The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1855-02-09
Effects of Newspapers upon our Liter
ature.

I1ItToct JF0W Lccfure on BdifGd Poetry,
by James RusscU Lo,ccll, at Boston.
MIR. Lowell continued: 1t was worth think
ing of whether the press, which we have q
habit of calling such fine institution. be
not weakening the fibre and damaging tho
sincerity of our English and our thinking,
quite as fast as it diftuses intelligence. Con-
slider the meaning of ofexpression something
wrunng from lis by the grip of thought or
passion whether we will or no. But the
editor is quite rs often compelled to write
that he may fill an empty column rs that
he may relieve an ovcrfillcd brain. And
in country like ours, where newspapers
are the only reading Of the mass of people,
there IS danger of a general contcntcdness
in common place. For we always become
what we habitually read. We let our news
papers think for us, argue for us, criticisc
for us remember for us, do every thing for
lis, in short, that will save us from the mis-
fortune of Icing ourselves. And so, instead
OF men and women, we find ourselves in n
world inhabited by incarnated leaders, or
paragraphs, or items of this or that journal.
W &c are apt to wonder at the scholarship of
men OF two centuries ago. They were
scholars because they did not read so much
as we do. We spend more time over print
than they did, hut instead ofcommuninc
with the choice thoughts Of choice spirits,
and insensibly acquiring the grand manner
OF that supreme society, we diligently inform
ourselves Of such facts as that fine horse
belonging to Mr.. Smith ran away on We'd
nesday, and that son Of Mr.. Brown fell into
the canal on Thursday, Or that a gravel
bank cavcd in and buried alive Patrick o.
Callahan on Friday. Uaughter)
1t WAS lis that were getting 'cavcd in
all the time, and becoming mere spongcs to
take in the stagnant water of village rossip.
And it was our own fault, and not that of
the editor. For we make the newspapers.
and the editor would be glad to give us
better stuff if we did not demand such as
this.
Another evil Of this state Of things is the
watering Or misunderstanding of our
English. Writing to which there is no
higher compelling destiny than the coming
Of the printers devil must end in thi. ai
last. The paragraphist must make hi. par
agraph and the longer he makes it, tho bet
ter for him and the worse for u.s. The virtue
of words becomes wholly matter oflcngth.
Accordingly we have now no longer any
tires, but disastrous contiagrations," nobody
dies, but "dcccascs" or "demiscs :" men do
not fall from houses, but are precipitatcd
from mansions or edificcs; q convict is not
hanged, but suffers the extreme penalty of
the offended law &c. Iaugl,ter)
We riddle such barrow-loads of gravel
for grain of gold DUST and when we fonud
it it,was mica after all. daughter and ap.
plause) And for this news we cover the
earth with telegraph wires, when we might
have it fresh from heaven on the electric
lines of the poet and prophet. Ifpart of
our rctribution in the next world was men,
ory, if the brain showed like sympathetic
ink, by the fires of remorse, consider what
dreary time some of us would have if we
were sentenced to read the list of accidents
and thctts and murders with which we had
sedulously enriched our minds on earth.
Laughter and applause.) He wished to
be understood as speaking with all limita-
tions. There were journals which it was
profitable to read if only to get the opinions
that contradict our own. Lectures were
only another form of tho same evil-(a lauph)
TO supply demand for entertainment
and learning loosely. 1
The old-ballad-makers lived in better |
day. They did not hear of 80 many events
that none Of them made any impression.
The world was now one great village then,
a little hamlet was world. They did not
live as we do in world that seems great
ear of Dionysius, where, if scandal is wl,is-
pered in Pekin we hear of it in New York.
The minstrels had no. metaphysical bees in
theirbonnets. They did not speculate about
this world or the next They had not made
the great modern discovery that bird in
the bush was two in the hand. 1hey did
not analyze or refine till nothing genuine
was left of this beautiful world but an iudi-
gestion. Tho people in those days lived
frankly they looked out. cheerfully upon
life, andtwere moro concerned about their
stomachs than the mysteries of their being.
Their world was small one. They took
things as they we're without, ,supposing they
were responsible ,for the consequences
Goodness does not always. - x i
=. ,a.' "Put in its thumb, ~ q d VI IF
-, YsAnds pull out q plnm;s q sS1E
Nor evil come TO 4 bad end. They. were prob
ably sincerely, thankful for asagood n,ustler,'I
or q silipwreck, just as .newsrboys ara now;
e Iaughtef) We must consider, con ,saIso. tiiat i
news was then Communicated froSM ri niaii tax
mar, ,alot from :telegraph to telesa aph; anstI
those ballad singers had therefols, dailY Iessst
olls in force apd5veraeity. Fancya tiee dill.
srence h 765sof afpan riding iptoa Conn
and saTinn,s ,fi,aSSss tSaa, haxa,. q