GOLDEN GATE DISTRICT FAIR ASSOCIATION. 203 



kind-hearted fathers or mothers are apt to take them just to please 

 the children. Usually such papers are filled with the most worth- 

 less stories, devoid of anything to stimulate the imagination to healthy 

 activity, to excite a laudable ambition, or to improve the mind in 

 any way. They not only do not improve, but they positively injure 

 the reader, for they cultivate a vicious taste, and destroy the desire to 

 read matter of more value. There is no excuse for such reading. 

 The number of good books and periodicals is unlimited. Of the 

 former, standard histories, and works of fiction and poetry, works 

 upon social, political, or scientific subjects, are so numerous and 

 well known as not to require mention. Of the latter there is an 

 abundance, though it may require a little more care to select them. 



The journal or journals selected should be above suspicion in their 

 character. They should contain the latest news of the day, but 

 should be edited with care, excluding all that is coarse and purely 

 sensational or prurient. They should have political opinions and 

 expressed views upon all questions bearing upon the prosperity of 

 the State, for the newspaper that has not is a mere catchpenny affair. 

 But it ought not to be so blindly partisan that it cannot be fair and 

 impartial, especially in its news columns. The journalist who will 

 purposely misrepresent a public speaker, or a fact of any kind of 

 sufficient importance to be reported, is not worthy the name. He is 

 not worthy of confidence in anything. In his editorial columns he 

 is expected to express his own views, and there alone. The other 

 portion of the paper he has entered into an implied contract with 

 the public that it shall be devoted to their interest, and shall be a 

 medium for a truthful history of the times. If he is not capable of 

 giving such a history, either by partisan bias, prejudice, or personal 

 malice, or want of ability, he has no business to be a journalist; for 

 it is an occupation of great importance, carrying with it great influ- 

 ence upon society, and grave responsibilities. Through the press very 

 much is done toward educating the people and causing them to form 

 opinions upon the various subjects coming before them. Hence it is 

 the first duty of the journalist to be honest with his readers, in 

 reporting everything truthfully. No other journalist should ever be 

 patronized by the farmer. Upon no one will such reading — even the 

 editorials — have more effect than upon the boys and girls upon the 

 farm. 



In this connection I desire to urge that our farmers try to impress 

 upon their sons the dignity of their occupation; that to be a good 

 and successful farmer is quite as great a success in life as to be a suc- 

 cessful lawyer, or doctor, or clergyman, or any other profession. The 

 habit of preparing the brightest of the boys for one of the profes- 

 sions is a mistake. The professions are now greatly overrun. In all 

 of our large cities there are hundreds of healthy, ambitious young 

 men almost starving in their unavailing efforts to secure a foothold 

 in some profession. Observation has shown us, that until a man has 

 attained the age of thirty-five or forty years, he cannot, except in 

 some cases, get enough business as a lawyer to support himself. 

 Before that age he must serve as a clerk, or junior partner toother 

 lawyers who receive all of the fees, unless he has the means to sus- 

 tain himself, or he must drift into a practice which will be more apt 

 to retard his progress than to advance it. Business men hesitate 

 about trusting a young man with their important cases, when old 

 practitioners are standing ready with their many years of experience 



