The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-08-26

lie Occurrences" antedated the News
Letter fourteen years. 1t was a re-
print by r. Pierce. for Benjamin
Harris, in the old London Coffee
House. in Boston. of the New York
edition OF the London Gazette. But
il lived just twentyfour hours. being
officially suppressed because OF GER
tain undesirable mentionings.
A short quotation from it may not be
amiss.
public Occurrences,
Both Foreign and Domestic.
Boston. Thursday, Sept, 20, 1880.
Ii is designed that the country shall
be furnished once a month, or tif any
glut OF occurrence oftener. with an ac-
count OF such considerable things as
/ have arrived unto our notice.
Thirdly. that somethink may be done
+ towards the curing. or at least the
charming of thatspirit of lying, which
prevails among us. Wherefore nothing
shall be entered. but what We nave
reason to believe IS true, repairing to
the best fountains for our inforlna-
I ton, and when there appears any ma
teriaI mistake ia anything that is col
lected Il shall be corrected in the next.
But, unfortunately for such lofty
journalistic ethics, there was no
next" to continue "the charming Of
that spirit of lying.
j. Perhaps that ideal was too high for
anything, but the epherneral in that
faraway day. But think OF that old
Boston aews- Letter or the Williams
/ burg Gazette, compared with the Rich
/ mond Sirginian of TO-DAY Think OF
how many things are advertised III
the Richmond Nrginian-things in
daily use--that perhaps were not even
/ Imagined then in the widest flights of
fancy. How would it seem to try to
get along without ma<klnery run by
steam, gasoline or electricity " hat
could We do without the telephone. the
| telegraph. the phonograph. tho Wire
/ Less and the thousand and one Things
{ that no one had ever heard OF then.
Yet the people OF that day thought
themselves very progressive. and quite
pitied their great srandfathers for be-
ing such slow old fogies.
! Did you ever see Benjamin Frank
Inns old printing press, and compare
: il with a Hoe Cylinder Press that eau
print more large Sunday issues in
twenty minutes than FTanklins press
would run off business circulars in one
whole day? Yet Ben Franklin had a
/ lot 81 ego Ia his cosmos, ana was
rather given 10 meata! saohbery. In
1879 he stated the Pennsylvania Ga
q zet&e~-Iow tho Saturday Evening Post
Perhaps he also thought that some
Jf his predecessors as Well as some OF
nus contemporaries wrote like asses for
asses about asses" lie fet their pom
I aerous editorials also we're dismal
ably ainal ard hopeless the ultimate
reproaeh and final tntauly' of journal
ISM.
Sat BENJAMIN Franklin was good
Ggnter and lie. toe. manifested an in
vinclbilify 10 know when he as edi-
4 toriaIIy W0rsted in his struggle win
+. tl,44- f.++fad-rous "ScienDe OF Joufns4lase2
~ those days Of crude journalistic be
etnaIngs. The frank admission in that
one truthful James edition VI Paanc
4 Occurrences shows that the gentle ART
vi lying had reached q considerable
degree II development more tbala two
hundred years age. Then just think
to What Lofty heights II has attained,
with all oar modern improvements Tor
/ p@rpetratIng shs liz direct. as wei. as
for aaroltly avoiding the truth.
But, after ali wlEta We carefully eA-
anime fne lnsQfheieacy Of extremes,
. when We strip standards AID re% ARCS
Of their DISCUSSES, when We measure
the limits eG lneongr1ity, the mutations
OF contrasts and laraao&es. we neeas
mast realize that human nature then
differed hat little from human nature
now that all types Of conduct IN ali
ages are bat different expressions al
oar natural growth assisted to Ii great
degree III the Very +sifst4 81 ea4ea-
ton that the news paper gives. II IL
wortA while to believe that. for We
are What we believe. Then as Hans
Brcltlnan says. Den If you hat learned
belief, you haf learned something's
Philadelphia boasts of the nrst daily
paper published In the United States
the American Daily Advertiser. issued
In 1884 by Benjamin Franklin Bache,
afterwards of the Aurora.
Tken came the New York Daily
Advertiser. the second real journal In
4 the United States. March /, 1855.
( There were bat thirty seven news
papers IN the whole country at the
+ breaking out or the Revolutionary
+ War. in l7~5 Now there are about
(23.5Uol twenty three thousand. five
hundred Think Of the amount OF
money, machinery and men required !
| The basic principles OF successful
lournalese are supposed 10 have been
found in popular authors analysis OF
many good editorials. from which he
dedaced the following rules. npefal!y
( paraphrased
/ !. Use a wide range OF concrete
topics. many Of them apparently ex-
tremely trivial (Ware abstract prin-
+ cipies)
{ .. Best best liked articles are OF
/ purely Local or ephemeraI interest.
/ g. Never go deeply or exhaustiyeiy
/ into any group of facts. bat with a
| broad, simple hypothesis AS text.
! hammer IT over and over. saying the
same thing again and again In differ
/ ent ways, but always with wealth
of imagery and picturesque phrasing.
A. Get humorous effects, when you
can afford H. by goodnatured, but
sometimes sharp ridlcule; eXaggerate
the argument or travesty the cause
you attack I'LL IL becomes absurd,
5. No matter what your subject. or
where located. always write with that
heat and color which shows Your
real interest.
But the most telling of all is the
fash of lightning after long roll of
thunder
From this ii is easy to see that
! tournalese is neither chronic disease
nor a spasm, but an aN-around
prouth--tha wisely selected statement