Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-26

our fathers. II was the newspaper which
inspired them TO look upward: it WAS the
newspaper which taught them how to
climb.
And this, in its initial service TO human
ity, was the most beneicent gift of progress
to man.
The spirit of man, harnessed for centu-
rieS to base uses, threw off then the trap
pings of its shame and came forth clothed
in the pride and vigor of its natural SOW
ereignty. Tho old idols of caste and prece-
dent, whose solemn mockeries kept human
ity constantly on its knees. were sent 10
the garnet to find apt companions in the
cobwebs and the dust.
II was about this time that choice spirit
enraptured by the vision of an emancipated
world, but himself the victim of lingering
tyranny, broke into notes OF eXultation
which have since echoed through every
dungeon where wisdom and virtue have
been Gagged:
"Stone walls do not prison make,
Nor iron bars u cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
These for 4 heritage.
If have freedom in my thoughts
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
It would be beyond the scope of this
argument TO reply TO those who may chal-
lenge the assertion that the press is the
sole author of that modern force wrought
out OF centralized thought which We have
named public opinion.
1t is required here to cite history, not to
prove it. Its annals record the birth of the
newspaper about the beginning of the
seventeenth century, and 1t was no mere CO.
incidence that about the same time the
world began to be strangely stirred by new
emotions and new impulses. Nor are there
lacking in the history of its earliest days
direct and emphatic testimonials to the
great influence it eXerted in its feeblest in-
fancy When England was menaced by q
sovereign who meditated with hopeful pros
pect the conquest of the world and the white
sails of the mightieSt feet that had then
ever been collected threw shadow of deep
anxiety over Saxon hearts. the Virgin
Queen, with foresight that only the in
buttons of woman could have supplied,
called 10 her aid the humble printer, and
sent forth in the first English gazette the
first appeal ever made by the sovereign TO
the public spirit of the mass of subjects.
The result was prophetic of the future mis-
sion of the press The electric fire glowing
i'll the heart of the patriot queen was caught
up by the tiny sheet and flashed from sea TO
sea throughout her kingdom thrilling every
home with its intense energy.
But perhaps the most notable and sug
gestive tribute to the newspaper recorded
in all history was paidoby the Grand Mon
argue. whose splendor realized the zenith
of princely hopes and blinded half the
world with its brilliancy. The magnificent
Louis did not deign TO nodcto the populace
by which he passed. But when the little
Dutch gazettes turned their batteries of
criticism upon him because of his crimes
against humanity Louis felt the shame of
conscious guilt in the. presence of an on
looking world, and in fit of rage he de-
manded the suppression OF his critics, with
the alternative of speedy punishment in the
reduction of Holland to vaSsalage. The eX-
ample then set by that valiant little nation.
whose records are crowded with heroic
deeds, will ever stimulate to great achieve
ment the distressed and despairing patriot.
Confronted by an army sufficient to have
dismantled any of the then powers of the
world, their autonomy forfeited by the rage
of a resistless prince, the Dutch still re-
fused to surrender their gazettes, and to
protect liberty of speech sacrificed the
fruits of matchless industry, throwing open
their dykes and flooding the fierce invader
and themselves in common ruin
Great as they were, both Louis and Eliz-
abeth recognized in the newspaper which
they knew, insignificant as it was, dis
turbing force that made it sovereign of the
titled sovereign.
1t is not unnatural that pride of profess
sion, which is felt by all spirited souls, may
lead some one here to suggest that the
germs of public opinion were planted in the
schoolroom before the advent of the news
paper. NV estimate of the work of the
schoolmaster has been given. His toll let
none belittle; his honors let none invade.
1t is our business tonight to measure as
history has measured, not by the tape-line
of our own feelings.
1t is curious fact that our civilization
should be compelled to look to heathendom
for true conception of the dignity of
knowledge. The philosophy that he is
happiest who knows most finds no sure
resting place until it enters the land where
the vapors of burning incense still invest
with a solemn halo the awful figure of
sOulless god. In China thS schoolmaSter
has fiourished through unjkunted years,
and has there attained has highest relative
position. taking acknowledged precedence,
as he does, over all other factors in society.
But the same being who makes learning
the highest object in life bends the preg-
nant hinges of the knee to a multitude of
man-manufactured gods. No Public Opin-
ion is there else its first thrill would have
shaken those gods from their pedestals.
No newspaper in the sense in which we
know it is there, else long ago it would
have created a sentiment that would have
brought China into harmony with the nine
teenth century.
The genealogy Of public opinion cannot
be mistaken. The record is too clear for
doubt. 1t came from the only source from
which it could have come-the newspaper.
Before its coming the world had often
seen the wild frenzy of Spasmodic fury, the
wounded tiger turn upn its hunter, but it
HAD never beheld the divine spectacle of a
great agitation of the popular mind-thought
moving upon the face of the mighty deep
and stirring its depths to such tremendous
energy that the Stoutest hearts daring to
battle with its waves fall upon their knees
and cry, master, save us or we perish"
Before the newspaper came there was no
unit in society below aristocracy, and it
first taught that the rules of multiplication
and addition apply to the transparent
fabrics of the mind. 1t added dignity to
the individual which it subtracted from the
prince 1t segregated society and assigned
to each an identity all his own. 1t vitalized
the petty forces of distinct and feeble
thought By centralizing and compromising
them. 1t stimulated every man TO mental
activity by revealing to him the workings
of his neighbours mind.
This it did: this none other could have
done; and the aggregated result, astound-
ing the printer himself, was public opinion.
As the only competent agent of this
power it called into existence, the press has
taken foremost part in all the great move
ments of the last three uenturies. That
which presaged all others was the indiyid-
ualizaticn of society.
The blow which struck the chains of vas
salage from the common intellect let fly the
winged messenger of hone which ever scars