The San Francisco call., 1905-03-26

even If you never use them.
They're like a dress suit for SIS
a week hall roomer, a badge Of
respectabtlity and very present
help in case of need It's q peculiar
thing about ideals that they are al
ways turning up In unexpected places.
For example, you may find a black
smith who yearns with a mighty yearn
to write poetry. At times I am tempt
ed to believe that almost all the poets
Of these degenerate days are black
smiths in disguise-and porly dis
guised at that. The typewriter dreams
of the day when she can marry the
head Of the firm and break the speed
ordinances In her own automobile
The head Of the firm has his eye fixed
on the happy time when he can take
a whole week away from the ofice
and eat q square meal without feeling
sorry for It afterward. Even the
criminal rich have their ideals Not
being In their confidence. can't say
what they are, but I'm sure that they
must have them.
Horace Greeley Jones furnishes q
typical example of the difficulty OF
living with an ideal regularly. Mr..
Jones calling and election was the
purveying Of news and the guiding
and forming OF the public mind on all
questions of great general Importance.
In other words, he was an editor. I
trust that no one will smile at this
implication that an editor may pos
sess ideals. I have known two or
three who kept a full set-in a safe
a
Horace Greeley. however. was one OF
attempted to keep an ideal In gilt
frame on his desk where he could
consult 1t constantly.
One Of his fundamental conceptions
of the business OF the newspaper edi-
tor was that he should never allow
anything to appear In the columns Of
his high class sheet which could pos
sibly offend the most sensitive OF his
readers. Murders and lynchings and
ward caucuses must be carefully
avoided and full accounts should be
given Of church sociables and the af-
ternoon teas Of the elite of the COM
munity. That was ideal number one.
Ideal number two was that a news
paper should never tell anything but
the truth and when by any chance 1t
blundered into slight misrepresent-
alton full apology and explanation
should be made In the next issue. His
mistake here was In assuming that
while truth may lie at the bottom OF
a well, 1t Is very seldom an Ink well
in a newspaper Office.
A third ideal to which he clung with
the tenacity of a Congressman to his
full legal mileage was that q news
paper should never attempt to make
money. The stubbornness Of coarser
men who begged to be allowed to live
was an abomination in his sight. He
was of the opinion that making a liv-
ing was a secondary matter. Finally
he thought that an editor should be
without ambitions or friends which
could possibly warp his Judgment. Ed
itors seldom do have any friends and
their ambitions are very soon trimmed
down to an overwhelming desire to get
the forms on the presses In time to
catch the first mail. 1t will thus be
seen that the only ideal In his whole
outfit to which he could cling with any
prospect of success was the last.
The exact manner IN which the 9TH
ers were one by one consigned to the
darkness of oblivion makes a sad and
almost tragic story. but 1t Is story
which the interests Of truth compel me
to relate. Not being an editor can
tell the truth occasionally, for practice
If for no other reason When he began