Smyrna times., 1866-05-02
Without Newspapers.

A printers strike lately reduced Richmond
to that state of moral blessedness and social Sc
curity which Mr.. Henry Wise once complaeent-
ly claimed for his own Congressional District.
For little while there were no newspapers in
Richmond and, strange to say, the deficiency
does not seem to have been relished, even by
the most low-spirited admirers of that by-gone
age which both created and consoled Mr.. Wise.
In the absence of definite information, rumOr
had it all its own wild way. Canards flew as
thickly as Homer S flies around milking pail;
the rural districts were feverish with falsehoOds
for which nobody was responsible; the city
swarmed with peripatetic retailers of quite
ideal intelligence, and he who could talk the
loudest Snd the longest, and tell the toughest
story, became the great man of the groggery
and the II vered prophet of the BARRIERS shop.
To bewildered people, it was as if printing
had never been invented; and, whatever NAV
have heretofore been the sublime Indifference
of Richmond to the existence Ofthe nineteenth
century, it was not little embarrassed by this
sudden revival Of midde-age wants and monk
ish expedients and, when an adjustment of
their difficulties enabled the newspapers once
more to appear, we may be sure that they
brought sense of relief and a palpable promo
tion of the public serenity. And this little
event reminds us of what would be the condl-
tion of our own beloved city and its environs if
morning ana noon anu evening puDlcdClOuS
should come to sudden stand-still, and the
clatter of Mr.. Hoes machines be no longer
heard in Printing House Square. There are
hypercritical gentlemen who not only fastidi-
ously condemn the literary execution of news
papers (of the difficulties attending which they
know aud can know nothing but who go fur
ther, and insinuate solemn doubts of their mo-
raj inhuence-whO regard them as at best a
necessary evil; but who, nevertheless, take
| them, pay for them and read them, who are
unhappy with them. 1t is only the man who
! pleases to divest himself of all social relations
aud responsibilities who would wish to remain
| in ignorance of events. A hermit living fifty
miles from a respectable cook-shOp upon parch-
ed peas and messes of herbs, who never chan
ges his shirt and goes always bare-footed, Ii
| naturally indifferent TO the fluctuations OF the
eattle-market, cares nothing for the rise or fall
of cotton, and has a spirit elevated far above
the vicissitudes of leather. Having satisfied
himself that his soul is to be saved by frequent
| hagellations and infrequent abutons,. he nc
more wants even a religious Journal than he
wants soap or q finertoothed comb. COnvine
] ed that the world is rushing to ultimate perdi
cion. his only care is not to be swept along By
I the current, while from his high and dry point
4 Of advantage, he looks into an unearthly future
and forgets, SO far as possible, that he has many
1 m;Il;nns Of fellow creatures. We cannot ina
zine Saint Simeon Stytes taking in The 1fi
3nne or any other newspaper but men who
J;fFor Ia; from that worthy, who do not live b,
thauselves upon the tops OF pillars, do notshln
/ the sight of the human face and the sound o