The telegrams in time of peace, and especially during dull
seasons like the present, make strange reading. Whole columns of them record nothing but Royal movements, local disasters, and startling crimes. Dalziel's telegrams, in par- ticular, which are now appearing everywhere, resemble a con- densed Police Gazette of North America. The true life of peoples cannot be condensed into a telegram ; goodness, unless displayed in the form of physical courage, is not sen- sational ; and the millions of respectable or ordinary men furnish nothing for a message. The persons who write the bulletins, moreover, are not very observant, and do not give even the information they might glean from the Press. Thirty years hence, when a generation has grown up on this intel- lectual diet, men will believe that every country except England is a scene of recurrent catastrophes ; that crime is as common as death ; and that if one is to get through breakfast at all, it is absolutely necessary to be hard-hearted. A little more competition would, we fancy, improve bulletins, as would also a little more care in selecting those who draw them. Most of them at present share the feeling of the lady who remarked : " I must admit that I enjoy my murders."
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