THE TOILERS OF THE PRESS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 24

THE TOILERS OF THE PRESS.

Dean Alford once wrote a book called The Queen’s English.’ It is deservedly out of repute, inasmuch as the Dean proved himself to be more faulty as a critic of Queen’s English than those whose Queen’s English he affected to criticise. The worthy gentleman however, even had' he been competent to undertake the task, evidently knew little of the circumstances under which the laches of the Press, in respect: of Queen's English, are ordinarily perpetrated. He could have known nothing of the extraordinary stress and worry, and strained attention which are called into action from editor to printer’s devil, in the production of a single number of a daily broadsheet. Had he been better informed, he would have hesitated to sneer at occasional slips of syntax which, even as mistakes in the best regulated families, occur in the columns of the great newspapers 'of the world. He would, on the contrary, have expressed his astonishment, that under the circumstances, such strong, incisive, simple, and direct English marked the literary work of the journals in question. It is a common matter —but nevertheless exasperating to the pressman —to hear some would-be dilletante ass point out a simple slip of grammatical construction in a mere paragraph. Probably if that man were set down to write the said paragraph, under the conditions which attended its composition, he would fail altogether to render himself intelligible—the first essential, after all, of journalistic writing. But in truth, these captious critics may be excused. Few understand the terrible labor of presswork ; the pressman sometimes—as, for instance, when Parliament is sitting—works twenty hours out of the twenty-four, and this too, for little more, and frequently for less money than the artizan gains. Yet tbe pressman never strikes, never gives in until the labor he undertakes so manfully, overburdens him and King Death marches him off to make room for* another aspirant. The following narrative will serve to give an idea of what journalists do and suffer t * IMelbourne, March 30, 1886. Some time since, after over twenty years of newspaper employment, the latter decade of which term has been spent in work of sedentary . character, I discovered that constant sitting, want of exercise, night work, and at times irregularity of meals, were developing most unpleasant symptoms of illness. It needed very little medical knowledge to convince me that the trouble arose from the liver and kidneys and, with a wholesome regard for the American notion that up to thirtyfive years of age a man is engaged in break-, ing down these organs, and in the next thirty-five of his alloted span in arranging for their repair, I determined to grapple with disease in its incipient stages. I have not had much faith in proprietary medicines, hitherto, although the constant testimony to the value of some of such remedies places them beyond doubt and criticism. I intended to seek medical advice when the question was asked by a fellow pressman, « Why not try Warner's safe cure? ——has tried it, and believes it is doing him a great deal of good.’ Acting from motives of curiosity I obtained some of the safe cure, and find the merits of the remedy not a whit overrated. It speedily relieved me of the unpleasant symptoms of disease which had become apparent. It remedied the dyspepsia to which I was at times a victim, gave me a better appetite, and has generally increased my enjoyment of living and pleasure in work. The medicine, judging by its effects upon myself, is a most valuable one, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to the numerous class in Australia of those who, from various causes, suffer from liver and kidney complaints.—(Signed) G-. A. Bicknell. Daily Telegraph, Melbourne.’—Mr Bicknell, as a pressman, is not at all likely to be led away by enthusiasm. It is an essential of his calling that all evidence must be weighed, and all truths confirmed, ere publicityds given to them. All the more valuable, then, is testimony from such a source : and all the more confounded, must be those captious simpletons who decline to believe in the virtues of any remedy which has not received the Hall mark of a doctor s prescription. 36