The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1853-01-19
Newspapers.

newspapers.
THE press of our country is an efficient
engine i'll the promotion of intelligence and
virtue; and the father who permits his
family to be unsupplicd with paper, even
singl year, is, to say the least, guilty of
culpable neglect. He denies his wife and
children an invaluable opportunity Of i'm
provement, and in this age of plenty and
cheapness, his remissness deserves the Sc
vercst reprehcnsion. We do not say he
ought to be placed under guardianship,
but we do affirm that he is not qualified
for his responsible duty.
A whole family or boys and girls grow
ing mp without "A newpaper! In the dark
ages, this would have been well enough
but now, when the seeds of intelligence
are sown broadcast over the length and
breadth Of the land, it is monstrous, it is
wicked,
Poor children they will grow up in ig-
norance, in spite of the grammcr and the
spelling book they will always he stupid
always open their mouths and stare when
anything is said they will aways be be-
hind the times till the last day of their
lives, and finally die because the spelling
book did not tell them that ratsbane was
poison. Wcpity the children whose father
Is too mean-no man is too poor in our
prosperous land-to take paper Truly,
in their case, the iniquites of the father
shall be visited upon the children, unto the
fourth and fifth generations
A child can never be educated in the
school-room alone. Its reasoning powers
demand the exercise which the great world
alone can give. Let their minds be devcl-
oped by study, let them have all the train
ing which the school can give, and they
will be dolts with nothing else.
Children are educated by the little every
day incidents of the family circle. The
conversation and example Of their elders,
the performance of their little duties, every
thing they do, or see done, is part oftheir
education. If the sphere of the chid's OBJ
scrvation be narrow, its intellect will be
pinched; enlarge it, and the child's mind
will be expanded to corresponding cx-
tent.
Every father cannot send his children
abroad to improve their judgment 10y actu-
al contact with the scenes and events of
the world. But the newspaper rejecting
the thoughts and experience of universal
mankind, supplies the want. 1t places
before the reader the record of every days
thought and action. 1t brings to our very
fircside the knowledge of what is transpir-
ing evcrywhere-what men are doing =
thus making their experience ours.
Everybody needs this information, and
no man who has a particle of sc!f-rc$pect
will be without it. The child needs it
nay, its expanding mind impcrativcly de-
mands it.
The newspaper, besides the actual
knowledge which it imparts, is eminently
suggestive. 1t provokcs thought, reason
ing calculation. 1t is not like an old book
which has lain for half a century on the
shelf, stale and musty; it is fresh, spark
ling in life, and inviting from its very nov
city. 1t must be read in its season, AS the
corn and potatoes must be harvested in
theirs, so that the very necessity keeps the
brain lively.
We have heard learned doctors and
schoolmastcrs advise their pupils to take
standard book, and peruse and re, peruse it,
until its contents became part of the
mind. Undoubtedly great intellects have
been perfected in this manner-W ebster's
was; but, as only one in a thousand is a
genius, or is endowed with the requisite
patience, very few will ever do it. The
mass demand variety, change, sparkling
novelty, rather than the monotony OF al
ways ploughing in one furrow.
The newspaper, coming every day, or
every, week, will be read, while Milton and
Shakespeare, Bacon and Locke, grow musty
on the shelves. Its contents are in the
very act offlowing from the living brain.
DO not think, farmer and mechanic, be-
cause you have 'Baxter's Call and a
hymn-book slowed away in your secretary,
that YOU have done all that is required of
you. Good as these books are, you had
better burn them than become the victim
of such delusion.
Take the paper, pay for it, read it, and
your children will love you while you live,
and bless your memory when you arc
gone.
Yonno Men Ualn vonraal1as