Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1898-03-02

! position, they pronounce the paper
insipid. They say, 1T is shockingly
dull tonight" l believe it is one of the
trials of the newspaper press, that the
| people of this country demand moral
| slush instead of healthy and intellectu-
al food. Now, you are respectable
man, an intelligent man, and a 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 COL
umn 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 writ
ten," 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. / be-
lieve that il the church and the world
bought nothing but pure, honest,
healthful newspapers, nothing but
pure, honest and healthful newspapers
would be published. If you should
gather all the editors and the reporters
of this country in one great conven-
ton, and ask of them what kind OF
paper they would prefer to publish,
believe they would unanimously say,
1--WE would prefer to publish an elevat-
ing paper" So long as there is an IN
iquitous demand, there will be an in
iquitous supply. l make no apology
for debauched newspaper, but / am
saying these things in order to divide
the responsibility between those who
print and those who read.
Another trial of this profession is the
fact, no one seems to care for their
souls. They feel bitterly about it,
though they laugh. People sometimes
laugh the loudest when they feel the
worst. They are expected to gather up
religious proceedings, and to discuss
religious doctrines in the editorial col
umns, but who expects them to be
saved by the sermons they stenograph,
or by the doctrines they discuss in the
editorial columns? The world looks up
on them as professional. Who preach
es to reporters and editors? Some of
them came from religious homes, and
when they left the parental roof, who
ever regarded or disregarded, they
came off with a fathers benediction
and a mothers prayer. They never
think of those good old times but tears
come into their eyes, and they move
through these great cities homesick.
Oh, if they only knew what a helpful
thing it is for man to put his weary
head down on the bosom of a sympa-
thetic Christ! He knows how nervous
and tired you are. He has heart
large enough to take in all your in
terests for this world and the next.
Oh, men Of the newspaper press, you
sometimes get sick of this world, it
seems so hollow and unsatisfying. II
there are any people in all the earth
that need God, you are the men, and
you shall have him, if only this day you
| implore his mercy.
A man was found at the foot of Ca
nal street, New York AS they picked
him up from the water and brought
him to the morgue, they saw by the
contour of his forehead that he had
great mental capacity. He had entered
the newspaper profession. He had gone
| down in health. He took to artificial
stimulus. He went down further and
| further, until one summer day, hot and
| hungry, and sick, and in despair, he
/ flung himself off the dock. They found
| in his pocket a reporters pad, lead
pencil photograph of some one who
| had loved him long ago. Death, as
sometimes it will, smoothed out all the
| wrinkles that had gathered premature
| ly on his brow, and as he lay there his
face was as fair as when, seven years
before, he left his country home, and
they babe him goodbye forever. The
world looked through the window OF
the morgue, and said, ''It's nothing but
an outcast;;' but God said it was a gi-
| gantic soul that persisted, because the
world gave him no chance
Let me ask all men connected with
| the printing press that they help us
more and more in the effort to make
the world better | charge you in the
name of God, before whom you must
account for the tremendous influence
you hold in this country, to consecrate
| yourselves to higher endeavors. You
are the men to fight back this invasion
Of corrupt literature. Lift up your
right hand and swear new allegiance to
the cause of philanthropy and religion.
And when, at last, standing on the
| plains of judgment, you look out upon
the unnumbered throngs over whom
you have had influence, may it be found
that you were amongst the mightiest
energies that lifted men upon the ex-
allied pathway that leads to the renown
| of heaven. Better than to have sat in
the editorial chair, from which. with
the finger of type, you decided the des-
TIMES of empires, but decided them
wrong, that you had been some dun
geoned exile, who, by the light OF win
dow iron-grated. on scraps of New
Testament leaf. picked up from the
earth spelled out the story of Him who