The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-19
THE NEwspAprR DTscUssED.

George w. Cable Spoke of Its Relation to
 the Preside at Dwight Hall Last Evening
 Newspaper should be Used for Utility
 Not for Entertainment-Eault of Its
 Readers That It Has Departed From It's
 Original Sphere.
 The first in the Dwight hall lecture course for this season was delivered last evening by George w. Cable on "The Newspaper and the Preside" At 7 o'clock, when MT. Cable with President Dwight came into the hall, the room was well filled with students who greeted the two gentlemen with tumultuous applause.
 President Dwight introduced the fa- nous novelist and lecturer. MT. Cable spoke in substance as follows: "The newspaper carries much of it's definition in it's type, and stand first of all for news, or at least 1t should. It is useless to speak of the great value of this wonderful engine of modern civiliza- tion and the superb functions which it fills. It presumes first of all to be a messenger to us of tidings brought in haste It's most common name, Gazette or Tattler, are significant, as the latter comes from an Italian word, meaning magpie, and the former from word signifying a. small piece of Venetian money. The newspaper began with the wonderful expansion of the world at the close of the fifteenth century, and now stands pre-eminently for mankind. For a long time after its origin the newspaper was not allowed to touch upon news near at hand or easy to reach, but gave to the public news from remote places. It also came to a new use for which it had not been contrived, that is of giving the mes sages of civilization to new countries and new settlements where it stood in the place of libraries, and was the only literary work available. With the in- troduction of railroads lines of trade were turned from the coasts so as to extend across the country, and with them went the newspaper to all parts o fthe land. In the newspaper a great
  there an old force-woman and the fire side, a force which stood fore some thing finer and better than the new one. Preside and woman stood for the real ization and the delight of all life and all hope. Women have, however, be- gan to read newspapers, and as they are not interested in the business for which the newspaper was originally the organ, to satisfy their tastes news papers have been changed so that at present some have at least sixty pages of worthless stuff, and the newspaper instead of being thing of utility en- deavors to bring us entertainment. When a newspaper begins this it be- gins to neglect three of its chief duties, namely, beauty, truth and refreshment. If a newspaper does not belong truly to the utilities it should nevertheless be true just the same, and should not be reckless in its utterances or hazardous in it's conjecture. The great faults of newspapers are not faults of the editors but faults of the readers. No paper is now considered enterprising unless it sticks to those things it nows to be true This turning a newspaper into a means of entertainment, this degen- eration of the paper is degeneration of news, and this is chargeable to the particular conditions attending the de- velopment of our country. The gossip of individuals has crowded out news and things of utility because the paper is led away by the public demand. We must cease compelling newspapers to furnish us with material for reflection which we can get from books. To the newspaper we owe the vast wealth of the country, because it's great fiuctua- tions have been taken from the worlds markets. If we look to the newspaper for entertainment it must be because we are willing to be entertained by great problems. People demand by their attitude toward the newspaper that it shall be the vehicle of their fireside entertainment, which is proper ly the functions of books, and which is in nowise the business Of newspapers to supply The newspapers attempting to supply 1t it headlong haste places it before us in an uneventful vulgarity of style such as that which often charac- terizes our theaters, religion and of the times-even our Christian conven- tion."