Year: 1871

has sunk beneath the contempt and tar be-


meath the patronage of every manly man.
So it should be in our profession, gentle


men, and SO it will be if we are true to
principle, true to interest, true to each
other and true to ourselves.


But while q few such evils as this will
occasionally infest fair and legitimate
Journalism, 'sfor ways that are dark and


for tricks that are vain," these


|. PAPERS WITH FOREIGN BOWELS


are "peculiar." Within a very few years


companies have been organized in some OF


the western cities and In New York tor
editing and printing one entire side OF


full sheet, and then, instead of sending


1t out as other city publishers do, to &C.


tual subscribers, they furnish it to certain
feeble country Offices cheaper than regu-


lar publishers can buy their blank paper.
The companies can afford to do this be-


cause they secure remunerative advertise


ments, for many business men are green
enough to suppose that they enjoy
tremendous circulation. The same half
printed sheet is furnished to large num-


ber of different offices, sc that the cost of
editorial labor and of composition is
saved. To suit all the different shades of
opinion, certain number are worked off
containing one or two strong Republican


articles, then another batch with those
articles left out and strong Democratic
articles, written by the same pen, inserted,
so that at length these ready-made opinion


moulds have actually advertised their
productions as either publican, Demo-
cratic or Independent, to suit purchasers"
Such an accommodating disposition


would hardly secure them much patron
age if they had to go before the sturdy


people for it, but it serves them a profit


able end, since their only patrons are


those country publishers of prostituted


principles, who are willing to deal ont


the product of such hash mills at second


hand. What is it that people take
paper for? Partly for its news, partly


for its views, and partly for its advertise


ments. And yet the news of these sim


sides" is always a week or more older


than that of legitimate papers; their
views are those of men who publicly pro-


claim that they ride three horses in diff


ferent directions at the same time, and


their advertisements are of necessity all
foreign from the locality where the paper


purports to issue.


Therefore, go far as one entire half OF


the paper is concerned, it falls far below


that standard of interest which freshness


and nearness always give, and as for the


other half, it is what might be expecfed


from men who find it impossible to make
whole newspaper, and are therefore


willing not only to deceive their patrons


but to disgrace the profession. which has


always been accredited with some prin-


ciples and some brains, by going into the
market to hawk about other peoples


wares SO far as my knowledge goes, not


a single newspaper ests blishment IN the


country of any recognized standing and


influence has adopted the system, and in


a great ma jority of cases the papers are


dated at little villages where in fact they


are not issued, and are issued from places


where they are not in sufficient demand


to support an establishment. They are
fraud on advertisers, fraud upon sub


scribers, fraud upon the government IN


the matter of postage, and scandal on


the honest and laborious press. They


are "half and half" of that which is old


enough to be stale, and that which is fat
enough to be dishwater. and never, since
; Barnum attached the tail of fish to the
body of an Egyptian mummy and adver-


tised it as "the beautiful, original and
genuine siren of the sea-" has greater
! humbug been put before the world.
} FEARLESS CRITICISM.


? If there is one duty which we owe to
ourselves, to each other and to the world
3 that we neglect more than any other, 1t


is the duty of independent, discriminate


ing and fearless criticism. We owe 1t to
! ourselves because we cannot afford to
. hazard our reputation by passing slip
, shod opinion; to each other because the
; country press cannot maintain local re-
3 porters in all parts and must of necessity
depend upon its cotemporaries, and to the


world because the people have right to
! be protected from humbugs by those
{ whose business it is to know and report.


Take for instance.


THE TRAVELLING SHOW BUSINESS.
, The country is a field in which these
i rangers think they have only to Craze and
grow fat They dread nothing but COM
{ petition, expecting to encounter no cul-
tivated and exacting tastes, and tearing
, no lash which an advertisement and a
: complimentary ticket can avert Doubt


less YOU have all had the curiosity more


than once to watch the notices of the press


as the show gradually approaches, and
!, then been to see it yourself only 10 have
l vour expectations dashed ruthlessly upon
: the rocks of disappointment. Quite likely
o YOU have copied what your brethren have
9 said, and thus have victimized your read


ers. Every one of these mountebanks


counts upon the country press as a pow


erful ally, and thus, every year, thousands
Y of dollars are taken from our people by
= our kindly stupid liberation, without one
q single moral lesson being taught OF ele-
d waiting influence exerted in return.


= There are some entertainments-aye
? travelling entertainments-tha are wor'
q thy, and ought to be patronized by all
q But if all alike are pleasantly spoken OF
d in those haclneyed phrases of reporters,
e how are we to know-how are the people
g not familiar with our respective styles to
e l1now-which is wheat and which Is chatt
e The pulpit condemns the theatre in gen
o eral. and the provincial theatre in partic-
It ular; and yet the people will go to it Just
q the same, and, hard as it may seem, truth
It compels me to say that some of them will
l. be more instructed, more elevated and
l. more purified by it in a single nigh tthan
o by whole year of preaching in churches
r which they mistakenly think are toe
o grand. too sanctified and too stiff for theil
}, plain and humble needs. But whatever
4 the pulpit may do, the press can neither
q sweep back the sea nor exalt itself above
o its wash. 1t is obliged to take things as
b it finds them, and if it will only report
I" them as it finds them, how soon it will


drive out every "periwig pated fellow


who seeks only to "spllt the ears of the
Z, groundlings" with his vulgar ribaldry
o and thereby not only encourage the health


full and artistic show, but vastly improve
2 the public taste.


j. At last I come to speak of


4 -e... OUR REWARDS,


20 and the rewards, L notice. generally come
Y last Why is it that as a class, editors O
il Vermont are comparatively poor Why
/, do they grow prematurely old, and finall.
1. =a4;.o na+ aa tha nrudent merchant can