Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-04-06
4 CENTURY Or CHANGE
What the Gentle Reader May
Hope for in 100 Years.
THE GROWTH OF sPECIALTIEs.

Judge Dittenhoefer Thinks II VIII Extend
to the Legal Profession-Joseph Howard,
Jr., Expects No Radical Change in Jour
nalism - Senator Voorhees, Prophecy.
The Future of Inland Navigation.
copyright, 1893 by American Press Associa-
toni
In response to an interviewer President
Cleveland once said; "Oh, you saw that in
such and such newspaper. You might
have known it wasn't true"
On the same day Thomas Byrnes, super
intendent 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 practical newspaper writer natural
ly regard with intensest interest every phase
of journalism, good and bad. Contemplating
possible changes in this greatest of profes-
sions made between now and 1903, | natu-
rally examine the data at hand in order
that | may intelligently attempt fore
cast Some little time since an esteemed
coworker in the realm of art William j.
LeNIoyne, 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 Patterson's photograph of the
newspapers a hundred years ago is at all
accurate, the one and only change in the
line of improvement which distinguishes
the newspaper press of 1892 from those of a
century earlier is in the advanced mechan-
ical facilities at the service of publishers.
They then worked the humble and awk-
ward hand press
Today we have mechanisms so marvel
ous in their ingenious complication aad SO
simple withal that the ordinary mind stands
confused by the output and embarrassed in
its vain endeavor to comprehend the why
and the wherefore. 1t must be remem-
bered that of every 100000 readers at least
$4,000 never saw modern printing press at
work.
The grandeur of Il pressroom is beyond
compare. All is quiet. The electric light
bTightens the subterranean vaults as though
the midday sun in all its glory was efful-
gent there; huge rolls of paper, miles in ex-
tent, 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,
and 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
inder and rests now mighty pile of eight,
ten, twenty, forty PACED papers, neatly, ac
curately printed on both sides, folded with
mathematical precision, pasted and ready
for delivery.
The sights almost uncanny.
And it has seemed to me at times when
looking over the rail l could almost hear
these mighty monsters whispering to each
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
every class may now burn their books, like
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,
We commonly discover him curious i'm
pertinent, watching the heels OF the great,
more intent upon their motions than their
measures, giving the earliest notice when
his lordshlp stole out of town, and also
when her ladyship was happily delivered to
the 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
species OF guilt, every mode OF extrava
gance, every method OF gambling and every
possible way OF subyerting order and set
ting the laws at defiance are daily init
mated comforted and propagated by ouI
news writers"
Just SO mere.
WITHIN the past ten years there has
grown habit IN some OF our most lnfiuen
tlal journals OF private prosecution whlcf
has developed into individual persecution
OF the most lnhuman type. we have OIL
| GERS OF the law whose duty it is to detect