Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-09-13
LbraEeS.

Everything considered, the newspaper
is the best and most available of libra
nes. The one fact of cheaDneaa Is 80
strongly in its favor as to overbalanee the
majority of arguments that can be ad-
vaneed upon the opposite side. 1t is
within the reach of every one, no mat
ter how poor, and finds an entrance
where books las a rule) never can; it
comes weekly, and is read and loaned
until actually worn out; can be caught
up if one has but a moment of time,
some knowledge can be gained, nd laid
down again without detriment to the
sense. A single, brief item frequently
gives what pages of bloodhound matter
would have to be waded through to
learn for the newspaper is the epitome
of the entire world. In the briefest DOS
sible space all that is necessary to the
correct understanding of the subject is
given-to such perfection has the art of
condensation been brought.
The newspaper, with the present IA
cilities for almost instantly learning what
is transpiring in every portion of the
habitable globe, is the reflection of the
hour equally as much as of past ages.
By it the North and the South, the East
anu bAAC W Col DLOukAAD lDkClLCIs
We know of the crashing of the ice
and the curling heat of the sun; we
are with the daring explorist seeking
for the North Pole; travel through the
Jungles of Africa have birds eve view
OF great battles; sail over every sea /;
dive with the whale to its fabulous
depths are present in the parliament
of nations; listen to the last words of
an expiring Pope and take by the hand
his successor.
A wonderful, concise, most skilfuIly
painted panorama of the affairs of the
world is the newspaper; map of its
busy life; faithful reproduction of all
its lights and shadows and at the most
nominal cost; at the merest bagatelle
to books, even in these days of excep-
tional cheapness. Week after week
the paper comes filed with all that is
rare, new, interesting and instructive.
It is a history of nations in ffty-tWo
volumes; an ever continued enelyclo-
pedia of trade, science, biography, agri-
culture and the arts; is the boiling
down" of all books into so minute form
that the mind can grasp at a. single
glance, and be saved the Wading through
ponderous volumes of uninteresting de-
tail-to the great saving of time. It is,
in fact, the grandest of all circulating
libraries, at only penny fee; the throw
ing open to the public of all the costly
and exclusive archives of the world.
The newspaper of to-day is perfect
onlnium gdther1lm Nothing escapes its
notice. Every event of importance is
instantly photographed upon its pages.
The whispers breathed in every cline
are caught and fixed. 1t is a marvel of
intelligence; is the stereotype of every
mind. We look back in wonder at the
days when it was not, and human intel
ligence shudders to think of the barbar-
ism and ignorance and superstition that
would follow the blotting out Of this
the sun Of the solar system.
Notasingle word would we say against
books. Multiply them as much as pos
sible; there can never be too many /;
the world can never have too much of
light; but as the grandest, and cheapest
and widest circulating medium of intel
ligence-as libraries for mankind, they
never can compare with newspapers =