The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-16

One of the prlm qualities which
have contributed towards a powerful
if inartistic civilization is the habit OF
sitting up The pose is essentially
unnatural and ungraceful. 1t has been
found, however, to fit with the spirit
which looks conditions in the race ana
wins from level glance an accurate,
if sometimes unbeautiful judgment. To
sit up is to be alert to be diScrimi-
mating to be on the whole just rather
than Sentimental-to value things for
themselves, disassociated from what
sentiment or desire would have them
to be- To "Sit up mentally is perhaps
to be trifie too wise in knowledge of
evil, but it does not preclude the vi
sion of what is really good in the
world. And then, it is always permits
sible to lounge, to look up laZily into
the sky and dream. Dreams are good
medicine for those who sit up too
much; they are like poppy seed to
those who have not learned to stiffen
their spines. Sitting up deals with
facts and looks to their ultimate
change for the better; reclining, ex-
cept for the occasional great seer
among men whose message comes to
tired world like a voice from out the
mysteries themselves, is merely to
waste the power for good wood chop
ping for the sake of very mediocre
fancy thrashed out from time imme-
mortal by equally small and futile
brains Just as the man who never
gets himself really out of his office
chair becomes at the end eXacting of
detail till he cannot see the bulk Of
a fact for the pin point of an Incl
dental, so the dreamer misses the
chance of doing an humble but useful
work for the sake of a tawdry con-
ceit
With the exception of the Japanese
and they violate so many rules as
to constitute the exception that threat
ems the shifting of the old-established
power of the world-progress has ever
been with those who sat in chairs, de-
cay with those dependent upon the
ottoman or the mat. And even the
Japanese squat, a more difficult atti-
tude than sitting-the point of sitting
up being to suffer sufficient discomfort
to enable the mind to keep its vision
fixed on the thing in hand.
1t is not for nothing that the
pregnant slang has with its beautiful
Inconsistencies recognized the princi-
pie. To "sit up and take notice" or
to ''sit up and take nourishment'' have
the very definite meaning that victory
is in sight despair banished hope to
the fore!
Nobody has to "sit up like the
newspaper. The editor has ever be-
fore him the gentle little problem OF
pleasing every day a thousand diver
gent interests, opinions and preju
dices and at the same time pleasing
himself without fear of any or all Of
these. 1t is a delicate task at which
neither theorist. prig nor a bully
can for long succeed. His policy must
be determined, but open eyed, candid
and just. He must see everything and
put it down. Always must he keep
before his mind that his readers are
folks good with the virtue of the
mass that moves slowly to reforms
which last when they are finally devel-
oped. He must know that they, too
are wide-awake and curious. They
want to know. They depend upon the
editor His paper is their daily mirror
of events. Like the broad minded
men of the world that they are, they
will not stop his paper because the
editors ideas do not always fit with
their own, but they will destroy him
if he becomes afraid; and they will
most aSSuredly put him in the outer
dark If he fails to publish the news
In this matter the public is inexor
able and he is a confident egotist who
Will say that the public when it is
practically united should be denied
the things it wants. And the world is
not all beautiful in it's manifestations
hClc dIG tile Dldch SpOIS Ill the Qdy 8
events just as there are the inevitable
sorrows in the individual life. Right
~ or wrongly, the world is interested
IN the dark places, possibly because it
is on the whole so happy itself 1t
reads of them in the paper with vary
ing emotions, but it reads. And it is
the duty of the paper to picture the
facts, not to unduly distort but to put
them down as they happened and
if possible, with sufficient description
to paint the scene in it's natural col
ors. True, the picture may not be a
pleasant one. but it should be truly
taken; and there should be no mawk-
ish shrinking in the performance Of
the duty.
The particular cause responsible for
the foregoing observations is Sc
we're criticism leveled at this paper and
especially this writer for giving Il
truthful and detailed report of the
hanging of the negro Partridge at
Fayetteville last week. According to
the editor of the religious newspaper
who was shocked at the report,
both the paper and the writer
debased themselves in working to
give the public an accurate account
of the tragic end of tragedy that had
stirred the State, that caused a, spe-
cial bill to be passed through the
SloidluIc IIldL the CIlIIllfldi I1ISnI
be speedily tried. The editor refer S
to the report as sensational, graphic,
full of evil incident and color and he
raises pious hands, presumably be-
cause he thinks that the taste of the
people will be first offended and then
vitiated. To write up a hanging is
to his mind a useless and premeditat-
ed crime.
What are the facts? Why did the
editor himself read the story? The
headlines. the first few, brief para
graphs told the tale in full. He could
have stopped there easily But he
went on. Like the vitiated people to
whom he would not have the paper
pander, he continued to the end, fol-
lowing the story from the first to the
last page. Was he vitiated and was
his editorial a sort of penance for
his interest? If so, his scruples dist
ance those of the mass of the people.
Then, too, the mere fact that he had
an impression that the report was
sensational" indicates his consuming
interest in the story and the details of
the end of the brute. There was
mo- in, etc io1,