Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1870-10-20
NEWSPAPER ADVENTURES.

Neither the publishers nor editors
of newspapers, nor the general puo-
lie, (says the Detroit Post, can con-
Ejecture in advance of publication the
adventures through which any issue
may go, or the uses to which the
journal may be put. Perhaps the
Daily Post, which is purchased on
the railroad train to-day, or sent to
a distant or near subscriber, may,
within month, be used as wall pa
per to adorn the ceiling of some
squatter's hut in far Oregon, or be
used to wrap up package of opium
in Constantinople, or to kindle fire
in remote Alaska, or be reverenced
as mysterious object in some
heather land. The Rev. DR.. Jessup,
missionary in Syria, recently related
as fact within his personal knowl-
edge, that small parcel of New
York TTibunes was borrowed of him
by a native doctor, and, after being
soaked in oil, rolled into small wads,
and administered to the sick as a
physic, with the happiest results.
The doctor who tried this expert
ment, indeed, achieved high rep
utation among his people thereby.
His theory was that, in some mys-
terious way, the printed letters of
the sheet contained knowledge and
power; and then their magical force,
if taken into the bowels of a sick
person, would exercise the evil
spirits which created the malady.
Wonderful cures were actually ac-
complished by this prescription.
Thus the paper was made to per-
form a good work which its venera-
bic editor never dreamed of. A
gentleman who recently returned
from Egypt and the Holy Land, re-
lates to us an adventure which be-
fel the Daily Post in that far region.
He had left orders with his bankers,
at Paris, to forward his letters and
papers to him at such points as he
designated from time to time. Dur
ing his trip to the Pyramids, quite a
large mail accumulated for him at
Alexandria. On his return to that
port, steamer was ready to leave,
and he took passage, but was fortu-
nate enough to get his package of
papers and letters before going
aboard. The homeward bound pas
sengers who crowded the vessel were
composed of French, English and
German tourists, going home from
their various eastern pilgrimages.
Through neglect of some absurd
port regulation, not a man or wO-
man of the company received any
letters or papers except our friend,
who obtained his package before
embarking. The weather was op-
pressive, and hardly anybody had
heard a word from home for sew
eral weeks. When our friend, there
fore, took his seat on deck, with a
pile of twenty or thirty clean Daily
Posts by his side, and prepared for
a comfortable reading season, he be-
came in moment the monarch ofthe
ships company, to whom everybody
made haste to pay obsequiOus court.
In ten minutes the cards of forty or
more lords and gentlemen, ,and ladies,
were pressed upon him, with an earn
est desire to make his acquaintance,
accompanied by a running fire of
fiattering remarks concerning Amer
lea, and her institutions, and the
enterprise of her citizens, from the
crowded circle of courtiers who
gathered about his chair of state,
the whole, of course, prefacing re-
quests to ''lend me one of those pa
pers." In fifteen minutes there
were twenty or thirty passengers
sitting about the decks, each with
his or her face hidden behind a
Daily Post, intently absorbed in
its contents. Such as could not
read our language, got those who
could to translate it into their own.
Before the vessel arrived on the
other side of the Mediterranean,
every intelligent passenger had read
every line in each issue of the Post,
most of them devoured advertise
ments and all, and many asking
numerous shrewd questions con-
cerning American ways of doing
business, especially in Detroit, which
questions were suggested by the ad-
vertisements. English and French
travellers stated to our informant
that the news they found in the
Post, concerning their own countries
was fresher and more clearly arrang-
ed than any they had seen elsewhere
during their absence from home.