The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-01-13
Newspapers.

The newspaper has become more teAn
On incident of life. 1t Is ono of the
mighty forces that are behind the pro-
gress of the present, and it compels the
recognition of moral teachers, of philos-
ophers, and of all who are interested in
the forward movements of our genera
lion. The proof of this is in the FIRE.
quency with which the place of the
newspaper in society is discussed and
the complimentary estimate that is al
most invariably given it by those whose
opinions rest upon an impartial but ju-
dicial basis. The newspaper has become
favorite theme for the clergyman, and
it generally finds approval at his hands.
Rev. DR.. Collyer, in his Sunday sermon
st the Church of the Messiah, in New
York, is the latest to add his Testimony
to the mass in his acknowledgment of
the function of the daily newspaper, and
he said to his congregation: ''The whole
world makes your home and mine q
whispering gallery through the daily
papers, and it is the business of the pa
pers to give US the distraction rather
than the quietness of the passing days.
So if one man in million breaks the
order of the day by some fearful crime,
there he stands to arrest our attention
and compel US to forget the million, save
one, who have gone quietly about that
days duties. An inundation hides from
US all the rivers which flow serenely to
the sea, and one volcanic outbreak all
the mountains that stand quietly clad in
pines and crowned with white glory,
and q fire like that by Lake Huron
brings the smell or fire, as we read of it
as it is still raging, into our living rooms
and offices. And this is the way the
times take us captive wherever we turn.
It used to be said of the wicked, they
sense true now of the whole life we have
to live, when time and space are lost in
the telegraph wires, and the day draws
near when we shall ''put a girdle round
the world in forty minutes" The news
paper taps the electric courses of
thought at various points, and takes
from them the vital spark for the benefit
Of its readers. No wonder there is more
distraction among men, and that the
newspaper is the recognized cause of it.
It brings society into close relations
with events as regards time. While it
tells its story the smoke is still rising
from the contlagration; the blood is yet
warm from the death wound of the muir
dered man; the passions are still hot
that have stirred up strife. Once the
thought of men and the record of their
actions travelled By forced marches with
painful slOwness, and when news ar
rived at its far away destination it was a
tale of q more or less remote past from
which the soul had fled. Now the cor
ners of the earth are as near together
as adjacent towns, considered with
reference to their interchange of news.
A new bond, not only of intercommuni
cation, but of resultant sympathy and
interest, is established. No wonder that
the subject is thought large enough for
the pulpit. It offers food for the best
thought of the preacher and the essay
ist, and it acts upon more interests than
any of its rivals in the field of influence.
A little comparison, occasionally, with
old-time methods will show better than
anything else can do the real expansion
Of journalism and its value to enlight-
ened society.-Boston Post.