The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-16
IT'S TO "SIT UP"

jectives about the body at the end OF
the rope-andfhe reader does the
rest. Some things need wealth OF
description to be told so as to be I'M
derstood. Death, the constant menace
at the heart of nature, needs but TO
be suggested in his grim surround
ings.
In an age which has adopted the
policy of hunting for the truth, wheth-
err ugly or not which has won past
the fiimSy device of euphemism and is
slowly learning to consider conditions
and their attendant evils instead OF
waiting to vent indignation and be-
come concerned only over such mat
tiers as are brought to the surface by
circumstance, the people can be trust
ed with the truth whether it be sweet
and elegant sour or brutal. There is
more pessiJnism in the idea that the
innate worth kindness and charity of
the public may be endangered by the
narration of the exceptional horror
than there is in the faith that the pub
lie has become mature. In this day
and time we are Sitting up; and the
dreams that come in the well-earned
pauses of work are the sweeter and
the fairer because they are of the lux
uries Of life.
However, this is not so much cri-
ticism as a remonStrance with our edl-
tor who reads "hangings'' so carefully
himself and whets the curiosity of his
own readers by yelled denunciations
afterwards. / have it from his own
pen that his attitude in the editorial
world is neither that of sitting up nor
lying down. 1t is the most awkward
mean between the two: the critic
works on all-fours.
1--WE shall endeayor" said he on the
,~t- IN
write our editorials henceforth on our
knees"
So far as the writer knows the OPP
Grafton has been conducted in private,
but it seemed then and still seems to
have been an ill-advised ambition, pc
culiarly unsuited for an editor, who
in the nature of his calling has ever
to be on guard. 1t would appear that
the position is one extremely open to
attack; it is certainly not suiteo Tor
self defense. 1t is top-heavy pose, ir-
ritating it would seem. to adopt, and
inviting to assault. To write thus
would be to suffer a rush of blood
to the head to bias q cool and sober
judgment to see things at an acute
and uncomfortable angle. After in
fancy the knees have usually been eX-
ercised by the human race in moments
of fcrvent appeal to the one or the
other divinity or for undignified eX
curSionS after things that were lost
under something. | have seen several
red-necked and immorally explosive
men making baby-like explorations in
search of fugitive buttons; have heard
of timid damsels spelling the set of
beWitching night-dreSSeS hunting the
ever possible man under the bed; have
seen a woman crawl painfully about
the floor cutting out patterns; have
seen an author whose proof and copy
had been blown about his room max
ing a sinuous way among the scattered
relics of genius While he cuSsed like
deck hand; but never before had |
heard Of an editor choosing to inVert
himself for purposes of moral disserta-
ton. Just what is the advantage of
the perpendicular on composition. /
am not aware. A school-boy, doing
arithmetic" sometimes seems to ac-
uuire mental stimulus by paralleling
the floor with his stomach, but the
up-side-down of literary effort strikes
as strangely on the mind as the first
weird splatterings of Aubrey Boards
ley stunned the orthodox artistic senti-
ment of his day.
Every man to his taste, but / feel
that the attitude is behind the cut
that had it not been for his eccen-
tricity, the really able editor would
have let my Hanging" alone and
merely read it along with the rest of
the world. OF course it is his affair, but
for one | would have him to "sit up
and do business"