St Johns College - Ozanam Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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THE OZANAM 33 of the scene that it has murdered thrills the world, and 'while the doc- tor saves a life, the journalist may save a soul. just a little word dropped here or there in one of his works may guard a man from disgrace, or a na- tion from ruin. And yet we are told that journalism is not honorable. The fact is, if other lives were half as hon- orable, this world would be replete with honor, and honor would then be as common as is now its vulgar op- posite. And so, my Catholic friends, allow me, in this poor attempt at writing, to preach to you a little sermon. Be- fore you speak contemptibly of au- thorship as a profession, stop to con- sider: Are you going to state a pri- vate opinion or an established fact? Are you going to criticize something which you do not understand, or at best, something against which you are prejudiced? And above all, is there among your hearers a little child who one day may become a great writer, provided you, by your unthoughtful ridicule, do not discourage him. If Catholic authorship is not what it should be, it may be your faultg hence if you cannot help it, at least do not help to cripple it. Thus some day you will be able to pick up a Catholic magazine in which, if you read for art's sake, you will find a work of art, and if you read merely for pleasure, you will find there a story in which a man is a man, a woman a woman, and if you will, the two finally but one. And Catholic writers in fairly good number will have lived, and will have given to the world a worthy literature which will remain after them, and will be to their name a Fitting monument, so that not in vain will they have lived, nor entirely will have died, if dying, they yet live in the tender hearts of all grateful men. The Land of Heart's Desire By JOHN MARSHAl.L Where flowers bloom, and blush, and die Unnoticed by a human eye, Where murm'ring waters gently croon And breezes cool the heat of noon, Where spring eternal seems to be, Are sunny lands that brink the sea. 'Tis there I'1l go near my life's close To seek a quiet, sweet repose.

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32 THE OZANAM ply because they themselves have brought about the present condition of affairs in Catholic literature. As an art, they have scorned itg as artists themselves, if any artists be among them, they have derided the idea of a Catholic literature, and because their ridicule has succeeded in keeping from journalism properly gifted young men, whose places are filled by incompetent substitutes, these scof- fers dare complain, and hold in con- tempt our Catholic magazines that never turn away a real writer from their thresholds, and must, at times, accept rather mediocre material be- cause no better is forthcoming. In their eagerness for silver and an im- mediate reputation they despise a life of letters, and follow a career in which they think one may more easi- ly achieve the two purposes in life that captivate them. But that is not the worst of it. Not content with shunning journalism themselves, they teach others to shun it, and bring up their children in a holy fear of author- ship as a life that yields but abject poverty and a nameless grave. They teach their sons to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers, but to deem un- suitable the profession of a writer. Thus many a youth who might become a famous journalist becomes a fairly good member of another profession, and often even attains quite a de- gree of success, yet his name dies with him, and the books in which he might have lived after death are lost to the world. But is it true that journalism entails a life of sacrifice which is rewarded by no fame, which rather results in- evitably in the dishonor of a pauper's death? In the first place, a writer, if he is a true one, will not fear poverty. Gold he will consider as a means not an end. If wealth is forthcoming, all is well and good, if not, he will know that this is due rather to his undevel- oped talents than to his profession it- self. Yet even so, no truly great writer ever starved to death, as far as we know, and even those writers who have died in any degree of poverty have generally their own carelessness or vice to blame for it. It is true that the young writer has to wait some time before his work assures him any steady income, but this happens in any other profession. Does the young doctor realize any great wealth in his first few years of practice? Does the young lawyer not spend many a weary day swatting flies, the only visitors to his virgin office? And doesn't the young engineer build the dog house before he erects the bridge? Why, therefore, should the young author write a dictionary before he produces a pamphlet? As to the other objection, journal- ism is far from being the pastime of the disreputable. In all ages it has included in its ranks the private gen- tleman and the prince, the president as well as the cardinal. Indeed, it boasts the greatest and noblest minds in history, who long ago would have been forgotten but for their work in the field of letters. Writing has been the noble means of handing down the word of God through the ages, of per- petuating the discoveries, scientific, geographic and otherwise of all times, and of giving pleasure to men the world over. journalism as a profes- sion has been ridiculed, and yet while the speech of the lawyer lives a day, the work of the writer lives to the end of timeg while the engineer's pile of stones delights a city, the description

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qflsking for' a Raise By THOMAS P. KENNY Have you ever asked for a raise? If you haven't you still have something coming to you in the way of a brand new feeling, I mean the sensation you experience while approaching the boss on this mission or, if you prefer, this quest. It is not the same as seasick- ness nor is it exactly similar to drop- ping ten stories in an elevator, yet it may be said to have characteristics particular to each, and at times, to a combination of the two. Walking into a dentist's office with an aching tooth to be upainlessly extracted, as we read in the advertisements, comes closer to it than anything else, al- though in this case the sufferer is not the one you would naturally expectg the boss is the one who has the pain while you are the one to do the pulling. As much depends upon your ap- proach to the boss as your approach to the green-to use an expression from the golfers' vocabulary-for you must neither shoot too far, nor must you foozle, and make an extra attempt necessary. Go right in as if you be- longed there. Don't speak about the weather as a conversation opener, tell him what is on your mind. He can find out about the atmospheric condi- tions by consulting a barometer or even by a casual glance out the win- dow, if it happens to be open, or through it, if the artificial clouds have been dispersed at an expense which will turn up on the next bill from the window cleaners. When you go in on the carpet the boss is very busy. He is frowning and looks decidedly agitated. The thought comes over you that you will not say what you intended, and that this is not the proper time to ask for the raise which he will undoubtedly re- fuse, and should you ask, he will only make you feel uncomfortably foolish. These thoughts do not come separate- ly but in one fleeting Bash to your brain. It is very fortunate that the boss does not turn around and see the expression on your face because he'd think you had either lost your reason or were taken violently ill. But he does not even look up from the papers on his desk in opening the ordeal which is sure to follow. Well, Percival? He manages to put these two words in a paternal tone and ejects some- thing into them which makes you feel that he would be offended at your re- quest for a raise. How this is done is a subject on which only a boss could write. Your panic-stricken feeling abates just enough for you to form a mental picture of Horatius at the Bridge, or Washington crossing the Delaware, or something of the sort. With these ex- amples of heroism encouraging you the words slip from your tongue. They are not the words you have re- hearsedg no indeed, they are plain English words lacking the construc- tion of grammatical sentences, and en- tirely different from what you were planning to say. However, they are out and you feel somewhat better. A wince of pain and a shudder seems to pass through the boss as though he had been secretly and sud- denly stabbed. This is over in a mo-