The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-05-13

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| 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-
| CIV: the other fiend of darkpess. Between
| this Archangel and this Fury is to be
| fought the great battle shich is to decide
| the fate of the world. II 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 Eel pens; not with
| bullets, but with type; not with cannon,
but with lightning perfecting presses; and
| the Sumters, and the Moultries, and the
| Pulaskis, 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
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 SchRfer 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
photographers, and about thirteen thou
sand newspapers, printing in one year 2.500,-
000, 900 copies. The press and the telegraph
have gone down into the same great harvest
field to reap, and the telegraph says to the
newspaper: "I'll 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 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
day when Cardinal Wolsey 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
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.
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 day,
go the weaknesses OF the world, the
| vanities that want to be pulled the re-
venges 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 edi-
torial 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 philosophers,
with story as long as their hair and as
gloomy as their finger nails, in 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 follies 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 profession there
are some skeptical men. / only wonder
that you believe anything. Unless an edi-
tor or reporter has in his present or his
early home model of earnest character,
or he throw himself upon the upholding
grace of God, he must make temporal and
eternal 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 received friend
in his house he, the author, had to sit on
the window, because there was only one
chair. Linaces sold his splendid work for
ducat. De Foe, the author of two hum
dred and eighteen volumes, died penni-
less. The learned johnson dined behind a
screen because his clothes were too shabby
to allow him dine with the gentlemen who.
on the other side Of the screen. were ap.
plauding his works. And SO on down to
the present time, literary toll is a great
struggle for bread. The world seems to
have grudge against a man who. as they
say, gets his living by his wits: and the
day laborer says to the man of literary
toll: "You come down here, and shove a
plane, and hammer shoe last. AMI break
cobblestones, and earn an honest living as
do, instead of sitting there in idleness scrib-
bling" But God knows that there are no
harder worked men in all the earth than
the newspaper people of this country. It
is n OF matter Of hard times; it is char.
acteristic of all times. Men have a better
appreciation for that which appeals to the
stomach than for that which appeals to
the brain. They have no idea of the i'm
mense financial and intellectual exhaus-
tons OF the newspaper press. They grum-
bic because they have to pay five cents a
copy, and wish they had only to pay three,
or paying three, they wish they had only
to pay one. While there are few excep-
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