The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1885-01-15
The Old Men Of the Press and
the Party.
BY ". c. Gould, of the Jackson Herald.

A theme which might chal-
leuge the noblest effort of the
most eloquent orator or gifted
author who ever lived. 1.-The
Old Men of the Press" Who are
theys Where do they live g
There are no such beings-the
term is a misnomer. There have
been men belonging to the Press
whose heads were whiteHed BY
the frosts of many years, whose
eyes grew dim by gazing On The
past, or peering into the future,
whose bodies were consumed by
the furnace fires of brain; but
they never grew old, and passed
from this sphere into eternal
youth in the great beyond. Some
Of them made mistakes in their
lives, because even men of the
Press, while they grow not old,
are not exempt from human er-
rors. But, who ever heard of a
man of the Press becoming old ?
True, in the course of years they
sometimes die, but never get old.
You never see any of them bald
headed Their locks cluster
around their brows as ivy around
tree. And here excuse a per-
sonal allusion. l am but a boy
in the "art preservative," the
realm of thought and genius. but
have seen given an incredulous
world the wonderful Telegraph
and the still more wonderful Tel
ephone. Steam was in its infan-
CIV and too feeble to trust lis
strength upon the creamy waves
of the wild Atlantic, when l CON-
menced playing "devil'' in a
printing office. Railroads were
few. stage coaches and horse mail
carriers plenty. There were no
steam presses, few jobbers and
colored inks in printing a curios-
ity and wonder even to the craft.
The man who would have pub
lished paper containing such
social news as is now spread be-
fore the readers of every village
sheet, would have been compell-
ed to run a gauntlet of broom
sticks and dishrags in the hands
of irate women, as he passed
along the streets. Whether this
change in the conduct of news
papers is an evidence of progress,
| am not here to decide.
l am not one of "the old men
of the Press.' They have all
gone to that land where thou
sand years is as one day, and
the highest peak where
play eternal thoughts, you may
discover enrobed in white some
of the so-called old men Of the
Press. You will not find them
upon earth until the course of
nature is reversed. The men of
the Press never get old
But now pass over the centu-
ries in which men of the Press
lived and moulded human
thought and government, until
you come TO our own nation, then
select a single example Of world
wide renoWn. and ask has Frank
lin grown oidg Pass over the
old men of the Press in
different States of the Union.
Pause at the Capital of Ohio and
ask, dill Melary of the Statesman
grow oldg Then visit the For
est City which nestles on Lake
Erie's shore as a thing of life and
beauty, and ask, did Gray of the
Plalndealer grow old? Then
sweeping to the centre of a sister
State in one of the most beauti
ful cities of this wonderfully
beautiful country, stop at India
napelis, and inquire, did Chap
man of ''crow. Chapman, crow"
grow oldg No! ho'
The examsles cited yielded TO the
inevitable decree OF Him who
was the first great Author, and
to whence the sprung,
he lessons they gave unto men
i've on and forever, while these
men of the Press will never be
forgotten.
But let US for a moment forget
'the old men of the Press, and
.aze in aslonishment at the pa
lora of the so called ''old men Of
he Party" Men who never grew
i'd. | may only name a few of
hem, and perhaps not in the Or
Ter in which they blazed in the
yes of The world or the councils