waste” or “conspicuous consumption” become lost causes, and 
even the hardiest of the rich dwindle into modest ways of timid 
service to mankind.

     At this point, some may still inquire why the telegraph 
should create “human interest,” and why the earlier press did 
not. The section on The Press may help these readers. But 
there may also be a lurking obstacle to perception. The instant 
all-at-onceness and total involvement of the telegraphic form 
still repels some literary sophisticates. For them, visual 
continuity and fixed “point of view” render the immediate 
participation of the instant media as distasteful and 
unwelcome as popular sports. These people are as much media 
victims, unwittingly mutilated by their studies and toil, as 
children in a Victorian blacking factory. For many people, then, 
who have had their sensibilities irremediably skewed and locked