The means the Buccaneer had of gaining his information, namely, through
the medium of his daily press, was confusing in the extreme; for all his
papers took sides and showed the fighting instincts of the head of the
family. Columns were written upon the same subject which was so decked
out in party colours as to baffle all efforts at recognition. Each paper
acted the part of an advocate, and by fixing upon the weak parts of an
adversary tried to conceal its own shortcomings. Under these
circumstances it was very difficult, if indeed it were possible, to find
out the true merits of a case.
Every day a battle raged, and frequently an opponent was allowed neither
learning nor knowledge, while occasionally he was denied common honesty
and even decency. The gentlemen of the Buccaneer's press were a mighty
power. Fall under their displeasure, and it would be wise to make peace
with your enemy quickly, or you would have a whole phalanx of quills
charged to the very tips with ink, levelled at you. Kings even were
censured and nations chided in the most patronising manner; being
occasionally set at each other's throats, causes for quarrel being found
when none really existed. And often where a sore existed between two
people, it was not allowed quietly to heal and sink into the regions of
forgetfulness, but was kept open until perchance it ended in an open
rupture. Then having done this, the press frequently sat in judgment
upon the belligerents and censured them for their blood-guiltiness; and
by persisting in being present at the row, and chronicling the actions
of each combatant, the gentlemen of the press frequently did
considerable damage to both.
As information could not possibly be legitimately acquired to keep so
many papers going it had to be manufactured. Then when a false rumour
was started, there was soon a hue and cry after it, and it was either
run to earth, or caught and worried to death in the open. Although the
dailies gave themselves great airs and many graces, posing often enough
even as prophets, they were a mighty power for good. They often
redressed wrongs; brought abuses to light, and kept a rod in pickle for
the back of the evil doer. The press was not, however, without its
inconveniences, and even evils. Taking a page out of Jonathan's book,
the Buccaneer had allowed the system of interviewing celebrities to
creep in. Distinguished persons were considered to be fair game, and
they were badgered, and bored to disclose their inmost secrets. What
they had had for breakfast, how they conducted themselves in private
life, whether they ate, drank, slept and dressed as other people, or
whether they had any peculiar way of their own, was considered to be of
the utmost interest to the people. The method by which we conduct our
everyday life is somewhat confined. We can only sit in one way, which we
may perhaps slightly vary; but the centre of gravity must be kept within
certain small limits. As a rule, there is but one mode of getting into
bed, namely, on either one side or the other, though we have known cases
in which the individual preferred to crawl in at the foot.
Amongst other inconveniences must be named the newsvendor, who every
day, and at all hours up to late at night, rushed through the street and
cried up his wares in tones perfectly unintelligible, and which ranged
from the shrill pipe of the tender-aged gutter-grub, to the deep
gin-and-water voice of the full-grown and matured drunkard.
High above the heads of the rest of the dailies stood the Great
Thunderer, as it was called. Every day it belched out dense heavy
columns from its paper throat, and it ploughed in amongst the smaller
fry and did occasionally great damage, this big gun worked upon a pivot,
and by the direction of its smoke you could tell which way the wind of
public opinion was likely to blow.
Once a week the weeklies sat in judgment upon the dailies. The
monthlies pitched into both of these, and four times a year the giant
quarterlies strode in amongst the combatants, and dealt destruction all
round; overcoming all obstacles by the sheer weight of their columns. It
was said that one of these big bullies killed a man once, but this is
one of those assertions that requires confirmation. What one paper
affirmed, another denied, and that which to begin with was tolerably
clear, soon became overclouded with prejudice and party feeling.