Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-03-10
Poetry of Journalism.
J. T. Child, in Kansas City Herald.

OpVh lho iVl'tSob IhOuHldll, tiVu |
alone by the sandalled foot of Deity,
grow the daintiest flowers; on the en-
purpled field of battle blooms in beau
ty the timid iorget-menot, and from the
dusky den of the printing press have
emerged thoughts, luminous as a sun
beam, that will sparkle and scintillate
in the realm Of letters while the flowers
hold their fragrance and the gentle
dew oools the brow of the earnest del.
yer in the musty tones of the worlds
majestic thinkers.
The mission of the press is poesy.
Grand garner of intellect, it perpetu-
ates the jewels that otherwise would
be lost, and in its clasp of cycles holds
them for mans benefit.
Anglo saw the angel in an unhewn
block of marble, Guido dreamed of
immortality when he painted his
bright Aurora, and the passion tossed
genions, gifted with the Divine afflatus,
in the press sees lightning winged
Pegasus that shall bear him on to high
Olympus. There is poesy in the rustic
Of the printed page; how it runs the
gamut of every day life in its compact
columns, and no bugle blast or subtle
strain of music's softest melody can
more quickly stir the heart than the
details of some knightly deed even if
told in stately prose.
Poesy-grand gift divine-is not
merely words linked with ryme, nor
the bright imagery of a painter who
can with artistic pencil linn with glow
ing words picture that will haunt the
memory like some vanished CLEAN of
silver that kisses the mountains cold
brow "cold as the cold moon that shines
upon the colder grave" but thought
that strikes the great heart Of humanity
as beat of drum in the busy mart,
that makes man pause and think and
feel that be. is mortal. This is the
mission of the press.
In every heart there is depth that
plummet never sounded, in every life
there is shadow that should have a
silver lining and in every paper that
foods the land, humble though it may
be, Dr. thoughts that will carry to
some of earth's denizens inspiration,
strength to grid themselves for the
race of life even though they do not
reach the goil a winner.
How few realize the influence of the
"poet's corner" in their village paper.
In such a nook Gray'S deathless elegy
first greeted the public eye, and that
sweetest strain ever sung by bard,
Annabel Lee, flashed into being in a
secluded corner of Detroit paper,
while Lenore, Poe's inimitable tracy
on the mystic margent of his immagi
nation, was FIRST put in type for thai
weird child of sorrow by him who now
pens this tribute to Americas immorta
son Of song.
The press is nursery of poesy poems
"round and perfect as a STAR" pulsatnl
with passion burst forth like ripping
rivulets, sparkling with corruscation
of genious, fresh and pure as the dew
gemed flowers of morn, and greet II
daily in the journals that each morning
Autter through our easement,
Prentice, by the def stroke of hi
magic pen, made his mothers grave
Mecca in the land of poesy. Gen
Lytle's fame is not that he died wit
victory sounding in his ears, but be
cause he penned
81 am dying, Egypt, dying"
And O'Hara will live in his deathles
lines long after Kentucky's lofty mon
ument to her heroic sons, that he i'm
mortalized, has crumbled into dust.
From the sunny slopes Of that LAM
of romance, California, the poetry q
journalism has been enriched by tn
genius of Bret Harte and that gran
singer of the Sieras, Joaquin Miller
whose gems of thought, engraved o
the worlds pulsating heart will be req
and treasured by mankind SO long q
the blue pillows of the placid ocea
break upon the spotless strand.
/ From out the printing Office spec
winged words that make the circuit {
the globe, poems in every sentence
genius cleaning in every line, wit
Immortality woven in the song as
goes sounding down the ages.