The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-10-26
CASH TERMS or ADVERTISING.
The Press.


One of the most remarkable features Of
this remarkable age and country is the wide
diffusion and infuence of newspapers. We
find them everywhere-in the crowded city
and on the frontiers Of civilization. Wher-
ever the Anglo-Ssxon plants his foot the
Press accompanies or follows him II q VII
lage Of 500 men starts up in Oregon or Cali
fornia, it win have its own journal. Or if the
emigrant pushes his way into the western
wilds alone. he win manage to keep within
gun-shot Of some post-offioe, where he can
receive newspaper from his distant home
He win then go again into the woods and,
sitting ON trunk Of q fallen tree. with that
newspaper in his hand. he win be transported
in moment to the centre of the crowded
marts Of commerce. He will see the signs
OF the tradesmen and mechanics in his native
place ne win behold the improvements, the
new buildings. the railroads, the steamboats,;
ne will take eognizance of the marriages.
and follow the funeral procession to the long
home of the departed. In the solitude of
the forest, he will be linked to his common
humanity by this wonderful newspaper. Il
win fill his eye with the sight of the moving,
world; his ear with its thousand voices of
friendship. ambition, hatred, and love; his
heart with its sympathies, prejudices. and
passions. Its magic mirror win show him
every light and shadow of human existence,
and cheer the dullest hour, and enliven the
deepest solitude.
An old file of newspapers is the most faith
ful of all records of the spirit of the times
1t enables Us to know more of the real life of
past age than we can ever gather from his
tory. 1t presents the men and women of
the past in their every day attire, and we talk
with them in a social, familiar manner. We
learn their business, their habits, their poll.
tics, their personal and professional riYalries;
and we find that, whatever new inventions
have been made since their day, there has
been no new invention in human nature
The people who wore cooked hats, who
never saw locomotive. and would have
put straight jacket on a man who had
predicted such an invention as the mag
netic telegraph, were just such people as
ourselves; just as hopeful, just as happy.
and just as wise in their own conceits-
At some future period our posterity will hold
communion with us through like medium.
and smart as We think ourselves, with our
many inventions and discoveries, so much
greater achievements in science and AIT will
hereafter be accomplished that our descend
ants viii probably look upon US as very
plain and primitive sort Of people. whose
chief foible was an innocent but overween.
ing self-complacency in their own progress.
We should like some of the spirit-rappers
to lift the curtain of futurity and let us see
what Virginia will be century hence
Without the benefit of such supernatural il
luminations, we are willing to hazard the
of the Dispatch, to be marked by some fu-
ture newspaper editor, that Virginia viii thea
be greater State than N York now Is Nor.
folk viii be q crowded seaport, and Rich
mond one of the largest manufacturing and
commercial cities in the world. The Dis-
patch will then be printed on press which
win turn off thirty thousand copies an hour.
It will have hundred thousand subscribers,
| and one of its advertising columns will be
worth an immense fortune. The present
suburbs of Richmond will then be some
| miles from the green fields. This change
win be effected by the progress of railroads
and the works of public improvement, which
the Press has been the chief agent in pro-
noting. 1t is this great engine which sets
all other engines to work, which starts the
locomotive and the steamboat, stimulates in.
dustry in all its forms, and thus makes ma
ton prosperous and great.
But this is not tithe of its achievements.
1t would take paper as large as the London
Times, or the Richmond Dispatch os 1873,
to print catalogue Of its capacities for good
or evil. Its power is beyond all calculation.
1t makes and unmakes Presidents and Cabi.
| nets; it builds up and demolishes political
parties and public men, it can lift virtue and
genius from the dust, to sit among the princes
Of the earth, and it can scourge vice and fol-
ly in the highest places of rank and wealth.
till they blush and tremble before the con-
centrated indignation of mankind. There is
no greater curse to society than a reckless
and profiigate press no greater blessing than
press conducted on enlightened and honor.
able principles.