The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-07-15
"THE IDEAL NEWSPAPER"
Extracts from a Speech Delivered by
Charles 3. Fairmsn at tho Annual M eet-
ing OF the New York state Press AS
ISOLATION In Troy.

| ISOLATION In Troy.
The face of newspaper should be
made bright and cheerful and it should
have distinct resemblance of its own.
If you are acquainted with it you should
he able to pick it out of thousand.
You should know it as you do your
neighbor. This personal appearance
should be fixture. OF course the
newspaper, like the man. must put on o
new dress occasionally, but there should
be no violent changes in attire. II
should always present the same general
appearance.
say you should know your news
paper. 1t is difficult, doubtless, for
the Impractical eye to tell one paper
from another by merely looking at the
face of the type. But the printer will
do it. OF a hundred papers that he
knows he will pick out any one he
wants simply by glance at its general
| contour, without looking at its head, or
stopping to read a word it says. He will
almost hand it to you in the dark. He
will do more than that. You may cut
out piece not more than two inches
long, anywhere from the body of the
paper upon which there shall he nothing
whatever to distinguish it from any
other similar piece of paper, and he will
tell you from what paper you cut it, It
is no guess work. He knows to a GER
tainty. He will swear to it in court of
justice with no more doubt or hesita
ton than you would have in saving that
you saw train of cars standing al the
depot yesterday. A bank teller will de.
nounce counterfeit as far as his ewes
can see the paper. A shoemaker will
pick out pair of boots which he has
made from thousand others, all of
which YOU would say were precisely
alike. You can't deceive the tailor as
tc who made the coat which is on your
back. The small boy about the railroad
depot, when he hears the whistle afar
off, will tell you that is No. Northern
Central. There is an intuition about all
these things which do not pretend to
fathom or explain. state the fact, be-
cause what l said about the certainty of
knowing one newspaper from another,
by simply seeing its countenance, might
seem improbable, if l did not also call
your attention to other similar thin gs.
Now the face of newspaper may have
a pleasant and cheerful look. or it may
be dull and torbidding. When beauti-
fully printed, the most commonplace
things will beread with pleasure, while
the genius of Shakespeare and Dickens
could not illumine the pages of miser-
able mechanical work. A handsomely
printed and carefully arranged paper
with an Indifferent editor, will outstrip
In circulation and surpass in reputation
a botched job in the press, with the
mcst brilliant of writers. There cannot
be a good newspaper without mechani-
cal excellence. There may be poor ones
with mechanical excellence, but there
cannot be good one without it. 1t is
an infallible TEST. There may be good
taste without newspaper ability, but
there cannot be newspaper ability with
out good taste. A beautiful thing. in
beautiful print, is joy forever. The
fascination which belongs to the face of
a handsome type, like charity, covers
multitude of sins. Even children in q
primary school will hang eagerly over
the bright pages of the toy book, when
neither argument nor coaxing will fix
their eyes on dull, dead black wall of
letters. We are only children of
larger growth, and are quite as exacting
as they in demanding beautiful things
for our comfort and convenience.
We are educated to believe in the
power of the press. Its influence can
scarcely be rated at too high standard.
1t is the lever which in modern times
moves the world. That which the
ancient philosopher declared he could
DO If he had something to stand upon,
the press does by its own intrinsic force.
1t is true the old philosopher had refer
ence to physical substance, and the
power which he sought was mechanical.
But 1t is not in human strength, either
mental or physical, to add to or take
from one Jot or little of the unseen yet
mighty and omnipotent power which |
holds this earth in its orbit. The in
1uence of the press is not with sub
stance. 1t has not moved mountains.
They are all here still. Yet the enter |
prise OF man under the enlightening in |
1uence of the press has tunneled noun
aims and bridged them with iron ways,
hat the newspaper might go on the !
wings of the wind to the uttermost |
oarts of the earth. 1t has spanned the
'ea with the electric spark, that the |
newspaper might gather the news on
he instant at home and abroad. 1t has
made all human knowledge simultane-
'us in all parts of the globe. 1t has an
INFLATED space and abolished tine. The
newspaper is ubiquitous. 1t is every-
where, in every mans home, for man
las no home who has no newspaper. He
nay have place to stay, and so do the
Digger Indians, but there can be no
lone without newspaper. There
AN be no general diffusion of
knowledge without it. 1t is light and
ife in the world. 1t moves the world
n all its enterprises, in all its great
christian philanthropies, in all it's ma
esty of wealth and power. In olden
lines, in the days when our Revolu-
ionary fathers were laying down their
ives, their fortunes and their sacred
lonor for the establishment of that free
ystem of government which their sons
lave been patriotic enough to main
ain, the press, as it now exists. was an
lmost unknown institution. 1t was
actor then, as it is now, in arousing
he people to noble and patriotic pur-
oses, but in far different and less
ffective way. There were no great re-
diving presses throwing out their
rinted sheets by the thousand, as snow.
axes fiutter from the clouds. There
vas no spider-web net work of rail
Dads taking them up damp from the
ress, and scattering them through
very city and hamlet at the breakfast
our. There were no lines of telegraph
enetrating to every nook and corner in
he land, gathering every scrap of in
and concentrating it daily
nd nightly in the lap of the newspa- ,
er. Things went slower, but they /,
'ent just as sure. They got itall, but it ,
)ok them more time. There were
,wer people, there were less and sim ;
Ter wants, there were less jostiing and
lere was less hurry But there UaS