Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-01-23
PRESS OF MAINE.
An Address read before the Maine Editors
and Publishers Association at Augusta,
Jan. I:ih. by Joseph Griffin of Bruns-
wick.

/
Ladies, and Gentlemen Of the Editors and
+ Publishers association.
The honorable position you have as
signed to me | must attribute to your re-
spect for age.
am here to-day to give an account of
my stewardship. At the close of half u
centurys labor in Maine, your servant,
under the impression that he had been es-
tablished in business as a printer, publish
er and bookseller, for longer period than
any other person in the State, thought it
might be Il pleasure, possibly duty, to
devote himself to the business of gathering
up (while they could be gatheredD the
fragments for History of the Press in
Maine. The thought was thrown out. half
iestingly, in letter to one of the editors
of the York County Independent (his
faithful apprentice in early manhood), and
quite to his surprise the suggestion was
not only hailed as good one, but a rec
ommendation OF his fitness for the work
! (rather too tlattering) was spread through
the press, and so many offers of assistance,
necessary to the undertaking, were con-
sequently made, that he took courage and
forthwith sent out prospectus of the in
tended work.
! hardly know how it was, that at my
( time of life | should have had courage TO
undertake a work that had so hard look.
| Friends threw diScourageme in the
way. Many sage men Of experience, find
ing | had determined upon going ahead,
advised me to file my documents carefully
as went on, that the matter might be
easily taken up by my successor, consid-
ering ii Il matter OF great doubt whether
ever saw the end OF the work. /. how
ever, set resolutely but moderately to
work, husbanded my strength i'll every
way possible, and the result is now known.
have not accomplished what was de-
sirable; but through the kind aid OF. the
members of the fraternity and some out
siders, who manifested much interest in
the work. we have, unitedly, think, laid
a good foundation for more complete
history in years to come.
The notice given of most of our news
papers, especially Of such as were short
lived, is brief Mr.. Buckingham, in his
"reminiscences OF the press of Massachu-
sets, abounds in extracts from the papers
whose history he records, and thus brings
out clearly the spirit of the day.
The field of journalism that he occupied
was that very interesting one during and
succeeding the Revolutionary war. The
history of journalism in Maine has not af-
forded matter of such extraordinary inter-
est; still in regard to some of our oldest
papers, it might have been well TO have
shown up more fully the path they had
marked out. This would have been done,
had those persons, who were specially in
terested, answered our requests.
Our photography will be found to be
quite complete. 472 authors and SAC
books and pamphlets are there recorded,
not including the numerous books by
Maine men, published after they had left
the State, nor our editors who rank surely
as authors of great influence.
The path of the printer can scarcely be
other than that of intellectual improve
ment; path that, if he be found in ways
of righteousness, must grow brighter and
brighter. unto the perfect day.
Combining intellectual with mechanical
employment ,-composing typographical
ly, and at the same time, mentally ,-elab-
Grating or criticising the written ideas OF
others in the copy before him,-often put
ting his own thoughts, without copy, di-
rectly into form, he must have duh head
who does not gain the tact, at least of a
ready writer.
BY reference to the Index of Periodicals
in our History. it will be seen that there
are only seven editors, among fifty, who
have received college diploma. The
status was the same in Massachusetts as
late as 1920 Buckingham, in his Rem
inscences,' gives but five or six editors.
of liberal education among the host that
preceded him in Massachusetts. The
Columbian Centinel. edited by Benjamin
Russell; the Boston Gazette. by John Rus
sell; the New England Galaxy and the
Boston Courier, by j. I. Buckingham,
were among the most influential papers in
the country. Each of these editors en-
tered the printing office at about fifteen
years of age, with only the ABC educa-
ton of the common schools of that day,
and gained his high position by apprecia-
ting and diligently improving the adyan-
tages of the printing-otlice. lnnumerable
are the eases of this Kind that have oc-
cured.
OF our Maine fraternity no one has OBJ
tanned a higher character as a citizen
journalist, legislator, diplomatist, than the
late Luther Severance no one has de
parted leaving upon our horizon rays o
light more benignant. Not only have able
journalists thus been multiplied, but oul
halls Of State and National legislation have
been amply supplied with efficient laborer:
from these nurseries of intellect.
Enrolled in the list Will ever stand con
spicuous one whom our fraternity will de
light to honor-that printer, journalist,
statesman, diplomatist, philosopher, tc
whom was given wisdom to penetrate the
secret chambers Of the Almighty, and by
his kite and hemp string to ascertain the
nature of His thunderbolts, and with an
iron rod conduct them harmlessly to the
earth. Nor did his exalted mission end
here. The conception of Franklin was
still farther developed in the mind OF Prof.
Henry, who next, by the aid of magnet,
rang bell at the distant end of a wire; =
and from this feat, doubtless, was caught
the idea by Prof. Morse, which has given
us the lightning printing apparatus, one
thread of which, encireling the globe. can
send out more intelligence in given time,
than all the printing-presses or printing
machines in the world, united.