The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-04-22


ments. Men of the press, under God YOU
are to decide whether the human race
shall be saved or lost. God has put a
more stupendous responsibility upon you
| than upon any other class of persons.
What long strides your profession has
made in influence and power since the day
when Peter Schpffer invented cast metal
| type, and because two books were found
| Just alike they were ascribed TO the work
| Of the devil: and books were printed on
strips of bamboo: and Rev. Jesse Glover
originated the first American printing
press; and the Common Council Of New
| York, in solemn resolution, offered forty
pounds to any printer who would come
| there and live: and when the Speaker Of
the House Of Parliament in ENGLAND an
| nounced with INDIGNATION that the public
| prints had recognized some of their do
| ings; until in this dav, when we have in
/ this country about five hundred skilled
| photographers, and about thirteen thou
sand newspapers, printing in one year 300
| OOO,0 900 copies. The press aud the telegraph
| have gone down into the same great harvest
field to reap, and the telegraph says to the
newspaper: an rake while YOU bind;"
| and the iron teeth of the telegraph arc set
| down at one end of the harvest field and
| drawn clean across, and the newspaper
| gathers no the sheaves, setting down one
sheaf on the breakfast table in the shape
ola morning newspaper, and rutting down
another sheaf on the tea table in the shape
! Of an evening newspaper: and that man
who neither reads nor takes
newspaper would be curiosity.
What vast progress since the
I day when Cardinal Wolsev declared
that either the printing press must 90
down or the Church of God must go down.
to this time, when the printing press and
I pulpit are in combination. and man on
the Sabbath day may preach the GOSPEL to
five hundred people, while on Monday
morning, through the secular journals he
may preach that GOSPEL to millions.
| Notwithstanding all this that you have
| gained in position and influence, men of
the press. how many words Of sympathy
do YOU get during a year? Not ten. How
many sermons Of practical helpfulness for
| your profession are preached during the
/ twelve months?" Not one. How many
words of excoriation, and denunciatiOn,
/ and hyper criticism do Won get in the
/ same length of time? About ten thousand.
If YOU are a tvpe-set and get the type
/ in the wrong font the foreman storms at
you II you are a foreman and can not
| Surmount the insurm0untahle and get
the "forms" ready at just the time,
the publisher denounces you. If you
are publisher and make mismana%e-
/ ment. then the owners Of the -aper will be
hard on YOU for lack of divin nd. If you
4
popular sentiment, all the pen, If ChriSten
| dom are flung at yon. If Won are a reporter,
| you shall be held responsible for the in
distinctuess of public speakers. and for the
/ blunders Of type settlers, and for the TACT
! that you can not work quite so well in the
pickering gaslight and after MIDNIGHT as
! you do in the MONDAY. If Won ar" proof
reader, upon YOU shall come the united
wrath of editor. reporter and reader. be-
| cause YOU do not properly arrange the
/ periods. and the semicoions. and the eN-
clamation points, and the asteriSks.
| Plenty of abuse for Won, but no SYM
pathv. Having been in a position where
| could seq these things going on from
! year to year, | have thought that this
morning | would preach q sermon on
the trials of the newspaper profeS ion,
/ praying that God may bless the sermon
| 70 all those to whom this message may
/ come. and Leading those not in the pro-
! fession TO more kindly and lenient bear
/ ing toward those who are.
! One of the great trials Of this newspa-
! per profession is the fact that they are
! compelled TO see more of the Shams of the
! world than any other profession. Through
| every newspaper Office. day by dav,
! go the weaknesses of the world, the
! vanites that want to be puffed, the re-
venges that want to he wreakad all the
! mistakes that want TO be corrected, all the
| dull speakers who want TO be thought
! eloquent, all the meannssS tha. wants to
get its wares noticed gratis in the edi-
torial columns in order to save the tax
of the advertising column, all the men
| who want TO be set rig hit who never were
I right, all the crack-' rainad philosophers,
with story as long as their hair and as
/ gloomy their finger nails. in mourning
| because hereft of soap; all the itinerant
| bores who come to stay five minutes and
stop an hour. From the editorial aud
reportoral rooms, all the foliieS and
shams of the world are seen day
| by day, and the temptation is to believe
neither in God, man nor woman. II is no
surprise to me that in Your profession there
are some skeptical men. ] only wonder
that you believe anything. Unless an edi-
tor or a reporter has in his present or his
! early home model of earnest character,
or he throw himself upon tine upholding
grace of God, he must make temporal and
eternal shipwreck.
Another oraat trial of nawSra,ar
profession is inadequate compensation.
Since the days of Ha2litt and Sheridan and
John Milton and the wailingS of Gruhb
street, London, literary toll. with very few
| exceptions, has not been properly requitei.
When Oliver Goldsmith received a fl pnd
in his house he, the author, had to sit on
the window, because there was olly one
chair. Linaces sold his splendid work for
! a ducat. De Foe, the author of two hun
bred and eighteen volumes, died penni-
less. The learned Johnson dined behind a
screen because his clothes were too sha by
to allow him dine with the gentlemen who,
on the other side of the screen, were APP
plauding his works. And so on down 20
the present time, literary toll is a great
struggle for bread. The world seems to
have a grudge against man who, as they
say, gets his living by his wits and the
day lahorer saws to the man of literary
toll: "You come down here, and shove a
plane, and hammer a shoe-last, and break
cobblestones, and earn an honest living rs
do, instead of sitting there in idlenaSs scrih-
bling" But God knows that there are no
harder worked men in all the earth then
the newspaper people of this country. 1t
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