Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1901-04-09
scRUpULoUs EDITORS.
Allow Little in Their Publications Thsi
VIII Offend Readers.


WIN Offend Readers.
can absurd story went the rounda
Of the press a couple Of years ago,
said a gentleman connected with thek
business end of a prominent New
York publishing house, ITO the effect
that Rudyard Kipling had been COM
PEELED to cut out the word wine from
one of his short tales. OF course, so
far as Kipling was concerned such a
yarn answered itself, but if the au-
thor referred to had been almost any-I
body else it wouldn't have done tol
dismiss it with a shrug and a smile I
Unless you have had an opportunity
to see something of a modern publish
ing house from behind the scenes u
continued the speaker, "you have no
idea Of the scrupulous care that is
taken nowadays to avoid offending
the great middle classes. / am refer
ring particularly to houses that pub
lish magazines and weeklies, of the
kind that make a bid for what we call
'fireside circulation All such con-
Germs have a set of cast-irOn rules in
regard to topics that may or may not
be mentioned in the columns of theiy
publications, and hippant referenc
to religion is the thing they hold q
pecially in dread. That reminds ms 3
by the way, of rather an amusing liz
tie incident which occurred last sum
mer and illustrates this very point.
had occasion to spend a week or so j
Chicago in June, and before | startq
friend who edits one Of the popular
magazines, which is making desper'
ate struggle to get foothold with the
public, asked me to hunt up a WELL
known writer Of that city and return
manuscript for revision Tell him
to eliminate all reference to religion
in the dialogue said the editor, and
to substitute something-anything
he pleases-that couldn't hurt the
feelings of some fanatic.' l delivered
the message and the Chicago genius
was highly indignant, but before L
left he concluded to sacrifice his art
to considerations Of filthy lucre, and
made the. changes specified. THE
stuff might not have offended any
body said my friend the editor when
] made my report, but it certainly
poked fun at one of the greatest Prot
estant denominations in the world,
and we make it positive rule to print
no references to religion in fiction
You can never tell whose toes you are
getting on All the younger publica-
tions are equally timid in that respect
1t is a curious fact, in this same con-
nection, that even the big general ad-
vertisers of the north always scru-
tinize their copy with the utmost
care to see that it contains nothing
that might possibly give otfense to
some devout and supersensitive read
er. For example, a well-known man
ufacturing concern which does amin
mense amount of advertising got up a
special design for a comic calendarre-
Gently, and after the larger part of the
order had been printed and delivered
one of the partners happened to notice
that the expression: Holy smoker
was used in the text under one Of the
humorous pictures. lie Immediately
countermanded the order, taking the
position that the phrase might posi-
bly, give offense to some serious-mind-
ed person when something else would
do Just as well. | mention this Incl
dent because it is a good illustration
of the extraordinary pains that are
taken in certain lines at present to
keep off Of other folks cOrns. IN. O.
! Times-DemOcrat.