The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-04-22

decide the fate of the world. IF you have
any doubt as to which is to be the victor,
ask the prophecies, ask God the chief
the right and thunder down the wrong
have not yet been unlimbered The great
Armageddon of the nations is not
to be fought with swords, but with
steel pens; not with bullets, but with
type; not with cannon, but with lightning
perfecting presses and the Sumpters and
the Monltries, and the Puaskies and the
Gibraltafs of that conflict will be the edi-
torial and reportorial rooms Of our great
newspaper establishments. Men of the
press, under God you are to decide whether
the human race shall be saved or lost. God
has put more stnpendous responsibility
upon you than upon any other class of
persons. What long strides your profess
sion has made in influence and power since
the day when Peter Shelter 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
Y ork York, in solemn resolution, offered
e40 to any printer who would come there
and live; and when the Speaker of the
House of Parliament in England announced
with indignation that the public prints
had recognized some of their doings until
in this day. when we have in this country
about 500 skilled photographers and about
$4,000 newspapers printing, in one year
2,500, 900, 900 copies The press and the
telegraph have gone down into the same
great harvest field to reap, and the tele-
graph says to the newspaper: II III rake
while you bind - and the iron teeth of the
telegraph are set down at one end of the
harvest field and are drawn clean across.
and the newspaper gathers up the sheayes,
setting down one sheaf on the breakfast
table in the shape of morning newspaper
and putting down another sheaf on the
tea table in the shape Of an evening news
paper, and that man who neither reads
nor takes a newspaper would be curiosity.
What vast progress since the day when
Cardinal Wolseley declared that either the
printing press must go down, or the Church
of God must go down, to this time, when
the printing press and the pulpit are in
combination and man on the Sabbath
day may preach the Gospel to 500 people,
while on Monday morning, through the
secular journals, he may preach that Cos
pei to millionsl
Notwithstanding all this that you have
gained in position and influence, men Of
the press, how many words of sympathy
do you get during course of year ? Not
| 10. How many sermons of practical help
fulness for your profession are preached
during the - months Not one. How
many words of excoriation, and denuncia-
ton. and hypercriticism do you get in that
same length of time? About 10000 If
you are a type setter and get the type in
the wrong font the foreman storms at YOU.
IT you are foreman and cannot surmount
the insurmou9table and get the 'sforms''
ready just at the time, the publisher
denounces you. If you are publisher
and make mismanagement, then the
owners of the paper will be hard on you
for lack Of dividend. If you are an editor
and you announce an unpopular sentiment,
all the pens of Christendom are flung at
you. If you are a reporter. you shall be
held responsible for the indistinctness of
public speakers, and for the blunders of
type-setters, and for the fact that you
cannot work quite SO well in the Pickering
gaslightsand after midnight as you do in
the monday. If you are a proof reader,
upon you shall come the united wrath of
editor, reporter and reader, because you do
not properly arrange the periods, and The
semi-colons, and the exclamation points,
and the asterisks. Plenty of abuse for
you, but no sympathy. Having been in a
position where [ could see these things
going on from year to year, have thought
that this morning I would preach SER
mon on the trials of the newspaper profess
sion, praying that God may bless the ser
mon to all those to whom this message
may come, and leading those not in the
profession to a more kindly and lenient
bearing toward those who are.
One of the great trials of this newspaper
profession is the fact that they are
compelled to see more of the shams
of this world than any other pro-
fession. Through every newspaper office,
day by day, go the weaknesses of the
world-the vanities that want to be
pulled, the revenges that want to be
wreaked, all the mistakes that want to be
corrected, all the dull speakers who want
to be thought eloquent. all the meanness
that wants to get its wares noticed gratis
in the editorial columns in order to save
the tax of the advertising column, all the
men who want to be set right who never
were right, all the crack-brained philoso-
pliers with story as long as their hair and
gloomy as their finger nails, i'll mourning
because bereft of soap; all the itinerant
bores who come to stay five minutes and
stop an hour. From the editorial and
reportorial rooms all the folles and shams
of the world are seen day by day, and the
temptation is to believe neither in God,
man nor woman. 1t is no surprise to me
that in your pr ofession there are some
sceptical men. | only wonder that you
believe anything. Unless an editor or a
reporter has in his present or his early
home model of earnest character, or he
throws himself upon the upholding grace
Of God, he must make temporal and eter
nal shipwreck.
Another great trial Of the newspaper
profession is inadequate compensation.
Since the days of Hazlitt and Sheridan,
and John Milton, and the wailings of
Grub-street. London. literary toll, with
very few exceptions, has not been properly
requited. When Oliver Goldsmith re-
ceived friend in his house, he, the au-
thor, had to sit on the window because
there was only one chair. Linaees sold
his splendid work for a ducat. De Foe,
the author of 2lS volumes, died penniless.
The learned johnson dined behind screen
because his clothes were too shabby to
allow him to dine with the gentleman who,
on the other side of the screen, were ap-
plauding his WORKS. And so on down to