
In the vineyard. Counting his space
as his capital, he gives more to charity,
his means considered, than any other
member of society. He is power in
politics, pillar In the church, leader
In the crusade for better morals. He
is pre-emlnently the friend OF humanity.
Line upon line, paragraph upon para
graph, day by day, he is embalming in
cold type the facts from which the He
rodotus, Tacltus. Sism ondl. Or Macaulay
of the future will write the history of
our times. He fully chronicles our ad-
vent into the world, briefly notes our
uprisings and our downsittings, and sor-
roufI111v roccrds O11r exit
AS creator of beauty be doubly dis
counts Nine. Ayres, who proposes to
increase feminine pulchritude only in
particular Instances, while the country
editor, exercising plenary power, beau
titles impartially all women whose
names appear in his columns. By
touch of his magician's wand he con-
verts paste Into diamonds glistening up
on beauty's neck, and with skill of
which ancient and ambitious alchemists
only dreamed, and with a pol1tness
which Chesterfield might have envied,
he transmutes brass trinkets into golden
jewels, when worn by members of a
subscribers family. He is the greatest
and most ingenious of manufacturers
and while others manufacture perish
able stuffs. he Is engaged In manufact-
! uring immortal statesmen out of raw
sometimes very raw-mate1ials, an in
dustry which even the Dingley tariff
cannot protect. Hels
To our virtues very kind,
And to our faults a little blind.
We are all more Or less-generally
more-his handiwork, and the creature
should not be rngrateful to his creator.
Without his generous and enthusiastic
been here and when he tires OF us,
most of Us Will return to private life
amid rural scenes propitious for secret
meditation and silent prayer. Work
ing night and day DUNG the campaign,
when the election is over and the time
comes Tor the distribution OF the loaves
and fshes-now vulgarly called "Pie'
by some strange lapse OF memory he
Is generally forgotten.
Not all, marx you, but vast major
ity OF Democratic metropolitan papers
basely deserted their colors and went
bag and baggage. horse, loot and drag
oons into the camp OF the enemy, but
the country weeklies with rare except
ions stood by the cause of Bryan and
Democracy and,,humanity with unshak-
en- fidelity, superb courage and COM
mendable self-abnegation, thereby vim
dicating the patriotism, wisdom and
independence of the American press.
Upon this same country editor we
must depend largely for honest, cour-
ageous, patriotic press service In the
campaign now impending as we'll as
that of 1900.