The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-17

for the many, therefore ethics is the
keynote of the present time. The
ablest newspaper is the one that most
clearly and convincingly unravels the
tangled web of sophistry and se-s forth
the simple business truth that right
and justice pay ten per cent.
"This would not be partisanship nor
preachment. 1t would be the reflection
and Interpretation Of the tidal senti-
ment of the times.
IF it is not too much to expect there
be some humble virtues which a news
paper ought to exemplify. While it is
not the creator of literature, yet it is
the most far-reaching of all influences
in shaping and forming the speech of
people. Upon it more than upon any
other one thing rests the responsibility
of educating men and women to use
the English language with clearness,
force and precision. Its pages ought to
be free from sins against the canons
of speech.
SIovenIy writing.
1T makes the Judicious grieve to read
that Mr. Blank 'Sundayed' somewhere.
Had he gone south in the winter, he
might, with no more vidense be said to-
have Januaryed in Florida. Slovenli-
ness in the use of language is immoral.
A plain unapologetic damn is less rep
rehensibIe than q blunder in grammar.
The word like is a fruitful source of
mischief This noun, adjective and ad-
verb gets mixed like thunder.
Like enough the average writer is
not ignorant, but careless However,
Talleyrand considered blunder worse
than a crime.
There are persons who persist in us
ing that word in this odious fashion:
He spoke like he meant it. whereby
one is reminded of the butcher who
succeeded to his fathers business, and
the fact by a signboard
kills hogs like his father
Everyone remembers the crusade
carried on by a New York paper
against the split infinitive. There are
beauty, grace, power and subtle charm
in simple words well said. Nothing is
in the employment of
language to express thought. An entire
edition of the BibbIe was made ridicu-
lous and thrown away on account of a
This was the OFFENDING passage: is
there no treacle in Gilead? Is there no
physician there2' The world still
word and the pathos and beauty of the
lament are restored. Is there no balm
in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
1.-THE tongue and the pen are the mes
senrers Of the brain. But for them it
is silent, voiceless, mute Well might
the brain say to them as JoYe said to q
goddess whom he sent with a message:
g Haste thee, swift Iris, and report
the words I tell thee to royal Neptune,
and report them right
Tell the Truth.
1.-THE. simple virtue of veracity is
crown Of glory. Lying is
fine art that some people mistake for
genius To overstate or half state
truth. to tint and color fact, to sensa-
tionalize the commonplace, to elaborate
and make picturesque the ordinary IS
form of neT1dacity which has earned
for certain papers a name that has ref
erence to their complexion.
'sTruth-telling is not an art II IS
a aispositfon a nature. It is tempera-
mental. Some men are prone to lie
as sparks to fly upward, and after a
while they will fly downward ana lie
where the sparks are The liar lni-
fafes. COPIES and repeats himself. That
is what makes him wearisome. The
truth-telIer is original, fresh, virile,
celebrating
1.-The world is good enough and bad
enough for all legitimate newspaper
pI1rposes. Men and events are some
times picturesque, often thrilling ana
ALWAYS interesting. We wish to see
them as they are. We like fiction, but
NOT in our newspaper. We ike
nreaching when we do it ourselves.
latter all, it is a work Of superero-
cation to criticise. Every sincere
worker in whatever field of effort,
knows better than his critic knows,
that his work is not perfect.
cit is the constant struggle to inn
prove that gives inspiration to toll