Smyrna times., 1873-09-10
SceIIU ID e D us.
A Mountain of Newspapers.

The managers of the St. Joseph Mo- In
dustrial Exposition and Agricultural Fair,
which will be opened on the 29th of Septem.
Der next, propose to exhibit copy Of every
newspaper published in the United States.
These specimens are to be neatly bound and
paced in the Exposition; on the fourth day
the collection is to be sold to the highest
bidder, and the proceeds are to be given to
the fund for building the monument to Horace
Greeley, the great journalist, and one of the
founders of the modern American Press. The
collection, if it be nearly complete, will be
curious and valuable.
Whoever shall improve this opportunity of
critically examining our Journalism will find
it thoroughly American in its range between
excellence and worthlessness, with long dis
tance occupied by respectable mediocrity.
Perhaps we are rash and even uncharitable in
rating any newspaper as thoroughly worthless
| If it contains no more, the advertisements of the
vcinage are useful as well as interesting. If
there be any local intelligence we have in it
key to the character, the civilization, the cu-
ture, the habits, customs, and manners of a
town, of county, and sometimes of several
counties. We are able to make up our iudg-
ment upon something like the old test of
nOScttUr SOciis-we can probably determine
what the subscribers are by the newspaper
which they take. One whose professional
|
each regularly, soon acquires a fair idea of
localities which he never visited, and of men
and women who have never been seen by him
their works and their ways, their gossip,
prejudces, knowledge, and ignorance. Wher-
| ever Americans go the newspaper, as a
necessity Of life, soon makes its appearance,
and be it good or bad sheet, it is always a
tell tale, aud always as unreserved and as little
false and tattering as Photographic portrait Of
facial beauty or ugliuess. There are little
towns far off in Texas or the Territories which
we certainly never have visited, but which are
as familiar to US as if we had lived there for a
decade. We can see the shops, the taverns
and the churches; we can imagine the
physiognomy of the streets; we can picture tC
ourselves the groups of gossiping loiterers and
idlers who are discussing the accidents the
births and the deaths Of the day, the health
and the prosperity Of the neighborhood, al
! the fluctuations and concerns which differ only
in degree from those of a crowded metropolis
With little pains we can determine the whole
topography of the hamlet. We know JUS
where the smithy is, and where the "store,
where the hall for dancing and lectures, where
the doctors's Office, where the lawyers, where
the postmaster's. If called to draw map OF
the place, we should hardly make a rod.
J blunder in the position of the hay scales AnC
: more than this, we know something of tn,
history of the town for the last six mOnths-o
its murders, fights rObberies, of it's festivals
and its funerals. We can conjecture, too
something of the character, intellectual ant
! physical, of the people, for the bookseller
advertisement tells us what they read, th
2 apolhecary's what physic they take, thu
dentist the state Of their teeth, and the tailor
: their taste in ralment. 1t is only in genera
j. that towns resemble each other, and wheI
we come to particulars we find them as diff
: ferent and as various as human faces or
l. human fortunes.
!, The greatest value and interest of news
: paper collection is in the future. We are our
: selves too near to this great colossal face o
i the present to examine it critically, which i
. 9 one reason why we bestow so much of ou
6 attention and acumen upon the past TIL
: play must be played out before we can Civ
? our judgment understandingly. Historical
9 writer's have lately discovered that it is in tn
= life of its people that the best annals of
}, nation are to be found. When we know tha
il the venders Of old ballads in London had n
e better customer than Lord Maculay, we under
: stand in part why his History of England i
so surprisingly vigorous and entertaining
); The newspapers printed during the first Frencl
', revolution are found to be the richest roper
II tory of pregnant and suggestive facts. w
n have many and some excellent histories O
J, our own Rebellion, but mainly they are al
~ made up from the contemporary newspapers
:. These, in the future, are to be examined b.
:. more dispassionate and philosophical histo
= rians, to whom that long drama of agony an,
Il doubt will seem no more than a necessar
?, episode. The facts are not in the Washingto
archives but in the bulky files Of the newspapers
% American journalism is not what it shOul
d be, but neither is it by any means the dis
d jointed nuisance which the late DIR. Rush say
q, fit, with distempered and dyspeptic rritability
q to consider it. It's main errors have arise
% from its vassalage to party, and this the bes
ID newspapers are fast throwing off with con
a temptuous impatence. The number ofpresse
&c &c owned and for that matter, of editors owne,
,s by Presidents and Governors and Members o
5 Congress is growing daily less and less
At There viii be more sheets thoroughly indie
1t pendent in the ST. Joseph collection than ther
y would have been if it had been made N
!. longer than Eve years ago. For this, little an,
5. limited as it is in comparison with what
should be- let us be thankful t.. -