Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-04-12

| OF tne Eorlu. ii you nave any Cou0t hS
which is to be victor, ask the prophecie
ask Ged; the chief batteries with which 3
would vindicate the right and thundt
down the wrong, have not yet been nj
Embered. The great Armageddon {
the nations is not to be fought with sword
but with steel pens; not with bullets, br
with type; not with cannon but with ligh
ming perfecting presses; and the sumter
and the Moultries, and the Pulaskis, an
the Gibraltars Of that conflict will oe th
editorial and reportorial rooms Of ou
great newspaper establishments. Men G
the press, under God you are to decid
whether the human race shall be saved o
lost. God has put more stupendous re
sponsibility upon you than upon any othe
class of persons. What long strides you
profession has made in Influence an,
power since the day when Peter Shelter in
vented cast metal type, and because tw
books we're found just alike they wer
ascribed to the work of the devil; an,
books were printed on strips Of bamboo
and Rev. Jesse Glover originated the frs
American printing press; and tn
Common Council Of New York, il
solemn resolution. offered f40 to an!
printer who would come there and live
aud when the Speaker of the House o
Parliament in England announced will
indignation that the public prints hac
recognized some of their doings; until il
this day, when we have in this country
about FIVE hundred skilled photographers
and about thirteen thousand newspapers
printing. in one year. two billion FIVE hun
dred million copies.
THE PRESS AND THE TELEGRAPH
have gone down into the same great har
vest field to reap, and the telegraph says
to the newspaper: "Tll rake while you
bind" and the iron teeth of the telegraph
are set down at one end of the harvest
field and drawn clean across, and the
newspaper gathers up the shesves, setting
down one sheaf on the breakfast table in
the shape of morning newspaper, and
putting down another Sheat on the tee
table in the shape OF an evening news
paper; and that man who neither
reads nor takes newspaper would
be a curiosity. What ysat progress
since the day when Cardinal Wolsley de-
clsred that either the printing press must
90 down, or the CHURCH of God must 60
down, to this lime, when the printing press
and the pulpit are in combination; and a
man on the Sabbath day may preach the
Gospel to five hundred people, while on
Monday morning. through the secular our
nals. he may preach that Gospel to mil;
lions.
notwithstanding all this that you have
gained in position and influence, men Of
the prega,
How MANY WORDS OF SYMPATHY
do you get during the course Of year
Not ten. How many sermons OF practical
helpfalness for your profession are preach.
cd during tie twelve months? Not one
How many words of eScoriation, and de-
uuncistiou, snd hypercrtiGisn do you get
in that same length of time? About ten
thousand. If you are typeGet'sr, and
get the type in the wrong font,
tie foreman storms at you. II
you are foreman and cannot
surmount the insurmountable, and get the
forms" ready at ust the lime the pub
lishe- deuouaccS you. If you are puo'
hshec, 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 Christendop are
RCug at you. Ii you are q reporter, you
shalI be held responslble for the indisiinct'
nees of public speakers, and for the blur'
ders of type settlers, and for the fact that
rou cannot work q1ite SO well in the flick
ering gaslight and after midnight as you
do in the MONDAY. II you are proof
reader, upon you shAll come the united
wrath oi editor. reporter, and reader, be
cause you 30 no. properly arrange the pc
riods and the semicolons, and the excla
nation points, and the ssterisks. Plenty
of abuse for you, but no sympathy
Having been jn q position where could
see these things going on from year
to year, have thought this morning that
would preach q sermon on the trials o.
the Newspaper profession, crsying thGt GOD
nav bless the ser4oa to all those 10 whom
This message may come, and leading those
not iu the profession 10 a more kindly anc
leuient bearing toward those who are.
One OF the great trials Of this newspaper
profession ia the fact that they ara
COMPELLED TO SEE MORE or THE sHAMs
of the world than any other profession
Through every newspaper cfice, day b'
dsv 90 the weaknesses Of the world tn,
yayi,les that want 10 Oe pulled, the re
veppes that want TO be Wreaked, al tn
mistakes that want to b. corrected, all tn
dull speakers who want 10 be thought elc
ouent' all the mesnness that wants 10 get III
Tares noticed gratisi 10 the editorial column
in order 10 cave the tax OF the advertising
coIrmn, all the men who want 4
he TH sst right who never wer
riobt all the crack-brained philosc
p6ers, with story as long as their hair, an
"a gloomy as their finger nsilsr in mourE
inc hscsase ssrsK oI soap; all the itinel
nnt bores who CONS to stay i've minute
and atop On hour From the editoria
and reportorisl rooms, all the follies an
shams Of the world are seen day By dc!
and the TEN ptation is 10 believe neither i
God man, nor woman. 1t is no surpris
"a me that in your profession there al
some skeptical men. ] only wonder tht
Won believe anything. Unless an editor
a reporter has in bis present or his ear
home q model Of earnest character, or
throw him self upon the upholding grace
God, he must make temporal and etern
J shipwreck.
Another grea. trial Of the newspaP
profession is inadequate eompensat,o
, Since the days Of HaElitt, and Sherida
and John Milton, and the Wsihngs
Grub street. London, literary toll, WI
very few exceptions, has not been proper
reouited. When Oliver Goldsmith receiv
/ a friend in his house, he, the author, had
' sit on the window, because there was on
one chair. Liuseus sold bis splendid Wo
+ for a ducst. De Zoe, the author Of II
e hundred and eighteen volumes, died pee
1 less. The learned johnson dined behi
!, e screen because his clothes we're too shah
to allow him to dine with the gentlem
Who on the other side of the screen, VI
8 spplauding his works And so on doWs
e the present time, literary toll ia g gT'
d struggle for bread. The world seems