The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1883-06-13

many ether paper. also print TaImadge
sermons every Monday. Ii shows what
. a power for good the press l., notwlth-
standing that it has some defects and evil
inf ences. 4 centurya ago the greatest OF
preachers could not reach many souls -
where a. now, his words "glrdle the pl"be
ia 40 minutes =" Suppose Christ sub-
lime messages to frail Humanity could
have been reported re,Gutint. and tele-
grabbed the same hour all over Europe,
Ala. Africa, and the Isles Of the Sea
Suppose St Paul could have printed a
million copies of Iii, Life of Christ,
in 40 longuagesl
Speaking Of the usefulness Of the press
We have often envied-nay coveted-or at
any rate wished for-thc power possessed
by people Of great wealth TO confer last
ing benefits upon their day and generation
by liberal use of the Printing Press. The
South has many ml~llionalres, aud some
of them are no doubt patriotic and llb
| eral minded bur you vii! notice that
when they give money To any patriotic
purpose it is apt to be something that
| will ''show off we'll" and serve "a a mon
| ument for their own glory rather than
for the usefulness of the masses. Sena-
tor Joe Brown made FIVE millions OF dol
lars by Railroading, and recently there
was much blow over his gilt of FIVE
| thousand to Vanderbilt University. This
was generous but snowy rather than use
| full. Gifts to schools usually result in Civ
| ing free tuition to a few young men who
| could very well afford to pay for it. We
never knew a young man who could at
| ford to pay for board, washing, and
clothing at a college who could not also
paw the tuition whereas we know thous-
ands of young men who might become
great and useful men if helped to get a
start. What is wanted is a college with
| sufficient capital to loan these young men.
(of course they should be youths of real
tuition to complete their education the
| college taking their note, backed by a
5 lemn oath, to repay the amount of the
loan. with s per cent. interest, Just as fast
as they earned a dollar over and above
ac, ual expenses after leaving college.
his would keep the OF the col
Iege continually growing, while the
youths, would have that best of friends
"A friend in need
Take another view. Suppose that
Senator Brown, and other ~millionaires
who dcc'aim loudly about their desire to
serve the South, should set aside a few
thousands of dollars, = 1.-THE interest on a
snail block of L. S. bonds),-to scatter
ing specimen copies of Southern papers
throughout the North and Europe,-se-
Letting copies which contained the best
articles on Southern soils, climate, mines,
and our Of all kinds Imagine
the effect of these showers of papers des-
cendinS upon intelligent homes all over
the land, show up the South as she is,
not as the Yankee papers have taught
their readers to believe her to bel The
Yankee Railroads scatter tens of thous-
ands OF newspapers merely to advertise
their lands, and get immigrants to set
tie along their line.
Or suppose a press should be started
at each Southern capital to furnish a first
class weekly free to white and colored
families who were unable to pay for a
paper. The influence of such a sheet, if
ably and Independently edited, would be
worth Il thousand Vanderbilt Universe
ties. North Carolina has about half mill
ION tani les, OF , persons to the family;
,ct 1t Is safe to say that not 20, 600 fam.
lies out of he DOC. 900 take a paper. of
iuy kind for thoughthere are 100 dailies
and week.-Mrs. in the State, they are all
taken by a small class. Any man who
is intelligent enough to subscribe for one
paper is apt to take others. We know
some of our friend who subscribe for
one dozen papers of various kinds. This
speaks well for them but it proves the
tact already stated that only about one in
fifty of our families even read a paper.
The world rolls Oh, and mankind ad-
vances, and great events occur in all de-
rartments of Industry, Art, Science, Lit
erature and Religion, but they know
little of it. They are little in advance of
the Observation-Disclosures, who lived
before the Revolution.
That is why the State is so backward.
That is why SO many thousands of our
brightest young men drift off to other
States.
That is why the derisive title OIL ''Sleepy
Rip Van Wrinkle" is applied to the
State.
1t may sound selfish Qhou1h we are as
sincere in saving it now as when we were
not a newspaper publ -hcr)-but we truly
believe tAat the greatest need of North
Carolina AMI the South to day is more
printed matter in the log cabin homes Of
our peorle. We nave seen many a home
crowded with children, but with,u, a
newspaper or book, not even the b BE.
SUPPOSE a paper were sent to such homes
for even a single year. Would il not
start fresh ideas Ii some one of their
loIng minds?
MTs,!"G Mr.. Chas. Crabtree, of
Mt Or