The Opelousas courier., 1889-05-25

Poor, tired Jim!
| It may not seem so sad to you,
His lying there but then we knew
How steadfast was he soul he had
Was Printer Jim.
We know that at the golden gate
The angels did not make him well,
But threw the shining portals wide
And felt a thrill of holy pride
To welcome Jim!
And on that morn we buried him
Fen ey es unused to tears grew dim,
We planted roses at his head.
shed tears upon his grave and said
sleep well, brave Jim"
We knew him by no other name
Save that he gave the day he came,
Upon the stone we carved the same.
And added: "Deathless was the fame
Of Printer Jim !"
Mrs. Bently's (of Donaldsonville) essay
was read by her husband and is as follows:
THE GENIE OF TO. DAY. AN ALLEGoRY.
Once upon a time many years ago, when
this gray old world was younger and
brighter and fresher than to day, the earth
was ruled by imps and gnomes who de-
cided mortal destinies, and against whose
fat, for help or hinde,ance, t lers was no
appeal. Even crowned heads bent in HON
age to some wonderful ogre capable of
turning the most powerful scepter into q
beggar's staff, and happy indeed was the
ruler who was looked upon with lenient
eyes by the controlling spirit of the place.
Good and bad fairies contended for the mas
terry, swaying each wight by their potent
influences, and genii. those gigantic mon
sters, were invoked to earth, and made to
| 1919 +h1r- fon~f,T ~o-1. o-o~ -oe-ls-l
disappearing OILY at the command of the
terrible necromancer by whose magic they
sprang into existance.
In the calcium light which intelligence
throws on those far off days of yore, dim
with the mist of ages, we look d%oubtipgly
upon the sweet traditions of the past and
scof at them as myths and idle tales. Once
having laid aside the garb of Lilliput we
let the struggle of the present, the noises
| of commerce, the roar of trade, the vibrant
voice of progress, dull our senses to the
lovely beliefs of youth, when every little
stream possessed q language of its own,
flowers nodded and whispered to each other
in sylvan converse and all nature broke
forth in melodious expression, speaking a
thousand tongues untranslatable to man.
Foreseeing the rise of unbelievers, know
ing with the wondrous insight into the
future that powers were at work revoiu-
tioniZing the w~orld-powers against which
even their arts would be unavailing-the
mystic beings in conclave assembled for
the purpose of selecting some one to whom
the others should yield their influence, and
who, possessing the entire combination of
wonderful attributes, could Withstand the
ravages of time and innovation, living for
ever q monument to their pristine glory and
power.
Rhetoric would be called upon for ner
most iowery and plismatic tributes to de-
| pict the scene that ensued while the ballot
ing for 8 candidate was in progress, and
long and loud were the arguments pro and
con, as the patterns were being marked out
in the web of fate. At last q great giant
arose and laid before his audience the neces-
| sity of selecting one who would make the ir
names imperishable by some other thar
oral history, immortalizing them so that
ages hence their memories would still ex-
ist, ~triumphing over oblivion.
Already q simple mortal, q native of
Mentz, Germany Johnn Gutenberg by name
had attracted the attention of the mysiics,
being a student Of ''secret and wonde rful
arts" who sought in the seclusion>of his
closet the perfection of a scheme by which
his constant companions, tradition, story
and legend might be perpetual forever.
Him they selected as the instrument
through whose agency Their object could
be accomplished. and their powers for
good or evil handed down 10 unborn gener-
ations, detailing three of their most re-
nowned members. science, genius and
invention to assist him in his labors.
From stored East to frozen North, from
sea to sea, from mountain top to mountain
top, trooped all the inhabitants of the elm
realm, dwarf and giant, brownie and fay,
goblin and gnome, aud swarming INTO the
secret workshop of the toiler in Mysteries,
n by one yielded up their magical be-
ings, until from the info sion of all these
wonderful elements there arose before the
triumphant Gutenberg a crude but shapely
? mass, the slave of the lamp of education.
the last, toe greatest, the most powerful
mystic Of them all, that genie of to- day
the printing press. the honor and pride of
every land over which intelligence 1eigns
supreme.
During the hundreds of years which
have elapsed since the birth of this emo
bling art, practiced at first in secret and
under great difficulties. we can steadily
trace the influence of that triple sisterhood
whose immortality has survived their
humble coadjutor, and in the newspaper,
that social balance wherein a community's
standing can be accurately weighed, we
see the mystic peser of the primeval
fairies ever displaying itself.
The old struggle for supremacy of geo-
lin and gnome. elf and sprite, goes on un-
ceasingly, which is why we often find
among the wheat of our journals such
chat as spring poetry, gray-L-&ded jokes,
moss. grown chestnuts, and other intellec-
tual bar -sinisters which distinguish many
pilgrims on the road to Parnassus. Notwith-
standing nature takes scores of auills to
make a goose, a writer can make a goose
of himself with only one.
The tiny wires which land our glorious
continent like sensitive nerves of steel.
bridging space, the wondrous cords that
creep beneath unfathomable seas, those
twin progeny of invention, the telegraph
and cable, are but the servants of the great
press genie to do his bidding, and from the
remotest confines of the earth flash an
endless chain of events which after being
laid within the embrace of his mighty
arm, emerge therefrom a magic mirror,
rejecting light and shadow, joy and suf-
ferlng, and all the sNnals Of the passing
day.
Thus the life work OF the inventor Gut
enberg has offspring in each smiling hau.-
let and great Gfty of the world, and every
where that science has set its signature is
there enshrined, commanding, be its abode
magnificent or humble, scores of attendant
imps, reporters, printers, yea, even the
devil, who do homage TO his mighty and
invincible p0War,