The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-09
Heart to- Heart Talks.
BY The CYNIC

How can one preserve the virginia.
freshness of mind in regard to society +?
By avoiding society and living in soIi-
tude. By this do not mean society in
it's conventional sense, but in that larger
sense of human contact. Here is a
man or woman who appears to doubt
tn e genuineness of sentiments expressed,
confesses to a lack of faith in appear
ances and shows a disposition to probe
for things unseen, with a seeming conf
dence of finding something hidden be-
meath the surface. A cynie, you say
Yes, in restricted sense; better say a
person with knowledge of the world
1t is fact well known that newspaper
men, reporters, managing editors-are
very apt to accept what is said with a
large sprinkling of salt. They are hard
men for the common fakir to work.
Why? Because they know the world as
it Is. There is no profession to which
the contemplate weakness and inherent
fraud of the human family is revealed
with such sang froid. The vanity and
httleness of every vocation and profession
come to the press for succor. There Is
no hiding of facts. 1t is not the honest
and worthy who seek the assistance Of
the press for personal ends, but the shall
low, the weak, the unworthy They
seek the aid of the press to place them
before the public in light not their own
70 the shame Of the press be it sa d
that it takes advantage of this very
weakness to befoo1 the public with false
estimates of characteristics lights, as it
were, along the social and political BEACH
1t becomes the settled habit of the press
to speak of incompetence and shoddy in
the same terms with which it discussed
ability and genius. A young man
through negligence loses his position,
hunts for a job for three months, and
at length finds one as assistant to Il
shipping clerk. He goes to the press and
the public learns the next day that "Mr
John Error has accepted a position with
one Of the leading wholesale firms Of the
city as head bookkeeper" A young
lady nlarries a worthless cuss about
town against her parents wishes and the
advice Of her friends. Everybody knows
that it is q mesalliance and that the end
will be in the divorce court. But the
the beautiful and accomplished Miss
KnoW1ttle to the enterprising Mr. Pool.
The young couple are to be congratulate
ed upon their mutual choice. Mr.. Pool
is one of our most popular and enterpris-
ing young business men (never did any,
thing in his life) and will at once en-
gage in the numerous business ENTERPRISES
With which his uncle has been so long
connected. The Evening Whitewash
joins with the thousands of admirers Of
the bride and groom in wishing them
happiness and success which will. with
out doubt be their portion And SO
on to the end of the chapter Some of
the public are fooled, many are disguised.
but the newspaper man knows that
three-fourths of them all would be pleas
ed with something of the same sort said
about themselves. The worthy are dis
gusted, if they happen to know the facts.
but the worthy are IN very small ma
Jorlty and do not count. The business Of
the press demands that in social matters
the fools be pleased, for they pay the
fiddler and like to dance
Is 1t strange, then, that the average
newspaper man becomes somewhat of a
cynic? Not at all. He is a cynfc, but
never a bitter cyn1c. This human farce
comedy to him is inexpressibly funny.
And the most amusing thing to him
Is the fact that the actors are so seri-
Gus and seem to think that they are Gov
ering up their weaknesses.
How about the other professions? They
are not in it. They hover about the edge
OF this crowd of jostling human souls
but seldom get into the crush. The law
yer gets little of the substratunl of
human nature in his office and in court
but generally he sees only surface indt-
cations. What he does see is mostly
tragedy-the tragedy of the probate and
divorce courts.
The preacher? Why. bless your soul,
he is the most unsophisticated of the
whole human race. He sees but little of
life, and that in its n1ildest form He lives
on intellectual Cruel and drinks nothing
stronger than WataFed mental milk. HUI
man nature to him is a sealed book with
an iron clasp, the opening of which would
lacer9te his fingers 1 am now speaking
CT preachers as a class. There are ex-
ceptions- a few who know life and know
1t we'll = Do they become cynical? No,
1t is their business to be optimists. and
in fact they are too broad to take
narrow view, even of sin. How can thew
give advice about things of which they
are ignorant? Well, advice is often good,
even if it be net backed by experience.
nevertheless the weakness of the pulpit
hes in that direction. 1t does not reach
the. people, because it is not of the pee-
pie. Here is young preacher nice
young man who has been educated under
circumstances where his ear was never
prefaned by a sound harsher than a. flute
note. What does he know about the
sins of the world, of the temptations, of
the loves, the hates, the crimes Of strong,
passionate souls? What does he know
Of human suffering. physical or mental?
He is a moral babe in arms, seeing few
things, believing all things.
The doctors? Yes. they are. apt to be-
come cynical They know the world in
some Of its peculiar phases. They hold
the secrets of society. Should they form
a trust and divu1ge their secrets, society
would well nigh dissolve. They are the