THE NEWSPAPER MAN.

Waikato Times, Volume 2611, Issue 2611, 6 April 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE NEWSPAPER MAN.

He who seeks the newspaper profession pays court to a jealous mistress. With her brass cannot counterfeit brain, nor a superfluity of words hide a scarcity of ideas. Her votaries need not expect feather-bed accommodation, nor a straw-berry-and-cream diet. Sho tempers not the winds of adversity to the overcoat in the pawnshop, nor brings success to the laggard, the drono, or the unworthy. There is no profession in which

THE SHAM OR TIIE SHIRK is less likely to succeed than in journalism. From the humblost country editor who harnesses his devii t.o the hand press, to his mora favoured city brother, who rides cross-leggod in the elevator, and is never forced to straddle the burning issue of prohibition or a loss of a subscriber, this assertion applies absolutely and vigorously. Journalism is the world's most thorough democracy. In it, the man who carries his capital in his hat is moro than the equal of him who packs it in his pocket. The friendless breather of the true afflatus oan climb from the lowest drudgery of tke basement to the highest editorial tower, while all tho polish of the end man's minstrel bones cannot prevail to lift an intruder above tho wastebasket. Every man who edits a newspaper is not a newspapor man. The roal newspaper man is crcated, not manufactured. The brightest of journalism is not bought, neither can it bo sold. Its glamour lurks in blood and brain ; the spell of the enchantment lasts with lif? itself. It is a profession demanding peculiar qualifications, and falling into exercise a line of talent exclusively its ovrn. The ability of a Webster cannot supplant the nose for news, nor the genius of a Burke minister to minds that subtle mental diet which enlarges, ennobles, and elevates, whilo amusing them. The joys of journalism are peculiarly its own. The pure delight of a well turned paragraph, the happy consciousness of a timely leader, the restful satisfaction of work well and thoroughly done, and appreciated bv those for whom it is done, the children of his brain growing in favour, and waxinjj strong in public esteem—these are indcod I pleasures which none but the newspaper man knows, and which repay weary hours I of toils and sacrifice to a profession which I grinds the life, and wears the energy, as doos no other.

TIIE NEWSPAPER MAX IS A NECESSITY, evolved of civilisation, intelligence, and progression. Begotten neither in the ago of chivalry, when the right of brain had yielded to the might of brawn, nor yet in that more remote Darwinian period when our ancestors purveyed the universe from the tree tops, and monkeyed around the woods as best they could for a living, this modern answer of demand for supply, this professional descendant ef the humble G-uttenberg printer, stands to-day the sentinel upon the housetops for all human advancement. No uncrowned martyr ever deserved more, or received less than he does. He must work for his friends and forget that he has enemies. He must bear the sins of otlnrs, and an occasional small transgression of his own. He must have TIIK PATIENCE OK JOll, and the perseverance of all the saints. He must hobnob with the greatness he created and which long since had forgotten its creator. Hd must hide the littleness of big men. He must thrive on promises, fatten on stove wood, anil bless God in every issue that his lot is east among the best people the world ever saw. He must have a carefully reserved and preserved fund of modesty, compounded with an expanse of cheek that even adversity cannot strike without disaster to itself. He must be at home on all subjects, from a horse to the Wars of the Roses, from politeness to religion. He must be an encyclopoedia, a packhorse, a step-ladder, a bank in which all private secret and public trusts are deposited—and above all things, aud at all times, he must be a gentleman.— Glasgow Times.

A SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR NERO. It w.ib recently announced that M. Hollcaux, a French archaeologist, had discovered in the wall of a church dating from the Middle Ages a stone on which was inscribed a speech delivered by tho Emperor Nero at the Isthmian games. A copy of the inacriptioii—which has been deciphered by M. Paul Foucart, director of the French Institute at Athens—was road at tho last meeting of the Paris Academy of Inscriptions. It runs as follows :—' Command of the Emperor Ciesar Augustus. While I express to noble Greece my thanks for the reverence and love she has shown me, I invite the inhabitants of this province to assemble in the largest possible numbers at Corinth on the fourth day before the Kalends of December (Nov. 28).' When the people were gathered together the Emperor addressed them thus : — 1 Citizens of Greece, you are not conscious of the favour which I have in store for you, although everyone might have expected it at my generosity. This favour is so great that you might not have presumed to ask for, it. All ye Greeks who live in Achasa and in the land which has hitherto been called Peloponnesus, receive your liberty, and be ye free from the payment of tribute. Receive this favour, of which, even in the happiest days you were not all sharers; for ye were then the slaves of strangers or were subjected the ones to the others. Would that I could have assured this favour to Greece in the days of her fortune, so that a greater number might have shared in the benefit ; and I look with ill-will upon the time which diminished her greatness. The grace which I now secure to you is no mark of my compassion, but of my love. I also thank your gods, whose protection I have experienced both by sea and by land ; and I thank them also that they have given ine the opportunity of conferring upon you so great a benefit. Other rulers have conferred freedom upon towns only. Nero alone gave it to a whole province." This speech is followed by a decree by which the town of Acriuphia rosolves to erect an altar to Nero, and to inscribe him among its gods under the name of "Jupiter the Freer." The stone was found on the site of the ancient Acnup'nia in Bceotia.