The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1867-11-14
From the Springfield Republican.
Newspapers i'm America and i'm
Europe. r....

4NCWSiB4l NBCE8 AAl IAAlAcEAcdb anu HI
Europe ,...... .
Among the collections at the great
Paris exhibition, probably few attract
so Tfttle attention as those OF the
newspapers and periodicals of theyari-
GUS countries represented. Who
would wish to spend his time over
files of London or Paris dailies, to say
nothing of such journals as the Mem
phis Avalanche, Brownlow's Rebel
VentilatOr, the Arkansas TOOthpick.
and the rest Of our remote news
papers? And yet, to a rejecting per-
son, what is so extraordinary as this
whole matter of pewspapcr publish
ing-its rapid growth, and its prOdigi
GUS results? =? HumOrists, like Thoreau,
and grammarians like Lowell, may
jeer at the newspaper, but what did
Burke say? "Its WRITER'S said he,
''are indeed, for the greater part,
either unknown, or in contempt; but
they are like a battery, in which the
stroke Of any one ball produces no
effect. but the amount of continued
repetition is decisive. Let us only
suffer any person to tell US his story,
morning and evening, but for a
twelve-month, and he will become our
master"
Since the time of Burke, this bat
terry of which he spoke, has been won
drOusly enlarged. Probably all the
periodicals and newspapers in the
world then were less numerous than
these now published iu Massachusetts
alone, which in 1860 amounted to
more than lO2, 100000 copies during
the year The whole number Of
copies annually circulated in the
United States at that time was 927.-
95l, l,54S, and is ] Ow about double,
nearly 1,5OO,OOO,0OO. In Europe the
figures are less. A recent writer in
the London Star estimates the num-
Der at 5OO,0OO,OOO in Great Britain
and Ireland-an increase since 1854
of more than four times the number
circulated Il dozen years before. In
France the number ran up from less
than a hundred millions in 1847 to
nearly five hundred millions in 1865,
and this in spite Of the censorship Of
the press. Nearly half of this vast
number Of copies issues from the daily
press-the estimated annual number
of daily papers in England being
25O,O00, 600, and in this country 7O0,-
10000.
II is worthy ofnote, also, that the
proportion of political newspapers
steadily devoted to the doctrines Of
particular parties, is greatly diminish
ing, as any one may see for himself
who cares to observe. There is a
large increase, too, in papers purely
or mainly literary, while the so called
religious press is becoming more and
more general in its character. The
number of writer's annually employed
in furnishing the matter contained in
the newspapers, and the amount paid
for their contributions, in one form OF
another, would astOnish most persons
if it were generally known. There is
probably no author or writer of dis
tinction in America, who does not oe-
casionally, and few who do not regu-
larly, write for newspapers or nlaga
zines. Many write for a half-dozon
different ones, sometimes of different
and conflicting opinions, and are paid
literally for it. Others write to carry
point, OF for love of writing, or to
see themselves in print. In this way
the average of newspaper style is kept
far above what it would otherwise b.;
yet, perhaps, the style of these prac-
tised writer's themselves suffers a little
in consequence.
On the whole, nobody can, or in fact
does, now look upon journalism with
contempt as in Burke's day. But
still there are few who appreciate its
true value, and are willing to cOncede
its Just claims among the ciyilizing
agencies of the times,