St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-05-16


thirty-six half century old. News
papers do not average more than i've
years. existence. Tho most Of then
die of cholera infantum. It II high
time that the people found ont that
the most successful way to sink money
and keep it sunk Is to start newspa
per. There comes . time when almost
every one is smitten with the newspa
per mania, and starts ono, or have
stock in one he must or die.
The course Of procedure is about
this: A literary r,an has IN aRricul.
tural or scientific or political or relig.
GUS idea which he wants to ventilate
He has no money of his own-literary
men seldom have. But he talks Of his
ideas among confidential friends until
they become inflamed with the idea
and forthwith they buy type and rress
and rent composing room, and gather
. corps Of editors, and with 4
prospectus that proposes to cure
everything, the first copy is flung on
the attention Of an admirin8 world.
After awhile one Of the plain stock
holders finds out that no great revolu
ton has been effected by this daily Of
weekly publications; that neither sun
nor moon stands still; that the world
goes on lying and cheating and steal
ing Just ~ It did before the first issue.
The aforesaid mstter-of-fact stock
holder wants to sell his stock. but NO
body wants to buy, and other stock
holders get infected and sick Of news.
paperdom, and IN enormous bill Al
the paper factory rolls into IN
avalanche, and the printers refuse
to work until back wages are paid up
and the compositor bows to the manag.
ing editor and the managing editor
bows to the editor-in-chicf, and the
editor-in-chief bows to the directors.
and the directors bow to the world 1t
large, and all the subscribers wonder
why their paper doscnt come. The
world will have to learn that q news
paper is as much an institution ~
the bank Of England or Yale col
lege, and is not an enter.
prise. If you have the aforesaid agri-
cultural, or scientific, or religious, or
political idea to veRtilatc. you had bet
ter charge upon tho world through
the columns already established II
10 folly for anyone who can not sue
coed ut anything else to try newspa-
perdoms If you can not climb the hill
back of your house it is folly to try the
sides Of the Matterhorn.
To publish . newspaper requires the
skill, the precision, the boldness, the
the strategy Of a command
cr-fn-chief. To edit q newspaper re-
quires that one be a statesman, an
cssayist, q geographer, statistician,
and, in acquisition, encyclopedia.
To man, to govern, to propel a news
paper until it shall be a fixed institu-
ton, q national fact, demand more
qualities than any business on earth.
If you feel like starting any ncwspa-
per, secular or religious, understand
that you are being threatened with soft
ening of the brain or lunacy, and throw
ing your pocketbook into your wife's
lap. start for some insane asylum be-
fore you do something desperate.
as the dead newspapers,
week by week. are carried out to the
burial. all the living newspapers give
obituary, telling when they
were born and when they died. The
best printers ink should give 1t least
one stickful of epitaph. II it was .
good paper, say, peace to its ashes"
If it was . bad paper, l suggest the
epitaph written for Francis Chart
reuse: Here continueth to rot the
body of Francis Chartreuse, who, with
IN inflcxible constancy and uniformity
Of life, persisted in the practice of every
human vice, except prodigality and
his Unsuitable avarice ex-
empted him from the first, his match
less impudence from the second" 1
say this because want you to know
that = good, healthy, long-lived, enter
tainiug newspaper is not an easy bless
ing, but one that comes to us through
the fire.
First Of all, newspapers make know /
edge democratic and for the multi
tude. The public library is hay-mow
70 high up that few can reach it, while
the newspaper throws down the forage
10 our feet. Public libraries are the
where the great foods are
stored high up and away Of. The
is the tunnel that brings
them down to the pitchers OF all the
people. The chief use Of great Ii
braries is to make newspapers
put of. Great libraries make
few men and women very wise. News
papers lift whole nations into the sun
light. Better have 10000 600 people
moderately intelligent than loo, 900
solons. A false impression is abroad
hat newspaper knowledge is ephe-
neral because periodicals are thrown
ls'de, and not one out of 10000 people
ales them for future reference. Such
knowledge, SO far from being ephe-
neral, goes into the very structure OF
he worlds heart and brain, and de-
tides the destiny of the churches and
nations. knowledge on the shelf is of
title worth. It is knowledge afoot,
harnessed, knowledge in
evolution, knowledge winged. knowl-
.dRe projected. knowledge thunder
oolted. So far from being ephemeral,
nearly all the best minds and hearts
rave their hands ON the printing press
o-tlay, and have had since it was
Adams, and Hancock,
md Otis used to 60 to the Boston Ca
.ctte and compose articles on the
lights of the people. BENJAMIN Frank
in, Dewitt Clinton, Hamilton, Jeffer-
on, Quincy, were strong in ncwspa-
,crdom. Many of the immortal
Kings that have been published in
nook form first appeared in what you
nay call the ephemeral periodical.
MI Macaulay's essays first appeared il
J review. All Carlyle's, all Ruskin's
III McIntosh's, all Sydney Smiths, all
iazlitt's, all Thackery's. all the eleva-
ed works of fiction in our day, are re-
Prints from periodicals in which they
ppeard as serials. Tennyson's poems,
burns poems. Longfellow's poems,
:merson's poems, Lowell's poems,
Nhittier's poems, were once fugi-
i've pieces. You can not find
en- literary men in Christen-
lom, with strong minds and great
leartS but are Or have hnOn SOsnAhovv