Repository: UIHistories Project: Sophograph - 1890 [PAGE 7]

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TH)

SOPHU'.IIAPH.

personalities and barren facts to that of an accurate and interesting chronicle of current events. The benefits of the orach abused classics are particularly evident in this connection. It is not meant that the writer shall embellish his production with classical imagery, but that the possessor of a refined and cultivated taste is but little tempted to employ the worn platitudes of penny-a-liners, or the complacent vulgarisms of the horse reporter, for plain, clear Anglo-Saxon is nowhere more desirable. A

reporter, who states t h a t , " T h e h u m b l e b u t r e s p e c t a b l e domicile of P a t r i c k M u l d o o n , a n h o n e s t a n d r e s p e c t a ble citizen of H i b e r n i a n e x t r a c t i o n , in spite of t h e h e r c u lean efforts of t h e heroic tire d e p a r t m e n t , was c o n s u m e d

t i o n s can not b e g a i n s a i d , for in t h e m a r e s o u r c e s of A m e r i c a n h i s t o r y . F o r e i g n n e w , p o r t a n t feature of n e w s p a p e r s , and historical is essential to a correct u n d e r s t a n d i n g of t h e

I I the r- m imknowleoV'. mtneaen* •ri' D of l a b o r

of European politics.

T h u s far discussion h a s been confined tand " a l l r o u n d j o u r n a l i s t . " T h e m i n u t Livif

prevailing in city offices giv< e to the in rmedii class of special writers, to whom are intrusted social,

d r a m a t i c , Qterary -Mid scientific matt a n d topi f

at midnight in a wild revel of the tire fiend; while the agonized mother and weeping children beheld with streaming eyes, the clouds of Plutonic vapor, which rolled from tin smouldering ruins of their once felicitous abode,"

will p r o b a b l y find his efTusion

u

genera] interest. They, collectively, require aki wledg* -d men and affairs, and something of a literary and artistic education. The special writer ranks above the reporter and below the "leader" or editorial writ

o c c u p i e s a l e a d i n g position u p o n t h e staff a n d i s freq u e n t l y editor-in-chief. I t falls to th* litorial writ

killed " b y t h e city e d i t o r ' s

blue pencil, and something like the following substituted:

" T h e frame s h a n t y o c c u p i e d b y P a t M u l d o o n , a coal-

heaver, was burned at twelve o'clock.

Loss $7o."

Th idvantages to the journalist of a familiarity with literature, particularly in the departments of history and

political e<-(>noniy can h a r d l y be Over e s t i m a t e d . T h e

discuss political, economic, and financial question 1 to apply to them tin- principles of political • mom Hmust combine tin; erudition of the scholar with tl ment of the business man, and knowled > menandth< f world are no less essential to him than learnin od sound thought. The lawyer's habit of analysis, < f viewing a] >

r g u m e n t in every light, a n d a br< aid Liberal i-

writer is placed upon a height, as it were, from which tin

m o v e m e n t s a n d inter* O h u m a n i t y m a y la- o b s e r v e d f

fchy are qualities of the ideal journalist, which ar< ultivated if not acquired by the studies unetimes died

" t h e h u m a n i t i e s , " while t h e s t u d e n t ' s di ipline

ithout the distortions of prejudice and circumstance. Broad and phi] >phj 1 knowledge seldom fails to lift tin above the confusing influences of faction and party and to immeasurably enlarge hi mental horizon. Th. problems with which the editor must grapple are so complex and so grave, that he needs every possible lighi upon

d motive8 and a c t i o n s of m e n , for he is not only c \ 1 to pr« nt an i in its t r u e light, fri from tin >n of j . ,' a n d p r e j u d i c e , hut also t o p r o p o s . L

and protracted thought can not fail t-. aid in th of the weighty problems which await the edit*

eration. H o w m a n y s c h e m e s of g o v e r n m e n t a n d

ration 1nance

have hem weighed in the balance of history ai wanting! Sir the newspaper occupies the j ion a teacher to the many men, who have eitln n«»t tl tim<

Or not the ability t o instruct t h e m s e l v . m d wh re<

pn

t*

(

bh oration of ti

h, I

qu< ion. He Q, | not so

their opinions ready-made from their I the quality of the opinion furnished 1

c o n s i d e r a t i o n to t h e mt es1 of goci 1

jou s

al

s of h i s t o r i c a l fact-, as the lessons which t i n y dm. of a m i n u t e knowled of a n -

\

int&t

that editorial standards are rapidli h h( m the colh influence i^ t\\ Id; its loiibtful but thi desirability of an i - public taste ana intelli n • requii tl << ith that of England and the continental na- profe ional journal whom it has Mstcd

d