Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-04-18
NEWSPAPERS.

This IS the newspaper era. We may
choose to stigmatize it rs u "a day oil
small things" yet how broad, how
boundless is lis missions, The moons
rays are soft and gentle and nOiseless,
yet they sway the swelling tides of the
mighty and mysterious sea. The drops
OF summer dew how softly and silently
they come, yet they refresh and vivify
the world. Newspapers exert IA might
Ter influence upon the world OF opin-
ION than quartos of ethics or folios of
metaphysics, for the simple reason that
| they are more read and better under
stood. There is no home. however
humble or however high, where intel
ligence ands virtue reside that the
family paper is denied an entrance
As an educational influence, a good
newspaper is as cheap and useful a
textbook as can be introduced into
our schools. Nothing can be found so
useful in making children forget their
books and think for themselves.
Northend says: Fifty copies of any
commercial paper, all OF one date, will
be found suggestive of more interest
ing and useful, geographical, arilhmet-
ical, and miscellaneous questions, than
any one term OF study in school will
suffice to answer. The lad who can
answer all the geographical questions
that arise in one copy of a well CON
Quoted commercial journal is more
truly a proficient in that study than he
who can repeat gazetteer word for
word. The former has practical, use
jul knowledge; the latter has only
"book learning"
As moral influence upon children,
nothing is SO simple, direct, and home
striking as the newspaper. Fer exam
pie, if child has committed fault
read, or cause to be read, child's story
bearing on that fault If il is the boy
ish crime Of killing birds or robbing
their nests, read him the little story
"Couldn't-cos he sung so;" for an ex-
hibition of selfshness, the little Ger
man tale of "Boys and Their Peaches"
for an untruth the story of True Dun
can and the Gait" for i'll humor and
harsh words Lost Little Lucy" or FOR
disobedience Mother Knows Best
These and Il thousand other charming
little things regularly go the rounds of
lhe press, and always tell These, and |
such as these, with a few simple words |
OF explanation, would, l am sure, pro- |
duce a much better and happier effect,
and be Il more efficient aid in estab- |
fishing a high moral tone among chill
dren than all the seedlings or threaten
ings that ever vexed the tongue and
temper OF teacher or parent, and grated
on the ear and aroused the answering
temper of scholar or child.
l know it is considered quite the
thing" in would-be literary circles to
'tip-stilt' the nose and say, "Ah, yes; |
never read newspaper poetry" Said
an excellent Judge of human nature,
Let me make the songs OF Il country,
and care not who makes the laws"
And where do the songs of a country
ind so frequent repetition rs in its
newspapers? How many thousands
ire there who know nothing OF Coler
dye save his "Genevive" and "Vale Of
Jhamouni ?" Who has not his hearts
'asket starred with gems for Moore's
melodies" found floating in {
lis county newspaper; who never
heard of Lalla Rhookh? Who reads
The Ages?' But ITO Il Waterfowl
md The Death of the Flowers" are
household words in every intelligent +.
home. Where "Evangeline" and "Hy- :
,erion" and the Songs OF Hiawatha"
we're never heard of. the Psalm of
life" aud Resignation" and Foot
teps of Angels" have gone floating
Ike flower seeds into the desert hooks,
here to terminate and bud and bloom
ntil "the solitary place shall be glad y
Dr. them and the desert shall rejoice L
nd blossom as the rose" The eagle {
lunches forth from his aerie to meet :,
ne sun; soon he is lost amid the
louds and forgotten. But how we
I'VE and cherish the robin and the
l,tn bir,i fLa fIrpSI, onl tho ,,,,l- l n
lg-bird, that carol round our cottage
YES till their songs make blithe and
meful both the home and the heart.
lany heart is moved to fearful or !!
lneful response by some little waif a
rifting namelessly upon the current
newspaper literature, where the
Iusic of "Childe Harold" tell coldly
pom its chords and it saw no beauty h
Paradise Regained" Unques- y
onably the very best poetry ever n
ritten in America has been first -
ven to the world by the newspaper n
'ess by persons who could only WOO n
e muse in intervals OF professional e
domestic toll; and in every country -
oSe songs which strike like the Mar q
illa.se upon the popular heart, are al
ost without exception, the produc-
ons of men and women who have al
rned to literature only as a relief he
om more arduous labor. 4! ~
Concluded mrrt week. ~