Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-05-28
ing our influence for the good, the beau.
tiful. the true. This IS wonan's best
miaslon
GOV. JoHNsoN's ADDRESS.

inS Jul lnuuenco IOr the goOd, the beau
tiful. the true. This IS wonan's bes
mission.
GOV. JoHNsON's ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen aud Mem
bers Of the Press Association "Wheu
Tamerlane had finished building hii
pyramid of seventy thousand skulls
aud was seen standing at the gate ol
Damascus, glittering with steel, with
his battIe-ax on his shoulder, and his
fierce hosts filed out to new victories
and carnage. the pale looker.ol
might have faucled that nature
was in her death thross-for havoc
aud despair had taken possession oil
the earth and the sun of mankind
seemed setting fn q sea of blood. Yet
it might be that on that very gala
day of Tamerlane little boy was
playing nine-pins in the streets of
MsntZ, whose history was more i'm.
portant than twenty Tamerlahes."
Nor did other contemporsneous
events than referred to by the essay.
ist look less forboding. England
and France were still fiercsly con-
fronted in their bloody hand-to. hand
| struggle, the one for existence. the
other for ascendancy, and their re.
spective forces drawing toward the
disastrous plalns of Agincourt. Su-
perstitienr blgstry and intolerance
spread the torturing fires of persecu-
ton. The relentless conflicts of tho
Guelphs and the Ghibberlines had
transformed the fair domains of Italy
into region for plunder. rapine and
assassination. The De Medici were
unknown, and the glory of Venice
shsne feebly above the waves Of the
Adriatic. The Stuart had net yet
crossed the border to teach liberty
through oppression. Tho naughty,
intelerant and cruel Spaniard was
the type of European greatness. Even
Mentz was stormsd. Columbus had
not discovered America Luther
was not born. No Bacon, no Shake
speare, no Milton, no Cromwell.
Europe was still staggering in the
night of the middle ages. Surely the
time was propitious for q change
unless eternal chaos was to come
again. And it came, ushered in: by
the movable types of
THE GERMAN ARTISAN.
How incomparably Insignificant all
the varied events Of that time new
appear beside the marvellous 10 invention
of the Mentz hey. Sweep into OBJ
livion all of the acts or achievements .
of men erase the entire history of
that era, leaving alone this one gift
of genius to man, and it's star of
glory is resplsndent over all others.
Previous to this century learning
and knowledge were confined to very
few. 1t was, as we might say, pecu-
liahly aristocratic. 1t was given out
to most men verbally. The means of
transmission of thought were scant
indeed, aud. as usual thing, the
thought was hardly worthy Of trans.
mission. The so-called learned men
were of little benefit to mankind.
Poetry and the arts had f1ourlshed in
Italy with refreshing splendor, but
there were few other localities where
genius had shed its light.
Aud pausing here, let me ask. Did
you ever contemplate how different
tho worlds course might have been
had those movable types been in ey.
istence aud the newspaper an institu-
tion among men in the olden time?
In Greece, so far as the people were
concerned, perhaps it would have
made little difference. They did not
swarm as thick as the locusts OF
Egypt, lived in the open air and com.
mingled aud talked together from
morn till night. Each man was kind
of newspaper to another. They had
their Plato teaching in the halls OF
the academy Aristotle expounding
in the gardens of the Lyceum Zeno
standing in the Porch or walking by
the banks of the Illyssus. But what
We have lost the intellectual mind
can partially appreciate as it dwells
with pleasurable fervor over the few
rare trophies of genius transmitted in
marble and parchment from
ACROSS THE AGES.
And in Rome when the population
grew SO large that the meeting in the
Forum was attended with almost
constant strife and bloodshed, the
newspaper might have taken its
place, gwen q different direction to
restless intellect and stayed the ele-
ments of decay and destruction. But
whatever it's effect Oh the destiny of
the ancient world might have been,
it surelywould have been of invalu-
able service to the modern for, be-
lieve me, the yearly bill of great
daily such as we can boast of to-day
published in the old-time worlds
capital would be of more solid worth
to this age and generation than all
the volumes of the famed Alexau-
drian library destroyed by fire and
mourned so much by the antiquarian
and scholar. Intellectual develop
ment from the time of the invention
of printing to the present is sOme-
thing marvellous. Five centuries
have passed, aud looking back over
that period, no one can remotely
estimate the advancement made
without a full understanding of the
benighted condition of Europe. Aud
it is difficult to do this, even with
the most careful study and investiga-
tion. Monarchs were tyrants, de-
voting their time to the acquisition
of wealth and power by every known
process of intrigue, corruption, cru
city aud crime. The nobility were
drunken, brutal aud rapacious, simply
titled robbers. Churchmen were
stupid, bigoted. intolerant and dis
honest. And the people, the masses,
the great substratum Of society, were
All immense horde of iliiterate Doors,
little above or better than the beasts
of the field. Into this darkness rode
the chariot of light. The minds
aurora appeared. 1t pierced into the
gloom like the primeval rays pierced
into chaos. 1t touched the brain,
it started the blood, it warmed the
heart. Thought started from its
lethargic sleep. energy stood up. A
Of the true faith the only
worthy ruler of disenthralled man,
whose throne is the brain, whose
scepter is the will and whose royal
title is Intellect.
THE FIRST PUBLICATIONS
made after the invention of printing
were mostly editions OF the Bible aud |
works of the scholas-
tics. But this improved manner Of
copies of the holy book
aroused new and wider spread in
serest in the then shifting aud vary
Ing doctrines and tenets of religion.
Religion was still. intellectually, the
all-absorbiug subject of rulers, the
scholar se-caIled, and the great mass
ot the people. No wonder the teach
ngs Of superstition were so deep
rooted, for the seeds were planted on
The very foundation soil of ignorance,
and lett to grow, strengthen aud sx-
pand so long without q rival germ of
enlightenment. But the means now
|urn ished tor the rocordinp aud trana |