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Show Press Staves Off Deadly Boredom by Giving Suspense to Life By DR. THADDEUS L. BOLTON, Temple University. VJV 7 EWSPAPEHS are indispensable to the happiness and well-being of mankind, for they supply the stimulus to animation without which the life of the average citizen would become unbearably monotonous. It is difficult to know how we would get along if murders, disasters, instances of banditry, descriptions of crimes and conflagrations con-flagrations were not brought to us. Suspense the alternation beiween hope and depression is after all something that our natures demand, and here is where the newspaper comes into our routine lives as a saving grace, snatching us from this dreaded lingering death by boredom. Shooting the chutes and riding on the scenic railway in the amusement amuse-ment park supply the necessary prods to children. The modern newspaper news-paper performs this function for the adult of higher mental level. What does a horse race in England amount to without its spills? Would boxing bouts be considered worth while by the fans if blood did not flow freely? What does it matter to the spectator whether a conflagration cause? $1,000,000 damage, if only the spectacle has been grand and filled with thrills? We cannot possibly attend all the murders, fires, earthquakes, unsuccessful un-successful transatlantic flights and other occurrences of the kind in person. Th modern newspaper does this for us, and thus saves our consciousness con-sciousness from "innocuous desuetude." |