"Well, why don't you go and tell them about it? It wouldn't take long,"
I said in a jocund way, slapping Lorenzo on the back. But he did not
laugh. I then told him that we only had paper enough to last us till
our next bill came, and so I could not possibly loan any, but that if he
would write a caustic reply to my editorial I would print it for him. He
caught me in his arms and then for a moment his head was pillowed on my
breast. Then he sat down and wrote the following card:
Editor of the Boomerang:
Will you allow me through your columns to state that in your issue
of yesterday you did me a great injustice by referring to me as a
journalistic bacteria looking for something to infect; also, as a lop
eared germ of contagion, and warning people to vaccinate in order
to prevent my spread? I denounce the whole article as a malicious
falsehood, and state that if you will only give me a chance I will fight
you on sight. All I ask is that you will wait till I can overtake you,
and I am able and willing to knock great chunks off the universe with
you. I do not ask any favors of an editor who misleads his subscribers
and intentionally misunderstands his correspondents; a man who advises
an anxious inquirer who wants to know "how to get a cheap baby buggy" to
leave the child at a cheap hotel; a man who assumes to wear brains,
but who really thinks with a fungus growth; a man the bleak and
barren exterior of whose head is only equalled by its bald and echoing
interior.
Lorenzo Dow Pease.
I looked it over, and as there didn't seem to be anything personal in
it, I told him I would print it for him with pleasure. He then asked
that I would, as a further favor, refrain from putting any advertising
marks on it and that I would make it follow pure reading matter, which
I did. I leaded the card and printed it with a simple word of
introduction, in which I said that I took pleasure in printing it,
inasmuch as Mr. Pease could not get his paper out of the express office
for a few days. It was a kindness to him and did not hurt my paper in
the end.
There are many reasons why the establishment of a department of
journalism at Cornell will be a good move, and I believe that while it
will not take the place of actual experience, it will serve to shorten
the apprenticeship of a young newspaper man and the fatigue of starting
the amateur in journalism will be divided between the managing editor
and the tutor. It will also give the aspiring sons of wealthy parents
a chance to toy with journalism without interfering with those who are
actually engaged in it.
HIS GARDEN
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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