Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-02-11
POWER OF THE PRESS.
Mr.. Marquis Discu sses its Influence
for Good or Evil.
How, In the Broadway Pastors Idea,
Mind...Rules 10 Follow.


Mind--.R ules TO f follow.
Rev. w. 8. Marquis preached upon the
subject of the press. and spoke at length
upon dangerous literature at the Broad
way Presbyterian last evening. His text
was from Phil. As:
Finally, brethren, wht tsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are reverend. Whatsoever
things are just whatsoev er things pure, what
soever things are Of good report; II there be any
virtue and II there be any praise, think on these
things.
The invention of printing with movea-
Die type was the opening. Mr.. Marquis
said, of fountain whence waters of
knowledge gushed forth to quench the
thirst of mankind 1t has been not only
q perennial. but an enlsrging fountain,
and today 1t may almost be said. that the
food which it sends forth ''coyers the
earth as the waters cover the sea-" and it
must be said of these waters as of the tree
which stood in the Garden of Eden that
they who drink of it obtain the knowl,
edge Of good and evil. This is unques-
tionably q reading age. or making of
books there is no end. New York City
alone published few years ago 200, 900
copies of cheap Fiction and oyer 1000, 900
copies Of sensational story papers every
week. One of her great dailies uses in tn e
neighborhood of twenty tons of paper for
each daily edition. Yet these are but
drops in the food hat is continuously
poured forth from the presses of the
country. The chespened processes dis
covered by publishers, Mr.. Marquis
thought, had increased the power of the
press for good or for evil, one hundred
fold. He thought there should be more
emphasis laid upon the responsibility of
authorship and pub ication. A trust or
combine ought to be formed to shut down
some Of the literary mills of the country.
How many authors, editors and publish
emn and far-reachiug consequences scat>
tering throughout the world upon the
printed page, Probably the great guess
tons are: Will it payf Will it pleases
Will 1t help to win 6 coveted endS Yet,
side by side with these questions should
stand another: will it do good or evil
to the worlds" All human thought is a
potent thing. Silent thoughts, like the
silent falling Of the snow or SCOT are con-
stantly purifying or blackening the soul.
and alas! how one sooty thought can
destroy forever the purity of score of
snow white ones Spoken thought is al
ways an arrow shot into a crowd, or per-
haps better. a handful of seed sown
broadcast. But priu ted thought is an i'm
mortal voice, an embodied voice that
runs to and fro through the earth repeat
ing its message in unnumbered ears,
printing it through the eye on I'm
numbered brains. Long after the author
has been dead it lives. 1t may be buried
in the hand Of death in an Egyptian
tomb for 5000 years, but no sooner is il
brought to earth shan it leaps to its fee,
and begins to run to and fro through the
earth proclaiming its saving truth OF
deadly error.
If all novelists set the high standard
before them and wrote in view of the
death bed and judgment, how sweet and
pure and hopeful for good would the
great stream of fiction bef How splen,
did it was for Sir Walter Scott 10 be able
to say, Il am drawing near TO the close
of my career. l am fast shutting off
the stage. l have been perhaps the
most voluminus author of the day and il
Is comfort TO me, to thiLk that l have
tried to unsettle no mans faith, to cor
rupt no mans principles and that 1 have
written nothing which on my death bed
should wish blotteo out"
The preacher thought Wadsworth's
Russian fable about the author and rob-
Der was worthy of being printed In bolds
est, blacklist letters and hung above the
desk OF every preao her. editor and pub
Usher. The gist OF it is that a robber
found guilty of almost every henious
crime and the auth Or who had infused a
subtle poison into bis works and preached
iumoralities. were both convicted and
cast into cauldron, and when the author
thinking he was being treated too severe
ly, upbraided the gods. the furies told
him that the robbers crime was nothing
com pared with bis. Only while life
lasted did the robbers lswlessness last,
while the authors corrupted teachings and
shames never die and the fury slammed
the lid upon the csuldron and stirred uI
the fire. Mr.. Marquis thought the
publishers of the Police Gazette were de.
serving of just such punishment. and
that since the advent of cheap art the
publishers Of some of our daily newspa
pers are little more ttan police gaxettes.
But be hoped the majority will resist the
temptation to obtain popularity through
| any such corrupt method. But any anc
all who will be base enough to prostitut,
both art and the press to such perniciou
uses may expect 10 be clapped into tb,
csuldron, and hear the furies sing:
Double, double, toll and trouble
Fire burn and CT uldrou bubble"
or something worse. They deserve it.
The power Of books, magazines, etc.
lies in the fact that they speak through
the eye, and that they become our mos
intimate companions and instructors
Just in proportion as books and papers
win our affections and ara ad mitfed tn ON