The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-10-17
WORD FOR THE PRESS.

4 WURD fUR ThE PRESS.
THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF
ALIVE, ENTERPRISING PAPER.
Support your Home Newspapers for
the Good they have Done, are Doing,
and will Continue to be to You.
baltimore Manufacturers Record
Many times within few years we
have urged upon our readers to sustain
their local newspapers, provided they
were such in fact, and not in name
alone. We know very we'll that all
through the country, men are publish
ing what are called by courtesy, news
papers, that are no more like the genu-
inc article than a toadstool is to
mushroom. And as the one is unpleas
ant and poisonous, while the other is
palatable and nutritive, so the no-ac-
count paper is an injury to any locality,
while live, enterprising journal, how
ever small, is power for good.
Within few years newspapers have
come into being in the South as thick
as toads after a shower. Many proved
themselves worthy the name, while
many more showed conclusively that
their projectors had mistaken their
vocation, and after a few weeks or
months they disappeared. Unfortu-
nately the injury they did to legiti-
mate journalism did not die with them.
The legacy they left their unfortunate
subscribers was a distrust of and con-
tempt for newspapers in general, and
a desire to get hold of frst-class jour
mails and learn what was going on in
the world without cost to themselves.
1t is safe to say that the really able
weekly newspapers published in the
South average twenty readers to one
subscriber, while for that number OF
readers there should be at least four
subscribers. Now where does the fault
lie? Certainly not with the editors
and publishers. They are, as whole,
the greatest workers in their respective
communities. They give their time,
brains, energy and experience to their
vocation, and are usually the active
promoters of everything that will bene.
fit the public. If they are at fault al
all, it is in the fact that in their zeal
for the public welfare they often forget
their own, and give the use of theil
columns gratuitously when they should
be paid literally for the space occupied
The responsibility for sustaining a
live newspaper in any locality devolve:
upon the entire community. For mer.
chants it is the best medium for reach
ing the people. A well-worded ano
well-displayed advertisement in news
paper draws more trade than all the
circulars they can issue or hand-bills
and bill boards they can post in thei1
counties. The merchant should there
fore advertise literally, and also influ
ence his customers to take the papel
he uses as his medium. The latter
will respect his opinion and follow hi
advice, and then, as their families reae
from week to week the miscellaneou
columns, they will be insensibly lee
TO feel many new wants that he cal
supply, for every good newspaper con
tains items showing what other people
the world over, are wearing or eating
or what tools they are using, or wha
new household stuff or labor-savini
machines have been introduced, ant
reading about these things creates de
sire for them that will eventually leat
to their purchase.
The country newspapers of the Soutl
are dong far more for their localitie
than even their editors imagine. Ever.
item they publish respecting new en-
terprises contemplated or started il
their vicinity is seen by some of tn
sharp-sighted young men employed
on the Construction Department
of the Manufacturers Record, ant
gives a cue which is at once followed
until all the facts are obtained. Thes
are published as quickly as possible
so that thousands of capitalists ant
business men, whom the local pape
would never reach, become informed
of that new enterprise. Hundreds @
men in small places whose names evel
were not known outside their owl
counties, have, during the past thre
years, been surprised by receiving cir
culars, price-lists and letters from mum
erous manufacturers and merchant
giving them the special information
they wanted about machinery, tool
and other things they needed and hav'
wondered how their senders heard O
, them. 1t either was because thei
home newspaper or one of our CORES
. pondents gave the item about thel
enterprise that put the Manu. mfaetve,'
Record on their track, and enabled
to tell the world their postoffice addres
, and what they proposed to do. Many o
these men have saved hundreds @
dollars because of information thus re
ceived and ought to show their gratitud
: Ito their local paper newspaper, who's
little item may have been the primar
?