St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-04-24

| OF our city newspapers, processing no more
than secular information, there have ap
peared during the past ten years some OF
the grandest appeals in behalf of religion
and some of the most effective interpreta'
tions of Gods government among the
nations.
There are only two kinds of newspapers
the one good, very good, the other bad
very bad. A newspaper may be started
with an undecided character, but after Ii
has been going on for years everybody
finds out just what it is; and it is very
good or it is very bad. The one paper is
the embodiment of news, the ally of vir-
tue, the foe of crime, the delectation of ele-
waited taste. 1.-the mightiest agency on earth
for making the world better. The other
paper is brigand amid moral forces; it is
a beslimer of reputation; it is the right
arm of death and hell; it is the mightiest
agency in the universe for making the
world worse and battling the cause of God.
The one an angel of intelligence and mer-
cy; the other a fiend of darkness. Between
this Archangel and this Fury is to be
fought the great battle which is to 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 bat
teries with which he would vindicate the
right and thunder down the wrong, have
not yet been unlimbered. The great Arma.
geddon of the nations is not to be fought
with swords, but with ste pens; not with
bullets. but with type; not with cannon,
but with lightning perfecting presses; and
the Sumters, and the Moultries, and the
Pulasks, and the Gibralters of that con-
fiict 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 q
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 Scheffer 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 day, when we have in
this country about FIVE hundred skilled
and about thirteen thou
sand newspapers, printing in one wear 3, $780,
No he %,Io
have gone down into the same great harvest
field to reap, and the telegraph says to the
newspaper: "I'n 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 sheaves, setting down one
sheaf on the breakfast table in the shape
Of a morning newspaper. and putting 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.
One of the great trials of this newspa-
per profession is the fact that they are
to see more of the shams of the |
world than any other profession. Through |
every newspaper office, day by day, |
90 the weaknesses of the world. the |
vanities that want to be pulled, the re-
7enges that want to be wreaked. all the |
mistakes that want to be corrected, all the |
iull speakers who want to be thought |
eloquent, all the meanness that wants to
get it's wares noticed gratis in the edi-
orial columns in order to save the tax
# the advertising column. all the men
Who want to be set right who never were
light, all the cracs- Drained philosophers,
With story as long as their hair and as
Gloomy as their finger mails, in mourning
because bereft of soap; all the itinerant
'ores who come to stay five minutes and
top an hour. From the editorial and
eportorial rooms, all the follies and
hams Of the world are seen day
y day, and the temptation is to believe
either in God, man nor woman. 1t is no
urprise to me that in your profession there
re some skeptical men. I only wonder
hat you believe anything. Unless an edi-
Or or a reporter has in his present or his
arly home model of earnest character,
r he throw himself upon the upholding
race of God, he must make temporal and
ternal shipwreck.
Another great trial of the newspaper
il inadequate compensation.
ince the days of Hazlitt and Sheridan and
ohm Milton and the wailings of Grub
rect, London, literary toll, with very few
RECEPTIONS. has not been properly requited.
Then Oliver Goldsmith received friend
! his house he, the author, had to sit ON
10 window, because there was only one
1air. Linaces sold his splendid work for
ducat. De Foe, the author of two hun
red and eighteen volumes, died penni-
IS. The learned johnson dined behind
'reen because his clothes were too shabby
allow him dine with the gentlemen who,
the other side Of the screen, were ap-
auding his works. And SO on down to