Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-12-31
THE WORLD WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS.

IL Is lie epltomlzed; talk abbreylat
ed; events daguerreotyped in thu
very act Of happening; it is ever.
body and his wife dropping in t.
tea or to breakfast and telling yor
in good English all they have seer
and been doing, without disturbing
your quiet or household economy
Beginning with bulletins from courts
and dispatches from seats of wa,
or councils of state, the newspape,
has by insensible degrees enlarged
it's function, until it covers with its
insatiate tentacula the whole. field
of public and private transactions
and what it does not tell, is not
worth knowing. The Yankee is nc
longer inquisitive; what he wants
tn know he can find out in his daily
paper. Take it away from him and
he would be a lost man. It is his
directory, his railroad guide, bis
business or financial correspondent,
his familiar gossip, his message
from home. It is the Vanity Fair,
where you can find what you will
whether business or pleasure. The
maid opens the damp sheet to glance
at the marriage column; the maiden
aunt at the obituaries; brother Tom
to scan the tally of the last national
game" and in this indispensable
ephemeran everybody's world is
represented.
The world without newspapers
would be at sudden loss for its
ready-made ideas. Its wits would
60 ragged, at least for season.
The manufacture of public opinion,
of the different approved varieties,
has become an industry of enorm-
Gus proportions. The well-bred
and well-fed Englishman has no
opinion they say, on the latest
event, TIL he has read the London
Times" and every man has his
printed oracle, which he consults
when too busy or too lazy to do his
own thinking. Dionysius and other
monarchs used to keep philoso-
pher OR two in the house to supply
them with ideas or keep their minds
in motion. Now a similar luxury is
open to the poorest, who may Sc
cure for trife the daily or weekly
visit of Mentor. Busy people
can't really have time to think of
everything as it happens, and they
love to have some kindred mind, of
the same sect or school, dish up the
news for them with appropriate
notes and comments, that may say
Gust what 1 think about it," as
very like it is, if they had time and
art to get at their own thoughts
and get it out into words. The
writer's for the London "Times" are
said to make its success not by at
tempting to shape. but simply to
express the thought on current
topics of the average Englishman.
The last leading editorial of a great
newspaper is at least a foil for
thought, and provocative of intel
lectual activity in all circles. In
the discussions Of cars and stages
you recognize the familiar voice Of
"Times" or Tribune" The literary
and religious weeklies are echoed
and reflected in large circles Of adj
miring readers the sparks struck
out on their editorial anvils scin-
tillate all over the land.
The world without newspapers,
even if every duodecimo and quarto
and folio was spared, would fall
into a comparatively zimmerman
darkness. knowledge is really not
published for the masses, until it
gets out of books into the conve-
nient and cheap and quickly read
newspaper. Many mind is started
upon inquiry and investigation by
some scrap Of scientific or curious
which Il read in a
newspaper" As it is said that the
New Testament might almost be