WHY EDITORS BECOME PESSIMISTS.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 57, 5 May 1877, Page 3

WHY EDITORS BECOME PESSIMISTS.

Professor Talmage, m a late sermon, addressed to newspaper men specially, says : — " One of the great trials of this newspaper profession is the fact that they are compelled to see more of the shams of the world than any other profession. Through every newspaper office, day by day, go the weaknesses of the world, the vanities that want to be puffed, the revenges that want to be wreaked, all the mistakes that want to be corrected, all the dull speakers who want to be thought eloquent, all the meanness that wants to get its wares noticed gratis m the editorial columns m order to save the tax of the advertising column, all the men who want to be set right who ever were wrong, all the crack-brained philosophers, with story as long as their hair, and as gloomy as their finger nails, m mourning because bereft of soap ; all the itinerant bores who come to stay five minutes and stop an hour. From the editorial and reportorial rooms, all the follies, and shams of the world are seen day by day, aud the temptation is to believe neither m God, man, nor woman. It is no surprise to me that m your profession there are some sceptical men. I only wonder that you believe anything. Unless an editor or reporter have m his present or his early home, a model of earnest character, or to throw himself upon the upholding grace of God, he must make temporal and eternal shipwreck."