Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1882-02-21
STARTING NEWSPAPERS.
BROTHER TALNAGE UTTERs WORDS OF
WISDOM.

Rev. Mr.. Talmage Of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle preached recently on news
papers, and in the course Of the sermon
be said -
think could arouse you to apprecia
ton of this great blessing il told you th'
money. the brain, the evaporation, tht
anxieties, the losses, the wear and tear o
heart strings involved in the publication
Of newspaper. On the theory abroat
in the world that anybody can make one
inexperienced capitalists every year are
entering the lists, and it is simple sta.
tistic that there is an average Of dead
newspaper every day Of the year. Gen.
orally three or four fortunes are swallowed
up before a newspaper is established
The large papers swallow up the small
one whale taking down fifty minnows
Although we have over 1000 dailies and
weeklies in the United States and the
Canadas, only 36 Of them are half cen.
tury old. The average Of newspaper life
is five years. Most of them die Of cholera
infantum. Laughter. 1t is high time
i, were understood that the most success
ful way of sinking fortune aud keeping
it sunk. is to star; newspaper. Almost
every intelligent man dnring his life is
smi,ten with the newspaper mania ;
start newspaper or have stock in one
he must or die. This is often the process.
A literary man has an idea, moral, social,
political or religious, which he wishes to
yen,ila,e. He has no money Of his
own-literary men seldom have-but he
talks hi. idea among confidential friends,
and forthwith they are inhamed with the
idea. and they buy types and press and
rent a composlpg-room and engage corps
Of editors, and then prospectus, which
threatens TO conquer everything goes forth,
and then the first issue is thrown upon
the attention Of an admiring world. After
a few weeks or months plain stockhold-
er finds that there is no special revolution,
and that neither the sun nor the moon
has stood still, and that the world goes on
lying and cheating and stealing just as i.
did before the first issue of the New
York Thunderer or the Universal Gazette
or the Hallelujah Advocate. Forthwith
the plain stockholder wants to sell his
stock, but nobody wants to buy it, and
Others, disgusted with their investment,
want to sell their stock, and an enormous
bill from the paper factory rolls in like an
avalanche, and the printers refuse to work
unless they have their back pay, and the
subscribers wonder why their paper does
no, come. Let me tell you, oh, young
man, that if you have an idea on any
social, moral, political or religious sub
ject you had better charge on the world
through the columns already established.
Do not take the idea SO prevalent that
when a young man can do nothing else
he can edi. newspaper. If you cannot
climb the hill back Of your house you had
better no, try the sides Of the Mat;erhorn !;
il you cannot navigate a sloop up the
North river YOU had better not try to engi-
neer the Great Eastern over to Liverpool.
To publish newspaper requires the skill,
the precision, the vigilence, the boldness
of ommander.in-chief; ; TO edit news
paper one needs to be statesman, an
essayist. geographer, sta,istician, and
as far as all acquisition is concerned, en-
cyclopedic. TO man and propel news
paper requires more qualities than any
other business on earth. say this to
save men from bankruptcy. II you feel
called to start or publish newspaper
just take i, for granted you are threaten
ed with softening Of the brain; throw
your pocket book in your wife's lap and
rush up to Bloomingdale asylum and sur
render yourself before you do something
desperate. Meanwhile let the dead news
papers be carried out to their burial week
by week, and let the newspapers that
live give your obituary.