Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-12-21
YEARLY ADVERTISING,
About NeWapapors.

About Newspapers. N
1t is, and hss been, time out Of mind, a
favorite theory with some persons that the
world is growing worse very fast, and that
beyond all compare, it has degenerated
since the days of-"gOod Harouu AL Ras-
chtd," we suppose, or some other age Of
gold, equally fabulous, and equally i'm
possible of comparison, to a present gen.
Grafton. When we ask, individually,
"what is the cause that the former days
were better than these2" we are told that
we do not enquire wisely conceraing the
matter" ;" and We think the same will apply.
in general sense to all such inquiries
and speculations as the aforementioned.
The same great authority assures US
that "the thing that hath been is that
which shall be, and that which is done, is
that which shall be done again"-which
may betaken to mean plainly, that "the for
mer days" were no more all good than ours
now are all bad. Aud if, after going
back, weighing aud comparing evidence,
setting one over against the other, we do
not succeed ia adjusting the balance of
good and evil to nice certainty, it
is at least worth while to be re-
assured of what wsare really sometimes in
doubt,-that it is still the same world, the
same old mixture of good and evil. His
tory is supposed to be mirror in which
we may see, "as in water, face answering to
face; SO the heart Of man to mans" SO age
answering to age, But late writer says
that stbsSssvdsA oI great events lie near
the surface, aud historians delve too deep
for them" He recommends, instead, the
study of biography as more useful and
satisfactory as we'll as more pleasing way
of studying the past. We all know how
greatly priced have been the journals and
letters of men who have interested the
public in their dsy--and how interesting
the events of their age, seen with our own
eyes, and told in their own way, are to US
now. Everything is fresh and vivid and
natural-we seem to get close to the writer
and to see things just as they occurred
But even here. We may be looking through
the prejudices, faGcies, or humors OF
writer, who by these may carry US WHITTIER
soever he wills. Commend US then to the
newspaper, was our conclusion not long
since, in looking over fle of trans. Atlantic
newspapers, edited half century ago
The newspaper, thought we, is the true
mirror OF life, the photograph picture, Vari-
ously colored it may be, but with outlines
true to the life. If you want, like Mira,
on the hills of Bagdal, to take Gontempla'
tive views of human existence, here are
"the busy tribes of flesh aud blood" pass
ed in view before you, through columns OF
priut-a procession as solemnly suggestive
as that onewhich the oriental dreamer saw
passing over the bridge sin The midst of
the tide" Then, as to romance,-here you
are at the root of the mRtter-the rough
material out of which all that has been
made, is lying scattered around you every
where, just as it is -a.days, if you
wanted material for stories and poems,
and we're to go out into the highways and
hedges to gather it, What vistas of life,
I-of the manners and habitudes Of by
gone time, are opened up in the adVertis-
ing columns, for instance; and what pages
on pages of story telling are suggested in
those briefly summed up paragraphs of
(" mysterious marriages., remarkable
cases, Z" shipwrscks, robberies, the trags-
dies in high and low life,--and hundred
lesser incidents, all, the stuff OF which
lives and newspapers then, as now, were
made.
We have been studying the world as it
was in the years 1914 and rs, in the fle Of
old papers now before US. We find here
the great events of that we'll known, event
full period, jot,ed quietly down among
many lesser details which seemed quite asin'
terestiug to the people then, as those things
which have made it au era to the world
They do not seem to have considered they
we're living in heroic age, but lived on
: svwith all their cares and fears" as though
Napoleon, the lion of their day, was no
rattliug and breaking his chains at Sain
Helena aud Elba-as though war was mo-
!, raging, on the sea and on the land, will
: their outcast kin smen beyond the Atlantic
: aud a prospect of civil war at home
with the Corn Law mobs batteriug in th
front doors of nobility in the West Eud
,. and o'Couuell "iriug the Irish heart
2 through all these, the spectators of the da,,
were deeply interested ss to the intluenct