The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-06-23
"A CENTURY OF CHANGE.
What the Gentle Reader Nav
Hope for in 100 Years.
THE GROWTH OF SPECIALTIES.
Judge DittenhOefer Thinks 1t Will Extend
to the Legal Profession-Joseph Howard,
Jr.. Expects No Radical Change In Jour-
nt,lism - Senator Voorhees, Prophecy.
Tie Future of Inland Navigation.

Jr.. Expects No Radical Change In Jour
n,lism - Senator Voorhees, Prophecy.
Tie Future of Inland Navigation.
Copyright, 1899, by American Press Associa-
ton.
In response to an interviewer President
TCleveland once said: "Oh, you saw that in
.'ssuch and such newspaper. You might
3have known it wasn't true"
On the same day Thomas Byrnes, super
sintendent of police in New York city, re-
plying to a question, said: "You might have
known that wasn't true. You saw it in
the newspapers Whenever you see any
thing published about me or my affairs you
may take it for granted it is untrue"
AS n practical newspaper writer natural
Jly regard with intensest interest every phase
of journalism, good and bad. Contemplating
possible changes in this greatest of grofes-
sions made between now and 1893, natu-
rally examine the data at hand in order
that i may intelligently attempt fore
cast. Some little time since an esteemed
coworker in the realm of art, William j.
.LeMoyne, sent me two tiny volumes writ
ten by Samuel Patterson in 1853 and pub
lished for him by Joseph Johnson in 1772
They are called "Joineriana, or the Book Of
: Scraps" a series of interesting essays on
divers topics, one of which is entitled
'..News and News Writer'S"
If Brother Pattersons photograph of the
& newspapers hundred years ago Is at all
accurate, the one and only change in the
e line of improvement which distinguishes
Z the newspaper press Of 1899 from those of a
century earlier is in the advanced mechan-
1Sical facilities at the service Of publishers.
They then worked the humble and awk-
ward hand press.
Today we have mechanisms so marvel.
s,ous in their ingenious complication and so
simple withal that the ordinary mind stands
confused by the output and embarrassed in
= its vain endeavor to comprehend the why
a. and the wherefore. It must be remem-
stbered that of every 100, 900 readers at least
$4,000 never saw a modern printing press at
work.
The grandeur of pressroom is beyond
~ compare All Is quiet The electric light
Nbrightens the subterranean vaults as though
TFthe midday sun in all its glory was efful-
gent there; huge rolls of paper, miles In ex-
Stent, are fastened in their place, and the
stereotyped plates wait patiently to begin
their work of devouring, digesting and
springing forth for the healing of the ma
tions With the word the machinery starts,
land with the rapidity Of the lightning's
flight the wheels merrily turn, and within
the hour that roll of paper, miles in length,
has poured into the funnel and over the cyl
Under and rests now mighty pile of eight,
"a ten, twenty, forty PACED papers, neatly, &C
curately printed on both sides, folded with
X mathematical precision. pasted and ready
oSfor delivery.
The sights almost uncanuy.
And it has seemed to me at times when
y Looking over the rail l could almost hear
these mighty monsters whispering to each
e other, for they do everything but read.
All this is new.
But brief reference to the pages of Join
eriana" convinces me that nothing else is
changed. Students" says the writer, "of
y every class may now burn their books, like
e so much useless lumber, and circumscribe
their studies hereafter to the newspaper
productions of the press" Even the names
of today were anticipated. Gazette, Jour
nal, Ledger, Mercury, Courant, Chronicle
and the like are among them
According to the writer, fifty years or
seventy years before his time news writers
Or sober journalists were mere abstractors
and brief chroniclers of the time" but
when this was written the author says,
ave commonly discover him q curious i'm
pertinent, watching the heels of the great,
more intent upon their motions than their
LuedSuTeS, giving uHe edllleSU nOUlCe Wnen
: his lordship stole out of town, and also
- when her ladyship was happily delivered to
< Che great Joy of that noble family"
-. Obviously newspapers of the then and
- newspapers of the now are as like as two
peas in single pod.
Newspapers" continues our author, "as
they have been carried on of late years are
"a standing reproach to the nation. Every
sspecies of guilt, every mode of extrava-
sgance, every method of gambling and every
possible way of subverting order and set
p ting the laws at defiance are daily init
r mated, comforted and propagated by our
e. news writer's"
Just so here.
Within the past ten years there has
grown a habit in some of our most infuen-
5ial journals Of private prosecution which
! has developed into individual persecution
Of the most inhuman type. We have Off
GERS of the law whose duty it is to detect
crime, arrest, try and punish criminals,
but certain newspapers, instigated thereto
by hope of gain, have taken it upon them
selves to ferret out every particle of evil
r dence and to make 1t impossible for an ac-
D cused man to have a fair chance in q mod
ern court of justice. Judges are brow
beaten, lawyers are inundated and jurors
Z find their footsteps logged by spacework
scribblers and the literal sanctity of their
~ own domesticity intruded upon and spied
= upon by sneak reporters
Was it so them
Read and ponder. Says the author:
Errors in conduct were condemned
;, formerly as now, but the delinquent was
not left hopeless. His future virtues might
repair his past indiscretions At present
y the error, magnifed and tortured by mis-
= representation, is irreparable He is held
up in scorn and derision. Those that go by
shake their heads and make mouths at
him. A paper without murders and rob
berries and rapes and incest and bestiality
and sodomy and sacrilege and incendiary
letters and forgeries and executions and
duels and suicides is said to be void Of
news Newspapers are no longer what
they were originally intended to be,
sschronicles of events, but firebrands which
at behooves every honest man to quench."
And so on and on and on.