American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-11-28
Only a Country Weekly.

IT is only country weekly Yes,
that is all. But do those who allude to
it with an intentional sheer ever reflect
upon the duties and mission performed
by the poor, obscure country weekly,
which is as much, nay, more, to its few
hundred readers in the country as is the
great metropolitan daily to its thousands
of readers in the city? Oh, no, they
never think of placing any estimation
upon the worth of country paper; it
has none within the narrow limits of
their superficial and contracted brains
They will not admit of the utility of any
form of a newspaper save one which Is
crammed full of Geographic dispatches,
giving the minute details of some revolt
ing and nauseating social scandal; the
hour at which the Chamberlain of the
Imperial Palace at Ispahan put His Most
Serene and Mighty Highness the Shah to
bed; that the savage Gallas of Abyssinia
had abjured the tenets of the -Coptic
faith and had bowed down in alteration
at the shrine of Mecca's Prophets; that
the poor, unoffending Papuan of the
Celebes was being slaughtered by the
Dutch invaders from the neigboring isle
of Macassar, and so on in an infinite va
riety of detail, all of which is read with
an avidity that betokens the Importance
of these things to a city gentleman. But
the financial, commercial, agricultural,
religious and social condition of the mill
ions of his fellow citizens residing with
out the environs of his mighty empire of
a few miles in area is a sealed book; he
has never opened its pages to inquire
within; he knows nothing of it; put him
to the test and you will find he knows
more about the condition of the Berbers
of Northern Africa than he does about
the people in the neighboring county.
We turn away from the contemplation of
this human superficiality, of which
there are thousands, to turn to
the practical and common sense
man, who wishes to be informed as to
the pursuits, condition and prospects of
the people of his own immediate State
and county. He finds in the rural paper
the Information he seeks. The country
organ is to him the camera lucida which
faithfully portrays all that occurs; 1t is
in great measure the reflex of the char
acter of the people comprising the coun-
ty wherein it is published. But what is
the interest which even he derives from
it compared to that which is felt and en-
tertained by the country people them
selves? 1t is everything to them. In it
is found news which they alone, proba-
bly,, can appreciate and understand, in
formation regarding their friends and
neighbors, the condition of the crops and
market quotations, which to the farmers
and the tradesman in the country is of a
primary importance, matters of local
consideration wherein they are interest
ed, and a hundred and one different
things which affect and interest them,
both privately and publicly. The coun-
try organ performs another function
which can only be effectually done by it.
As a medium for advertising it offers ia
cilities which are unsurpassed. By it
the farmer the labOrer and the mechanic
become acquainted with the goods and
wares of the tradesman; they learn
where they can purchase what they de-
sire, and at the lowest prices. The coun-
ty newspaper is to a county what nutri-
tiOus food is to convalescent; it helps
to build it up and develop all that is
good in it. The county that is without
one is like a waste plain without eleva-
ton, from which person desiring to ex
anime the surroundings can make no OBJ
Wdteo (Cdl.) Times.