Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-04-12

body finds out just wha
LIT Is, and it Is very goot
or II is very bad The one paper Is IN,
embodiment OF news, the ally Of virtue
the foe OF crime, the delectatlon OF ele
waited taste, the mightlest agency on eartf
for making the world better. The othei
paper is a brtgand amid moral forces, y
Is besiiraer Of reputation, It is the righ
arm Of death and hell, II Is the mightes
agency In the universe Tor making Thu
world worse and battling the cause q
God. The one an angel OF intelligence
aud reTcy; the other a friend Of dark
ness. Between this archangel and Till
fury Is 10 be fought the great battle
which Is to decide the fete OF the world
II yOn have any doubt as TO which Is TN
vicvor, ask the prophecies, ask God Thu
chief batteries with which ne would win
dioste the right and thunder down th'
wrong have not yet been Unlim
tered. The great Armageddon o
the nations rs not to be fought will
swords, but with steel pens; not with
bullets, but with type: not with cannon
ont with Hoes ten-cylnder presses; and
the Sumters, aud the Moultries, and the
I Pulaskis, and the Gibraltars OF that con-
flct will be the editorial and reportorial
rooms Of our great newspaper establish
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 10 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 Ameri-
can printing press; and the common
council OF New York, in solemn Iesolu-
ton, offered $40 70 any printer
who would come there and
live; and when the speaker OF
the house OF parliament IN England an.
nouncei with indignation that the public
prints had recognized some OF their do
ings; until in this day, when we have in
this country about 500 skilled phono-
graphers and about 5000 newspapers
printing, In one year, 5000 900 copies.
The press and the telegraph have gone
down into the same great harvest field 10
reap, and the telegraph says 10 the news
paper. "I'll rake while you bind;" and
the iron teeth Of the Telegraph are set
down &C one end Of the harvest field and
drawn clean across, and the newspaper
gathers up the sheaves. setting dowa one
sheef on the breakfast table IN the shape |
of morning newspaper and putting !
down another sheal on the tea-table ia /
the shape Of an evening newspaper; /
aud that man who neither reads I
nor takes newspaper would be /
a curiosity. What vast progress |
since the day when Cardinal Wolsey de- I
clared that either tie printing press must |
go down, or the church Of God must 90 |
Gown, "a this time, when the printing |
press and IF pulpit are II combination /
preach the 2ospa to i've hundred people 1
while on Monday morning, through the /
secular Journals. he may preach that I
gospel TO millions
Notwithstanding an this that you have /
gained in position and influence, men Of /
the press, how May words OF sympathy 1
do you get during the course OF Year, /
Not ten. How many sermons OF practi- |
cal helpfulness for your profession are 1
preached during the twelve monihsg Not
one, How many words Of excorlatiOn |
and denunclation, and Approximation do 1
YOU Get in that same length OF timer
About ten thousand. II YOU are type |
setter, and get the type In the wrong |
font, the foreman storms at YOU /
II you are foreman, and cannot |
surmount the insurmountable, and get |
the ''forms" ready at Just the time, the
publisher denounces you. Ii YOU are n
publisher and make mlsmanageineut,
then the owners of the paper viii be |
hard on you TOR lack OF dividend. ri
you are an editor, and you announce au
unpopular sentiment, all the pens of
Chrlstendom are flung at you. II you
are reporter, you shall be held re
sponsible for the indistinctness OF public
speakers, and for the plumbers of type
settlers, and for the fact that you cannot
work quite so well In the Pickering gas
light and after midnight as you do in the
MONDAY, II you are q proof-reader,
upon you shall come the united wrath
OF editor reporter aud reader, because
you do not properly arrange the periods,
and the semicOlons, and the exclamation
points, and the asterlsks. Plenty /
Of abuse for YOU, but no sympathy.
Having been in position where l could
see these things going on from year
TO year, have thought that this morn
lng | would preach a sermon on the trials
OF the newspaper profession, praying that |
TOD may biess the sermon 10 all those to |
whom this message may come, aud lead
ing those not in the profession to a more
kindly and lenieut hearing toward those
who are.
One OF the great trials Of this news |
paper profession is the fact that they are
compelled 90 see more OF the shams Of |
the world than ans other profession.
Through every newspaper Office, day by
day, 80 the weaknesses Of the world, the
vanlties that want TO be puffed, the re-
venges that want TO be wreaked, an the
that want TO De corrected, all /
the dull speakers who want TO be thought
eloquent, all the meanness that wants 20
yet It's wares noticed gratis Ia the edlto-
rial columns in order to save the tax OF
me advertising column, all the men who
want to be set rights who never were
right, OIL the oNck-braiued philoso-
oherS, with story as long IS their hair
and as gloomy as their finger nails, ID
mourning because hereft Of soap; all the
,tinerant 6orcs who come To STAY ave
minutes and stop an hour. From the
editorial and reportorial rooms, sll the
,oiles and shams OF the world are seen
lay By day, and the temptation Is 70 be
.ieye neither IN God, man, nor woman.
Y is no surprise 10 me that in your pro-
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