Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1899-12-14
LOVE THEIR PROFESSION \
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AS a rule man Is not obliged to
stick to the profession which he senters
IL early life. Lawyers stray into other.
occupants; ministers aband on the put
pit; doctors become. planters, and,
teachers succeed as business men.
Even politicians occasionally reform
and settle: down to the useful pursuits
OF private life. Men Of strong will pow
er give up forever old associations and
habits and form new ones.
The conspicuous exception is the
journalist. He may be convinced that
he viii find more honor and profit in
other occupations, and he may 20 into
them, but his old profession will always
tempt him, and nine times out of ten.
he will return to it sooner or later.
You have read Uncle Remus' tar
baby story?
III Well, Journalism is the tar baby Of
the professions. It cEngs TO man
closer than porous plaster, after he.
has once come in cont actvith it. There
is some mysterious magic in printers
ink and in publicity, and when man
has well-defned case Of what the an
clients called "cacoetbes scribendi" as
rarely ever gets over1t.
The great Napoleon frankly admitted
that he hated and feared Journalists,
He pretended also to despise them, but
in an evil hour he wrote an editorial Tor
his official organ. and from that day to
the end OF his imperial career he was
always fooling with that historic news
paper and furnishing it with copy.
Waterloo cured him. but if there had
been printing press at ST. Helena the
exile would have hunted it I'd before
he had been on the island As hours.
Col. William L. Scrnggs has never
entirely freed himself from the iour-
nalistic tar baby. The first time he ssnv
q printing office in Bogota, when he
went there as United States minister,
he could not resist the temptation to
drop in, and in an unofficial way got
in touch with the concern. 1
Col. w. A. Hcmphill had the same ex-
perience in Cuba and Porto Rico. He
didn't understand Spanish, but The
newspaper offices attracted him all the
same. ...
Sam Small, after he had been preach
Ing several years, said that he did not
believe man could do regular work on
daily newspaper and be Christian.
A year or two later Sam became the
editor of the Daily Pilot at Norfolk, Va,
and he filed it full of hot stuff as long
as he was connected with it.
One OF the most famous and success
full literary men in Georgia has been
guaranteed big financial rewards if he
will give up journalism and devote him
selfsto the writing of books He knows
that this would be to his interest in
many ways, but he cannot tear himself
away from the tar baby. So he con-
tinues his daily grind, and Will probably
stick to his editorial la hors until he dies
OF old age.
Sometimes phenomenal men, like
William L. Tancey aud James G Blaine.
make determined effort to get away
from their tar baby and never collide
with the thing again.
But Iancey and Blaine got loose
when they were young men, and the
excitement OF the political period pre-
ceding our civil war caused them to
seek the platform and the forum in
stead of the editorial sanctum. But
they were strong men, and when they
once made up their minds they were not
to be turned from their purpose or their
pathway. In secret they. perhaps, re-
GREETED their plunge from Journalism
into politics, but they resolutely kept
away from the stick monster of their
scribbling days.
Catch journalist when he is Young
II you want to reform him. After he
has spent few years in the embraces
OF The greedy tar baby there is very lit
tie hope Of making him useful in new
field. Even when & journalist spends
half OF lifetime in other callinrs it ia
generally an easy matter to interest
him in his old profession, and he takes
pleasure in newspaper "reminiscences
to the very last. s
In the great majority Of instances the
man who gets taste of newspaper life
continues in that occupation the M.
mainder of his existence. The excep.
tons are very few.-Atlanta Constit,s
ton.
hooks Ovar Three states.