Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1869-07-08
READING NEWSPAPERS.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

ln the United States every worthy citizen reads
a newspaper, and owns the paper which be- reads.
A newspaper is a window through which men
look out on all that is going on lin the world With
out newspaper man is shut up in small room,
and knows little or nothing Of what is happening
outside Of himself In our day newspapers keep
pace with history, and record it. Nothing can
long be kept secret where newspapers are allowed
freedom in expression and enterprise. They range
the world of materials. They unlock the most Sec
ret rooms and pry into the portfolios of ministers
and diplomatists They proclaim the kings words,
the acts Of Parliament, the laws of Congress, and
the deliberations Of the Courts of Justice. They
follow in the wake of ships of discovery, and re-
port all new things found out They bring back
from the wilderness the scouts report. They go
with armies, and report the details Of murders,
battles, and the whole campaign. They are the
servants of commerce, of manufactures, and Of all
industrial enterprise. They are full of the discover
les of science. They record the progress Of art.
They catch up the wisdom hidden with skill and
experience, and spread it abroad to all the peo:
pie. >
A good newspaper will keep sensible man in
sympathy with the worlds current history. It is
an ever unfolding encyclopedia; an unbound book,
forever issuing and never finished. -
But not half the world knows the luxury ofread-
ing newspaper. We see too many Of them. We
are glutted with news Go into banishment Re-
move far out into the country, to some point where
the mail comes but twice or thrice week; where
few strangers break 10, and where the few neghbors
live in primeval simplicity Now let the day come
round for the newspaper That day is reserved
for errands and the father is always at the store
when the mail arrives. He takes the weekly pa
per, fresh and moist from the bundle, and hastens
home with his treasure. 1t is Saturday. All the
house knows that the paper has come. After sup
per, all gather around the fire. The father puts
on his spectaces and reads the secular news, and
some of the amusing items, stopping to join the
march of events to last weeks knowledge. Ques-
tions are put, paragraphs are re-read. Calcula-
tions are made. Domestic or industrial questions
are discussed. The whole family are alive. New
thoughts stir them.
But the best part of the paper to them is Saved
till tomorrow" There is but one service in the
cOunCrycnurCH. hItCT Iilat, auu dlleT uluueE, luc
paper comes forth again, and all the Sunday read
ing is gone through with.
The whole of attracts the grown folks, and
half of it the children 'It's enough sight better
than the catechism" says a rolicking boy whose
constitution does not seem to have suffered from
too much catechism. But dull or sprightly, every
word of it is listened to. On Monday the adver-
tisements are read and many ofthem several times.
Every day the topic comes up at meal-time. The
conversation goes on in the shop, in the barn, in
the dairy.
It enlivens the whole week. And, so, when city
folks in summer go out into this pleasant village,
they find that the people know more about city
life than they themselves do. They are surprised
by questions about concerts, lectures, public men,
conventions and literary transactions, which they
cannot answer All over the land there are intelli
gent families with good newspapers, who know
more about the goings-on in the world than they
do who live among the events recorded. And so ii
has passed to proverb-"You must 60 into the
country to find out what has happened in the city.