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

SHOW " w LII GSStutidi iudlltrS du
ferior animal.
Whether we look to the divinely guided
Jewish race, or to the Pagan nations OF
those times, we find them alike pigmleS In
mental, moral and social stature.
There is not a patriarch in Jewish history
who under the microscope is not dwarfed
when compared with the universal stand
ards of the civilization of to-day; there is
not a philosopher of the Pagans whose
prattle does not become childish. Place
Gladstone beside the mildest Of the Caesars
and you have a fitting and complete Illus
tration of the miraculous growth OF man.
In searching out the causes of this devel-
opment, which to some extent is our busl-
ness tonight, it is not Necessary to argue
that they have been the accidents rather
than the designs Of humanity.
The moulding processes which make man
what he is are partly the same which give
color to the place where he abldes. He
is plant of extreme constituencies: the
slave of all seasons, the creature of all
times. He becomes part of all that he
sees, he hears, he feels. The air that he
breathes, the water that he drinks, the
scenes that he looks upcn-an these tell
vitality upon his character. The tiniest ray
of sunshine that shot across the heavens
thousand years ago may have been inter-
woven with the destiny and may still illu-
inmate the lives of the children of men.
Since then man-the higher MANS so
largely the product of his environments,
what study can be more interesting or sug
gestive than the neanderingS of his de-
velopmente
The supervising architect of modern civil
:ization is, undeniably, the teacher. AT all
stages of its construction he has been pres
ent as a directive force. More than any
other agency, it might accurately be said
than all other agencies, he is responsible for
its general design.
But there is another factor in the affairs
of men, of recent origin, the influence OF
which has been so radical and the work of
which so marked, that they challenge the
attention and wonder of every thoughtful
mind. l refer to the newspaper press.
AS the railway locomotive is the highest
illustration of the uses of steam power, SO
is the newspaper the browning triumph re-
sultant from the invention of movable
types.
What would be the establishment and
pride of the humble Gutenberg If 1t were
permitted him to return to earth to witness
the production of one issue of a great mod
ern newspaper Far beyond the stretches
of his widest imagination it would appear,
a thing of magic, a thing certainly impossi-
Bile but that il is.
Habituated as we are to its daily appear
ance, we have lost appreciation of the phe-
nomenon of the newspaper.
Fancy if you can d kodak the press of
whose button would give any view desired
of the remote regions of the earth. or
monograph that would catch up and re-
produce any conversation that might be IN
progress at the time between distant
speakers; fancy anything you will or can,
and at last your conception must fall FAR
short of the actuality of the newspaper; an
instantaneous, true and complete picture of
the daily life of the universe. No record
no fnI,rI ont 10 tho Arabian NIGHTS of
an achievement approaching this.
But q more wonderful thing than the
material features of its work is the part
that has been taken by the newspaper in
shaping the progress of society.
Not to exploit its successes is my pur-
pose. If there be newly arisen a power in
sidious in its methods, omnipresent, over
shadowing all other forces in society,
mighty for evil or for good, it is no Idle
curiosity that may prompt US TO inquire
which way is it tending and what does 1t
promise to U.S.
What are the thousands of newspapers
with their millions of readers doing for
cursea Do they inspire helpful and hope
fA thoughts, or do they feed the flames Of
selfish restlesSneSs and discOntentl
He who would understand the mountain
neStles not at its base: on some distant
elevation its rugged beauty plays about
him unchastened by the scars of Time.
The river is not to be gagged by the riv-
ulet it swallows, but by the mighty torrent
it sends throbbing to the sea.
1t is the finished handiwork of the press
we would bring in review tonight, not
pausing to listen to the clank of an isolated
hammer out of tune.
l would be uncandid not to avow the be-
lief that the press is not an originative force
in society. 1t is not an architect, but Il
hill 1r-hn 1rnc ,nts Otp
is not the Paul who plants, it is the Apollo
who waters. These are limitations I'M
posed upon it by its conditions, not by the
nature of its development.
| said it was u picture, not picture
merely of the outward show of man, but Il
faithful reflex of the daily tumult That dis
turbS his soul. A
It bares the heart Of man gam, and
girds the universe with Choir Of stlmpa-
thy that merges all thoughts nto one cleo
trio current of Unreasonable cottage.
Herein it possesses a power infinitely be-
yond that of the most cruel despot that
ever enslaved conquered people; the uni
fication of the public mind.
That power which has achieved the
peaceful conquest of the world. and which
finds a suppliant on every homeopathic
opinions the favored tirst-born of the
newspaper press, beloved of it because the
child has become the stable prop of the
parent.
1t is true that in every age some hearts
have been hight born and brave enough to
exercise the divine right of rebellion against
things that are. Yet like the beatings of
the imprisoned bird against its iron cage,
their protests fell upon dull and unheeding
ears.
The palace was the Sinai of the law, and
the slave in the cottage listened to its de-
crees with uncovered head. Born to the
hopeless bondage that venerateS its chains,
the masses at this period lived in that state
of mental torpitude which marks the
nearest approach of man to beast.
If in the inward soul of some there were
whisperings of higher destiny, they were
sternly silenced as the mutterings of an in
ward demon. The world has always shown
peculiar passion for throwing itself at the
feet of robed and ieweled and titled flesh,
and more freely has it abased the royal
lineage of the mind than the material birth
right of common stock.
The press not only cut the shackles of the
imprisoned mind, but invested it with the
insignia Of royalty. 1t crowned man
Lord of himself-that heritage Of woe
That fearful empire which the human breast
knows. but to rob the heart within Of rest"
But this empire rightly ruled produces
the God-like discomfort which seeks the
betterment of man, not the brutal restless
ness of selfish energy. Its woes spring
from quickened conscience, lively sense
of the sorrows of the world. He who goes
to the fountain of love finds there many
woes. but he cannot invite them into his
own heart without croWdinp ont its sor-