The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-06-02
WATTERSON TALKS SHOP
MARSE HENRY is DINED
By the Press Club of New
York.
WHAT A NEWSPAPER SHOULD BE
Proud of His Profession and Although
Old Believes He Could Still Hold
His Own In Competition With
New York Reporter.


New York.-Henry Watterson, ed
itor of the Louisville Courier-J our
nal, was the guest of the New York
Press club at a dinner in his honor
To his right and left sat other news
paper men of national prominence
and some others not of the craft
We're there as guests. Among these
were Brig. Gen. Walter Howe, COM
mander of the department of the
east, and Representative William
Sulzer.
The cover of the menu was re-
production of Col. Watterson's pa
per, reproduced, the Courier-Jour-
nal. A cut of Col. Watterson adorn-
ed the inside.
In Watterson's talk he said:
II was born next door to print
shop and grew up in a newspaper
Office. First and last / have filled
every newspaper function from gal
ley boy to leader-writer. / am proud
of my calling and Jealous of its good
name. Until l gave up all-round, all
night work, was never so happy as
toward the wee sma' hours when the
boys about me, wires were flashing
and feet were hurrying and the
presses were beginning to thunder
below.
mot one of you has walked these
streets in search of work more visit
fully and more despairingly than
have. I remember once seeing young
James Gordon Bennett through a
window Of the old Herald office
down about the corner of Broadway
and Fulton streets, and Of murmur-
ing, with John Leech's ragged ur-
chin, looking upon a little boy in a
London home, eating plum-pudding,
wouldn't 1t be bully to be him ~
Just fifty-two years ago Mr.. Dana,
then on the Tribune paid me SIS
for a bit of what would be called
space writing now, and ten years
later, when we had come to be
as it were, professional colleagues,
he was pleased to be reminded of the
circumstance, and from that hour to
the day of his death was my most
excellent friend and comrade.
81 think l know what news is and
how to prepare it. Like victuals It
may be served hot and savory or
raw and unsavory, be brought on
plain, or be dressed and decorated,
to suit the ever varying public
tastes. There is in this, as in cook
ing, an art.
"a fine, rudy murder, like fair
round of beef, may be ruined in the
roasting, and a scandal, fat and jul
cy, blonde and frowsy, wholly spoil
ed by figurative excess of oil and
garlic. A skillful chef can take few
scraps and fabricate dish to de-
light a gourmet So a deft reporter
can put this and that together and
piece a story to set the town a-talk-
ing. In both cases, however, there
must be a basis of essential facts.
1t is given to no man to make silk
purse out of sow's ear; to no cook
to render suate out of saw-dust
and boot-heels; to no reporter to
turn a scoop into a lie.
ct draw the line at straight lying
and the station house. The city edi-
tor should never consider himself a
brevet chief of police, the reporter
semi-professional detective. The
newspaper with the law, should as
sumo the accused innocent until
proven guilty; should be the friend,
not the enemy of the general public,
the defender, not the invader, Of pri-
vate life and the assailer of personal
character.
''The newspaper Is not commodi-
ty to be sold over the counter like
dry goods and groceries. 1t should
be as 1t were. a keeper of the public
conscience, its rating professional,
like the ministry and the law, not
commercial like the department
store and bucket shop. It's workers
should be gentlemen, not eve drop
pers and scavengers developing a
spy system peculiarly their own, not
caring for the popular respect and
esteem.
elm short, my dear young friends,
/ stand for the manhood, the gentle
manhood, of our guild, profession
and not trade, and believe that in
the long run, the owners Of newspa-
per properties will learn that integ-
rity and cleanliness pay the best
dividends and that good faith and
good humor are positive assets.
whenever one of you finds him
self in a position of authority, let
him carry out these few precepts
in is mind and in his heart; to print
nothing of man which he would
not say to ris face; to print nothing
of a man in malice; to look well and
think twice before consigning sus-
pect to the ruin of printers ink; to
respect the old and defend the weak;
BRIDE-ELECT KILLED.
Columbus, Ohio.-Miss Lillian
xxy,;~b+ md Misc FI0Scia Herman