The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-08-26
THEY ARE THE BEST EDUCATORS OF
THE PEOPLE.
They Teach Moral and Religious
Principles, Restrain Evil and
Promote Human Welfare.
PRIZE ESSAY BY GEO. w. LOMAX
ABBEVILLE.

fore the English alphabet is learned or
the intricacies Of the multiplication table
have been mastered are assertions which
will admit of discussion.
But no thoughtful man will deny that
the moral course of every one is mark ed
out long before he reaches his twenty
first year.
The impressions received during child
hood and youth are more sensitive and
lasting than at any other period in life.
A child will reveal his noble qualities,
his literary talents or his evil tendencies
long before the sixteenth mile-post of life
be passed.
In the boy can be seen the future man.
human mind is initiative, and from iml-
tation grows Imagination, and from imag-
ination springs invention.
IF the child's mind be imbued With
right principles, if his tender footsteps be
guided by sound precepts and good ex-
amples during the formative period it
cannot be doubted that his life will be
purer than if his young heart had been
neglected.
If he receive no encouragement, no in
struction, his mind will be as field
where no seed were sown.
Without planting and working no crop
can be gathered.
Without good newspapers and careful
teaching no child can grow up intelligent
and achieve the best attainments.
Reading is the seed, thought and action
the fruit.
reaping; no seed time, no harvest; no
reading, no intelligence.
And it follows that parent who never
reads, who never thinks, cannot rear an
Intelligent family.
What child of larger growth does not
look back with the fondest recollections
and the keenest delight on the sports Of
his boyhood; does he not view with rap
ture the land where his innocent feet
once trod, the playground he loved so
we'll, the pictures that once enchanted his
childish vision, but more especially does
his heart yearn for the stories he used to
read in the newspapers.
These things leave an impression on
his plastic and yielding mind that the Vi
cissitudes Of life will never be able to ef-
face.
Trouble may sadden the countenance,
agony wiring the heart, toll and old age
bend the form, pleasure may tighten the
the night, but nothing under heaven will
mind in childhood by the family news
paper.
Old age looks back and smiles with de-
light on well-spent youth but views
with horror the morning of life that was
trifled away, or from which the light and
benefit of newspapers were denied.
Admitting then without question that
early impressions are the more lasting,
does it not clearly prove that what a
child reads is indellibly stamped on his
active imagination, there to bless or to
ruin it.
If from what he reads is the seed from
which grow his future thoughts is it not
of the most vital importance that parents
supply their children with the best news
papers attainable, never stopping to count
the cost.
It. is natural for man to be doubly in
ter ested in things of which he has had
previous knowledge.
Who has ever visited Niagara Falls or
gazed on the great Brooklyn Bridge that
afterwards would not read for hours with
out firing a we'll written description OF
this the most wonderful work of nature,
or that most stupendous structure reared
by human skill.
All children love to read the newspa-
pers, and all who are allowed the priyi-
iege of reading them will become
interested in any good newspaper, but
more especially will they appreciate the
paper that describes the things which
they have seen, or repeats the things
which they have heard, and the paper
that does this best and most faithfully is
the local newspaper, which is printed for
the benefit Of its neighbors and friends:
No paper is so eagerly sought as the
one which is printed at home, and treats
of home affairs and home folk.
Therefore the power of the local press
for good or evil is unbounded.
Its mission is a noble one, and its
makeup should be as pure as the gentle
dew that falls from heaven.
Everything that is published in the
newspapers Of the present day should
not he swallowed without consideration,
the bitter is mingled with the sweet
thorns are found concealed among the
roses.
Details of crime should never see the
light in a newspaper, as it poisons the
very soul of the boy who reads it and
creates distaste for pure reading by ell
couraging the appetite to feed Oh trashy
novels.
The local press, as it reaches the eyes of
so many boys and girls, should seek to
impress OH the minds of the young the
importance of good literature and should
point out with an unerring finger the
dangerous quicksands where their lnno-
cent feet are so apt to tread. =.
BY placing before them substantial and
solid reading, as we'll as the delicacies on
which they would be able to feast, while
discarling everything Of a sensational
character the newspaper mans work is
noble one, OH whose head the blessings OF
God and man should ever rest.
4 child's education comes principally
from three sources, the parent, the school
teacher, and the newspapers which he
reads.
But the newspaper is the most conve-
nient as well az the cheapest, the hest,
and the most influential educator OF the
present day.
1t can be laid aside and taken up at
pleasure.
A minutes reading may furni sh food
for hours of study.
The sermons and tho religious reading
NAV direct his thoughts to future happi
ness.
The moral lessons may become fixed
principles in the boy or girl.
The temperance precepts may save the
boy from loss.
TO one accustomed to read the local
press from childhood the events chroni-
clcd therein become as firm in his mind
as the great roots Of the sturdy oak III
mother earth, and as un(ailing in its ben
etits as the water i'll the gentle stream
that "goes OH forever"
Moral duties once instilled into the hui
man heart are there for all time to bright
en- everything with which they come in