St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-10-09

W. ~ "iAon6 ALAS duO pTlcSLS, ufrOuc
and castles, and other feudal respecta
bilities. There was a revolutionist
there was troublesome democrat
there was voice for the groaning pee
pie, there was a prophet of free an,
beautiful thought, there was work
ing preacher that should tear tn,
chained Word of God from the pillar
of monasteries, and scatter it all ove
the world, and kindle the light to reat
it by.
And if the printing press was thu,
important, both as an agent and sym
Dol of Improvement, it is equally true
that the greatest inventions and dis
coveries since that time have been al
lied with it, and in some way brought
to serve it's vast ends. 1921 nda f7
1z Surely, the applications of steam
power are not more, splendidly illus
trated even in the rail-car and the
steamship-great instruments of civ.
ilization as they are-than in the work
ing of hundred marvellous pieces OF
machinery to publish and multiply
those vehicles of, intelligence, out Of
which all genuine civilization flows.
Surely, the electric telegraph-(and
the man is here tonight whose name
is imperishablyj linked with it, and
who, if he live but few years longer,
will see it's living nerve stretching
around the globe, and feel the heart Of
China beating against his own, sure
ly, the electric telegraph demonstrates
it's capacity in no other way so wonr
derfully as a reporter for the daily pa
per-bringing the last word from fu.
sion conventions, and confusion eau
cuses, telling us that Sebastopol is at
length taken, revealing the midnight
interior Of senates, touching our sym
'pathies with a glimpse Of poor, fever
smitten Norfolk, and daguerreotyping
the passing life and interest Of a world
upon our breakfast. table. 3g ag rrg
say, then, that the printing press,
through all the stages of its improve.
ment, may be taken as the fitting sym.
bol OF the mechanical progress of the
last four hundred years. ra9lis ri
b. And now, in order that you may re-
alize the marvel of that progress,
only ask you to go back in imagina-
ton to the workshop of Gutenberg,
striking off that copy of the Bible
which is lodged scarcely more than a
mile from this spot /; or into the pres.
ence, Of Caxton, holding up q damp
sheet of; the Histories of Trey" or the
/" Golden Legend !" and then Just take
a walk through the vast manufactures
of our Harpers and Appletons. Begin
down cellar, with the best hand they
have in the shop, the old fire-eater that
tugs away there with forty or fifty
horsepower, and keeps everything
moving, and all hands busy and then
goon and go up, through Chinese walls
of printing paper. and catacombs oi
type, and armies, of ,well-employed
men, and. healthy, happy girls, each
with an appointed task and look at
the iron arms lifting and folding, the
whizzing wheels, the enormous slabs
of pressure, the delicate stamps-the
countless agents, that with inconceiv-
able qqickness work between the man
uscript and the printed book, turning
brains (where they do not themselves
furnish the original material into
lead and lead into print, and print in.
to folded sheets, and sheets into vol
umes, and volumes into influences OF
different and illimitable power. ~
Now, certainly, this is vast sweep
Of mechanical Improvement +; but you
will observe that it is not necham;ical
improvementtmerely, for it is absurd
to talk of "mere mechanical improve
ment, "as thought involved everything
else. 1t pre-supposes prior improve.
ment, a developement and enlighten-
ment of the common mind that is rep
resented in these marvellous agents
and it argues co-existent improve
meht in the public intelligence which
creates the demand for those produc.
tions. - g, ,.,.t i, r,c,.. ;
But, sir, the printing press and the age
of steam and electricity, is likewise
an actual and mighty power. Let its
tendencies balance which way they
may, for good orfor evil, here it stands.
and no man, with half a soul in him,
would claim it il he could. / suppose
there Isl no agent Of our time that has
70 much power as the printing press
considering all the influences that arc
involved with it. ] do not say thati,
is the most excellent power that it il
better in quality or mightier in pro
portion to its area than some others
/ think that the human voice has a
greater power within the sphere Of its
influence, and that nothing can equal
the living utterance Of truth, the ef
feet of a magnetic personality. No
do 1 speak of it as especially an indis
pensable power.n2 Perhaps it is full al
much the organ aslthe guide Of pnbli.
opinion---a barometer, compressed by
the air, and not always . reflector o
the pure daylight; SO that we can tell
from thisgor that newspaper, how, low
down, or in what social stratum it lies
learn byla book, d as well as a bottle
what currents are running.
. But even as the concentrated fore,
of public opinion of live thought, it il
| an incalculated power. From its owl