The Russellville Democrat., 1875-12-02
THE NEWSPAPER---ITS A. GENCY IN THE EDUCA- TION OF THE MASSES.


 slowed upon it will be accepted as true. The susceptibility of the human mind to improvement and expansion by proper application of all available means of culture is demonstrated to certainty by every day experience. That this improvement and expansion Of the mind better qualities the inii vidual to grapple with the stern realities of life and is guarantee of success and triumph over the perplexities with which human existance is surrounded, cannot be controvcrtcd. The recognition of these facts is what gives such prominence, and inspires such a general interest in the Public School system, in all enlightened minds. Because the public schools are powerful agencies in the culture of tho mind, q gener- al solicitude is felt for their sue cess. For their maintainance we are willing to be taxed; and for the support of additional institutions of learning, we are willing to contribute literally to private seminaries and colleges.
 But as q means of enlightening the human understanding and cultivation of the mind, our sys- tenn of public schools and private l institutions of learning stand not alone. They have a powerful auxiliary, an invaluable friend, a never wearying assistant in the much abused, much neglected and little appreciated Newspaper. When we affirm that next to tho public school system, the newspa- per stands next as an instrument tality of educating the masses, and imparting useful information to the million, VIC state but the 1 truth. If we were to go further and assert that the newspaper stands upon the same level with our public school system in the cultivation of the mind, the dis
 semination of knowledge, and the training of the rising generation in paths of usefulness, we do not know that it would be an over-es- timation of the value of the form CT, nor q disparagement to the worth of the latter This being the case is it not little astonish- l ing to see the small degree of en- couragement extended to the newspaper in some communities? The fact that a local newspaper, in a county where there are eight cen hundred voters and perhaps four times as many boys and girls growing up, often counts itself lucky to have a subscription of SIX or seven hundred names, shows how little this great aid in the dissemina ion of knowledge is appreciated. This same fact may also account for the vast numbers of young men and women, (and old ones, too, for that matter, in such communities who arc as to- tally ignorant of transpirlng events in the history of their country as though they were Egyptian mummies one thousand years old. And again, may 1t not explain why those plain, unsus- pccting denizens of the rural dis tricts are so easily imposed upon, and made the prey of designing villains? No, the education of the school room is not the only education boys and girls need to fit them to buffet the realities of life. They neod the practical knowledge which they can obtain from no other source except thro' the newspaper. They must have this, or no matter how much "book learning" they may have they will not be practical business men. Show us two families, with boys and girls with perhaps the same capacity of minds, in one oi
 which the newspaper is 8 regular
 visitor and from the other oi
 which the newspaper is excluded
 and we will show you the differ
 ence between those boys and girls While the former
 will be shrewd, keen and wei
 posted upon the current events O
 the day, the latter will be dull
 bashful and devoid Of any self confidence or business qualities