Show TilE THE COUNTRY EDITOR Champ Clarks Clark's Great S Speech Against the Loud Bill Newspapers are great reat disseminators tors of information The mammoth metropolitan papers with their vast c circulations are splendid educators but after all aU ten persons read the little country weekly where one reads a metropolitan paper Havin Having once been a country editor mys myself lf I entertain a most kindly feeling for my old confreres I am willing to make of that the eleven months I spent editing a rural journal were the most beneficial of my life to myself perhaps others I am ani proud to have belonged to the editorial guild I am unalterably opposed to any anything thing that thai will injure the country editor curtail his profits c circumscribe his usefulness or pl place ce and additional thorn in his path pathway way The rural editor God editor God bless himl him is the most persistent of teachers like charity as described by St. St Paul in the thirteenth chapter of the First Corinthians he long and is kind which can not be said men that got up this billt bill e t He not in which he does not resemble some people over on this side of pf the house He i inot is not puffed t up Up in which he does not resemble a good many of usHe us H He does not behave himself unseemly unseemly ly not his own is not easily provoked In this last respect he does not at all resemble my friend fro from m California Mr Loud Load Laughter He no evil in which he i is s vastly superior to a great many of ofus ofus of us not in in which h he is totally unlike the Republicans but in the truth which proves that he is a cousin germ germs an anto n to the Democrats Applause on the th e Democratic side side He all things all things h all things and in that respect he is is isis i s is is very much in the predicament o othe of f the minority on this side of th the e House House under the Reed rules He is the pack horse of the community com the promoter Hof 01 ever every enterprise the worst t underpaid laborer in the vineyard Counting his space as his bis capital h he e gives more to charity his means considered than any other member r of is a power in politics a pillar r of the church a lea leader der i ithe in inthe the cr crusade sade for better morals H His He Heis Heis e is pre the friend of human human- ity Line upon line paragraph upon n paragraph day by day he is em embalming embalming em- em in cold type the facts fro from m which the Herodotus the Tacitus or the Macauley of the future will write the history of our times Applause He joyously announces announces an an- our advent into this world briefly records our uprising and our and sorrowfully chronicles chronicles chronicles chron chron- our exit from this vale of tears As a creator of beauty he double discounts Mme Ayer who tho undertakes undertakes undertakes under under- takes to increase femme femine I only in particular instances but the i editor country in the exercise of plenary power impartially beautifies all women whose names names appear in his columns laughter and applause By a touch of his ma magicians magician's ician's wand he converts paste into diamonds sparkling on beautys beauty's neck and with witha a skill of and ambitious alchemists only dreamed and with politeness which Chesterfield might have envied he be transmutes brass into jewelry o purest gold I when they appear upon the breasts of the family of his subscriber r. r laughter He is the most ingenious ingen ious bus of f manufactures for while other manufacturers produce only perishable perishable perish perish- perishable able stuffs staffs he manufactures immortal immortal immor immor- tal statesmen out of raw sometimes very raw material laughter He He is To our virtues very ki kind and andt to our faults a little blind We We are are all more or less less generally gen rally rye more moie more his handiwork and and it does t I C 1 ti 1 I JEf ft r I 1 1 rj r j i Ta 1 not b become come the creature to injure the Business of his creator Without his ingenious generous and enthusiastic enthusiast is ic c labors most of us would never have lave been here and when he tires of us we will r retire tire to private life amid rural scenes propitious for secret se see cret cost meditation and silent prayer laughter Daughter Working night and day i during the campaign without money mony mon mono e ey y without price when the election is is over and the victory wn win and the loaves and fishes now vulgarly called pie are to be distributed by some strange lapse of the human memory he is generally forgotten I refuse fuse utterly to become par par- ti beeps eps in 10 robbing the country country coun country try editor of any privilege he now enjoys I would rather confer new ones upon him He is as faithful to the people as the needle to the pole I Ican can never forget how forget ho v can a any y man on this side of the chamber so long as memory holds hold holds its sway so long as gratitude finds find's a lodgment lodgment m ment nt in the human that heart heart hearl that at in inthe inthe inthe the memorable campaign of 1896 when the vast majority of the great Democratic metropolitan dailies dailies- not all of them mark you but the vast majority majority basely basely deserted their colors and went bag and baggage horse foot and dragoons into the camp of the enemy the country weeklies with ith rare exceptions stood by bv the ca cause cause se of Bryan Democracy and humanity with u unshaken shaken fidelity superb courage and heroic self self- abnegation thereby vindicating the the patriotism wisdom and inde lade independence independence of the American press Loud applause on the Democratic side Up Upon n the same same countr country editor we must depend for honest fearless patriotic press service in the campaign campaign cam cam- new impending as well as that of goo 1900 and surely u upon on the Democratic side of the House we we would be acting with unparalleled and unpardonable folly to deprive him of any of his prerogatives The Loud bill might not inappropriately inappropriately or unjustly be he en entitled An HAn act to diminish the supply of anti Republican campaign Then it would be true to name Republicans with nine tenths of the metropolitan press at their back and in their service may find excuse for supporting measures to squelch the country weeklies but certainly Democrats Populists free Silver Republicans the true friends of the people cannot afford to do so un unless unless Unless un- un less they have made up their minds once and for all to commit political suicide in the f face ce of the country Loud applause |