The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-04-17
HoYT 8. CO., Proprietors.
THE PRESS as AN EDUCATOR.

= The press is great and constant educator Of
The people, and, in the material development
of education, has performed and will continue
TO perform an, all-important part Dependent
for its influence and success upon the intelli'
yence of the masses, its watchword has been
1progressp As institutions, education and the
press march hand-in-hand, encouraging each
other, born of like necessities, and are twin
branches of that great parent-stock-the well
fare of society. The immense increase OF news.
papers and newspaper circulation attests the
iuexorable laws Of demand and supply. With
out general diffusion of education newspapers
could not exist, and without newspapers the
progress of education would he difficult, if not
inpracticable. The demand and necessity for
education include within their import the sup
ply of intelligence through the medium of the
loress. As one 6ourishes the other progresses,
and each institution, part Dcssu, ful6lls its
grand purpose and aecomplishes its great re-
Bults.
The power Of the press, like the power OF
education, exists everywhere in American civ
ilisation: it reaches the million, in every city,
town, village and hamlet in the land its free
dom is guaranteed by the Constitution, and
thus, being without let or hiTderanee, and un-
embarrassed by the caprice OF rulers, becomes
an inestimable blessing. Were the press
shackled and restrained, Ignorance and tyranny
would predominate, and hence education would
he limited and checked. Deprive the people
of the press, and at once darkness would pail
the land, and the necessity to desire, as wei! as
the opportunity to acquire education, would in
eYitably pass away.
Through the medium of the press we are
made acquainted with our Liberties and our
privileges, and hence we understand what is
required of us in all the requisites of happy
snd prosperous government. By its assistance
beneficial results are accomplished, almost In.
simultaneously, which otherwise would utterly
fail, or take years to culminate. 1t creates
public opinion in its healthiest action, puts US
in communication with other nations, promotes
commerce, stimulates enterprise, and adds to
the intellectual development of the whole peo-
pie Indeed, the ablest writer's all agree in the
assertion that the press is the "most remarks
bic phenomena of modern times, vitality Affect
ing society in all its relations, and forming one
of the political elements of modern free nations
which the ancients had not even IN embryo:
Newspapers have undoubtedly changed all
the relations of government by their enterprise
and activity, and this has been accomplished
by reason of their wide circulation, the rapid
communication of intelligence on subjects OF
immediate interest, and the means afforded OF
acting on the public mind in its state of high
est excitement. AS political engines they are
all-powerful, and hence in countries where the
liberty of the press has been abridged, or quail
;fied, are capable of creating, great mischief,
as we'll as of performing great good. Recog-
nizing the availability and advantages OF the
press, special interests have demanded the pub
iication of newspapers devoted to those inter
ests alone. In addition to papers devoted TO
the dissemination of news-newspap strictly,
and to those especially devoted TO education,
organs of professional educators-there are
now printed classjournals, dedicated to every
conceivable interest journals of religion,
science, mechanics, agriculture, commerce,
medicine, insurance, law, music, temperance,
Free Masonry, Odd Fellowship, sporting and
Juvenile reading, besides the organs of the diff
ferent trades and industries. But these, nu-
merous as they are, are only addenda to the
national press, and will never supersede its
paramount importance, even in these special
ties. They are simply adjuncts and no more
HISTORY OF TEE PREss.-.Iu order that the
power of the press as an educator may be better
appreciated, it becomes necessary to make
condensed resaac of its history, following its
rise and progress through the different periods
Of its existence and CESSATION in different coun-
tries, up to the present advanced era of rail-
roads, telegraphs, and steanl-navigation-the
annihilators of time and space, whose mouth
piece and Herald Mercury" is the newspaper
This history is necessarily ,ollated from the
various sources of information which have been
accepted as correct, and reveals many remark
able incidents, viewed from the standpoint Of
nresent experiences and ideas, the most impor-
!. tant of which is that the American press has
set the example of progress to the older world,
and that in this, as in all other essentials of
widespread liberty and beaefcent institutions,
our country has been foremost in good example.
THE FIRST NEwsPAPER---According to ac-
cepted statistics, newspapers, like many other
institutions important to modern civilization,
originated in Italy. The war which the fepub-
lie of Venice waged against Solyman Ii in
Daltnatia, in the year 1868, gave rise to the
practice of communicating military and COM
inercial information by written sheets. These
were read to such people as desired to listen,
who paid for the privilege enjoyed in coin,
roy obsolete. called gGzeHa, which some claim
ryas the origin of the word gazette" ETY.
uaologists have urged that the name "gazetta"
y,as derived from gozzerd, magple or chatterer,
while Others assert the word TO have been the
Latin easa, which, being heightened into ga
setta, would signify Treasury of news" The
Spanish derive it from the Latin, and use the
word gasetista, to signify lover of the gazette
The German zeitung is derived from the ancient
theidinge or theidung, the English word, "tiding'
or Swedish "tidingar."
A file of these written Venetian papers, COM
prising q series of sixty years, was, some years
since, and doubtless now is, preserved in the
Magliabecchi library at Florence. Newspapers,
however, were preceded in antiquity by the
Roman lctu Diarna, which were daily written
official reports of public occurrences. The
first regular paper of which we have mention
was monthly written government, paper at
Venice, which continued, long after the inven-
tion of printing, to be distributed in manu-
script-the government being too jealous 70
permit the publication of printed newspaper.
Those who first wrote newspapers were stigma
tized by the Italians as menaasti, the threaten
ers," or those who spread defamatory sayings:
In consequence, these m'enanti were suppressed