Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-10-31
THE NEWSPAPER PRESS
land THE WHEELS THAT ARE FULL
OF EYES,"
The Power Of the Press-How II Makes
knowledge 0emocratic-A Useful Mir
ror Of flife-Newspaper lmperson-
ality-SehoOIs for Journalism
and Editors.
SERMON or REV. 7. DEWITT TALMAGE

4
BROOKLYN Tabernacle this morn
ing. The Tabernacle was thronged,
and many persons were obliged to leave
without even gaining admittance to the
building. (.
Subject: "Ths Newspaper Press"
TeIt-Ezekiel l.: And the wheels were
full OF eyes"
Acts xvii 2I: "For all the Athenians and
strangers which were there spend their time in
nothing else but either to tell or hear some new
thing
What is a preacher to do when he
finds two texts equally good and sugges
tive? In that perplexity l take both.
Wheels full OF eyes What but the
wheels OF the newspaper printing press.
Other wheels are blind. They roll on
pulling or crushing. The manufactur-
er's wheel, how it grinds the operator
with fatigue, and rolls over nerve and
muscle, and bone, and heart, not
knowing what il does. The sewing
machine wheel sees not the aches and
pains fastened to ii tighter than the band
that moves it, sharper than the needle
which it plies. Every moment OF every
hour, of every day of every month OF
every year there are hundreds OF thou
sands OF wheels OF mechanism, wheels
of enterprise, wheels Of hard work in
molten, but they are eyeless. Not so
the wheels OF the printing press. Their
entire business is TO look and report.
They are full OF optic nerves from axle
to peli. hery. They are like those spoken
OF by Ezekiel as full OF eyes. Sharp eyes,
near sighted, far sighted. They look
up. They look down. They look lar
away. They take IN eyes that twinkle
with mirth, eyes glOwering with indig-
nation, ewes tender with love, eyes OF
suspicion, eyes of hope, blue eyes, black
eyss, green eyes, holy eyes, evil eyes,
sore ewes, political eyes, literary eyes,
historical eyes, religious eyes, eyes that
see everything. "And the wheels were
iull OF ewes" But in my second text is
the worlds cry for the newspaper. Paul
describes class OF people in Athens
who spent their time either in gathering
the news or telling it. Why especially
in Athens? Because the more intelli-
gent people become, the more lnquisl-
tive they are not about small things but
great things.
FIRST OF all newspapers make knowl-
edge democratic and for the multitude.
The public library is a hay NOW so high
up that few can reach it, while the
newspaper throws down the forage TO
our ieet. Public libraries are the reser-
yoir where the great floods are stored
high up and away OF. The newspaper
is the tunnel that brings them down to
the pitchers of all the people The chief
use Of great libraries is to make news
papers out OF. Great libraries make a
lew men and women very wise. News
papers lift whole nations into the sun
light. Better have fifty million people
moderately intelligentthsn one hundred
thousand solons.
A False Impression 10 Abroad
that newspaper knowledge is ephemeral
because periodicals are thrown aside
and not one out OF 10000 people files
them for future reference. Such knowl-
edge so far FROM being ephemeral goes
into the very structure OF the worlds
heart and brain and decides the destiny
OF chdrches and nations. knowledge
on the she'll is but of little
worth. 1t is knowledge loot,
knowledge harnessed, knowledge
in revolution, knowledge winged ,knowl-
edge projected, knowledge thunder
bolted. So far from being ephemeral
nearly all the best minds and hearts
have their hands on the printing press
! TODAY and have hal since it got eman-
cipated. Adams and Hancock and Otis
used TO 90 10 the Boston Gazette and
COMPOSE articles on the rights OF the
people. Benjamin franklin, De Witt
| Clinton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Quincy
we're strong in newspaperdom. Many OF
| the immortal things that have been pub
| lished in book form first appeared in
what you may call the ephemeral peri
od;cals. All Macauley's essays first ap-
peared in a Review, all Carlyl,'s, all
| Ruskin's, all Mclntosh's, all Sidney
| Smiths, all Hazlett's, all Thackerays T.
all the elevated works OF fiction in our
day are reprints from periodicals. IN
which they appeared as serials Ten
| nyson's poems, Burns poems, LDDgfel
lows D )ems, Emerson 8 poems, Lowell's
poems, Whittier's poems were once
! fugitive pieces. You cannot find ten
literary men in Christendom with strong
minds and great hearts but are or have
been somehow connected with the
newspaper printing press. While the
book will always nave its place the
newspaper is more potent. ranse THE
latter is multitudinous do no. conclude
| it is necessarily superioial. Ii 8
man should from childhoo to old age
see only his Bible, Webster's dictionary
and his newspaper he coul be prepared
ior all the duties OF this lie and all the
happiness of the next. Again, gool
newspaper is useful mirror of life as II
is
| Ii is sometimes complained thai
newspapers report the evil when they
ought only to report the gooi. The
must report the evil as well as the oC
or how shall We know what is to be re
formed, what guarded ayains', wna
fought down. A newspaper that pic
lures only the honesty and virtue O 20
ciety is a misrepresentation. That fami
" is best prepared for the duties of lif,
which, knowing the evil, is taught to Sc
lect the good. Keep children under tn,
impression that all is fsis and right il
the world and when tn " 20 out INTO i
they will be as poorly prepared to strug
gle with it as q child who is thrown int
the middle Of the Atlantic and told Il
learn how to swim. Oar only com plain
Is
When sinis Made Attractive
and morality dull, when vice is painte,
with great headings AMI good deeds ar,
put in obscure cor Ier~. iliauity set VI
in great primer and righteousness in
nonpareil. Sin Is loathsoms, make il
loathsome. Virtue is beautiful, make
it beautiful. 2 = z
Itvould work vast aud wonderful i'm
proyement if all our papers, religious
political, literary. shot.i, for the mos
part drop their ImpsTsOnality. Thi:
would do better iu iice 10 newspaper
writer's. Nsny " tie strongest snt
best writers Uf IN country live and die