Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1899-09-08
LOVES HIS PROFESSION.
Newspaper Makers Find Their Work
Fascinating

AS a rule a man is not obliged tC
stick to the profession which he enters
in early life. Lawyers stray into Other
occupations; 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
power give. up forever old associations
and habits, and form new Cnes.
The conspicuous exception is the
Journalist. He may be convinced that
he will find more homer and profit in
CJher occupations. and he may go into
them, but his old profession will al
ways tempt him, and nine times out cf
ten he will return to it sooner or later.
You have read Uncle Remus tar
baby story?
Well, journalism is the tar baby of
the professions. Gt clings to a man
closer than a porous plaster, after he
has once come in contact with it.
There is some mysterious magic in
printers ink and in publicity, and
when a: man has a we'll defined case of
what the ancients called ''cacoethes
scribendi" he rarely ever gets over it.
The great NapClecn frankly Admit
ted that he hated and feared journal
ISIS. He pretended also to despisa
them, but in an evil hour he wrote an
editorial fer his official organ, and
from that day until the end of his i'm
pscfal career he was always fooling
with that hcstoric newspaper and fur
Ei.shing it with copy
Wal5erl0o cured him, but if there
had been a printing office cit st. Helena
the exile would have hunted it up be-
fore he had been ON the island forty
eight hours.
Colonel William L. Scruggs has
never entirely freed himself from the
journalistic tar baby The first time
he saw a printing office in BagIta,
when he went theGe as United States
minister, he could net resist the temp
taition to drop in, and in an unofficial
WEy get in touch with the concern.
Colonel w. "A. Hemphill had the
same experience in CUBA and Porto
Rico. He didn't understand Spanish,
but the newspaper offices attracted
him all the same
Sam Small, alter he had been
preaching several years, said that he
did net believe a man could do regular
work on daily newspaper and be
Christian
A year or two later Sam became the
editor CT the Daily Pilot at Norfolk,
VA, and he filled it full of hot stuff
as long as he was connected with it.
He is enc of The best newspaper men
in the world, and he may start an up
tC-date daily in Cuba at any time.
One CT tbs most famous and success
full literary men in Georgia has been
big financial rewards if he
will give up Journalism and devCta
himself to the writing of books. He
knows That this would be, to his inter
est in many ways, but he cannot tear
himself away from. the tar baby. So
he continues his daily grind and viii
probably stick tcl his editorial labors
until he dies of old age.
Sometimes phenomenal men, like
william l. Yancey and James G.
Bl-.ne make determined effort to get
away from their tar baby and nIav9r
1oll:de With the thing again
But Yancey and Blaine got loose
when they were young men, and the
excitement OF the political period pre-
eeding cur civil war caused them to
eek the platform and the forum in
stead of the editorial Sanctum. But |
hey were strong man, and when they |
5nce made up their minds they were
lct tc be turned from their purpose |
U IuOlI pdLuW dy. III SSClSL lASy, Pei
laps, regretted their plunge from jour |
lalism into politics, but they resolute-
y kept away from the sticky monster |
f their scribbling days.
Catch a journalist when he is young |
you want to reform him. After he
las spent a few years in the embraces
# the greedy tar baby there is very
title hope of making him useful in a
rev field. Even whein a Journalist
ponds half of a lifetime in other call
ngs it is generally an easy matter to
interest him in his old profession and
e takes pleasure in newspaper remi-
iscences ito the very last
In the great majority of Instances
he man who gets a taste of pewspa-
er life continues in that occupation
ne remainder of his existence. The
are very few.-Atlanta Con-
titutiOn.