St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-05-16
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Divine 1Giauion az tho Amega.
can Newspaper Press.



Mighty Power ThroaGh-
ess tie Land.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took ''The
American Newspaper Press as the sub
jcct of . recent sermon in Washington,
basing his remarks on the texts:
And the wheels were full ofcyes."-Ezekiel.
| l.. u, For al the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time In nothing
else but either 70 tell or to hear some new
thing. Acts, Xviii, 81.
What is . preacher 70 do whom he
finds two texts equally good and
suggestive? In that perplexity I tax
both. Wheels full of eyes? What but
the wheels OF . newspaper printing
press? Other wheels are blind. They
roll on, pulling or crushing. The man
ufacturer's wheel, how it Rrinds the
operator with fatigues, and rolls over
nerve and muscle and bone and heart,
not knowing what 1t does. The sew
ing-machine wheel secs not the aches
and pains fastened to it-tighter than
the band that moves it, sharper than
the needle which it plies. Every mo-
ment of every hour of every day Of
every moath of every year there are
hundreds of thousands of wheels Of
mechanism, wheels of enterprise,
wheels of hard work. in motion, but
they are eyelesA Not so the wheels
Of the printing press. Their entire
business Is to look and re-
port. They are full Of optic
nerves, from axle to periphery. They
are like those spoken Of by Ezekiel IS
full of eyes. Sharp eyes, near-sighted,
far-sighted. They look mp They
look down. They look far away. They
take in the next street and the next
hemisphere. Eyes of criticism, eyes
ofinvestigation; eyes that twinkle with
mirth. eyes glowering with indigna-
ton, eyes tender with love; eyes of
suspicion. eyes of hope; blue eyes,
black eyes, green eyes; holy eyes. evil
eyes, sore eyes, political eyes. literary
eyes. historical eyes, religious eyes;
eyes that see everything. "And the
wheels were full of eyes"
But in my second text is the worlds
cry for the newspaper. Paul describes
class of people in Athens who spent
their time either in gathering the news
or telling it. Why especially in Athens?
Because the moreinfclligent people be-
come. the more inquisitive they are
not abe6t small things, but great
things.
The question then most frequently
Is the question now most frequently
askcd-What is the news? To answer
that cry in the text for the newspaper
the centuries have put their wits to
work. China first succeeded, and has
ut Fekin . newspaper that has been
printed every week for 1000 years
printed on silk. Rome succeeded by
publishing the "Acta Diurna," in the
same column putting fires, murders,
marriages and tempests. France sue
cceded by . physician writing out
the news of the day for his pa
tients. England succeeded under
Queen Elizabeth in first publishing the
news of the Spanish Armada, and
going ON until she had enough enter
prise, .when the battle of Waterloo
was fought deciding the destiny Of
Europe, to give it one-third Of a
column in the London Morning
Chronicle" about rs much Is the news
paper Of our day gives of = small fire.
America succeeded by BENJAMIN Har-
ris' first weekly paper called public
Occurrences" published in Boston In
1890, and by the first daily, the "Amer-
ican Advertiser" published in Phila-
1clphia in 1884.
The newspaper did not suddenly
spring upon the world, but came grad
A.
newspaper is this: The Adam Of the
race was q circular or newsletter, Gro
ated by Divine impulse in human ma
ture; and the circular begat the
pamphlet. and the pamphlet begat the
quarterly, and the quarterly begat the
weekly, and the weekly begat the semi
weekly, and the semi-weekly bcgat the
daily. But alas! by what a struggle
it came to its present development!
No sooner had its power been dem.
onstrated than tyranny and supcrsti-
ton shacikled It There is nothing
that despotism so fears and hates
rs . printing press. 1t has too
many eyes in its wheel. A great
writer declared that the king of Ma
pies made it unsafe for him to write
anything but natural history. Aus
tria could not endure Kossuth's jour
ualistic pen, pleading for the redemp-
ton of Hungary. Napoleon l., trying
TO keep his iron heel on the neck of |
nations, said: Editors are the regents
Of sovercigns and the tutors of ma
lions, and are only At for prison. |
But the battle for the freedom Of the |
press was fought out inthe court rooms
Of England and America, and decided |
before this century began by Hamil- |
tons eloquent plea for J. Peter Zenger's
Gazette" in America. and Erskincs |
advocacy of the freedom of publication |
in England. These were the Mara
thon and ThermopylD In which the |
freedom of the press was established |
In the United States and Great Brit
ain, and all the powers of earth and |
hell will never again be able to put on
the handouts and hopples of literary
and political despotism. It is notable |
that Thomas Jefferson, who wrote
the Declaration of American indie.
pendcnce, wrote also: IF I had |
to choose between . government
without newspapers or newspapers
without government, 1 should prefer
the latter" Stung by some base fab
rication coming to us in print, we
come to write or speak Of the
unbridled printing press; or, our
new book ground up by an unjust
critic, we come to write or speak of
the unfairncss Of the printing press;
or. perhaps, through our own indis-
tinctness of utterance. we are reported
rs saying just the opposite of what we
did say, and there is small riot of semi
colons, hyphens and commas. and We
came to speak or write Of the blunder-
Ing printing press; or, seeing = paper
filled with divorce cases or social scan
dal. we speak and write of the filthy
printing press; or, seeing = journal,
through bribery, wheel round from ono
political side to the other in one night,
we speak Of the corrupt printing press,
and many talk about the lampoonery.