Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-03-27
TUTORS OF NATIONS.
NEWSPAPERS THE SUBJECT OF DR..
TALMAGE'S SERMON.

Disseminators Of knowledge to the Multi
tudo and an Accurate History of the
Time-The Most Potent Influence For
Good on Earth.
WASHINGTON, March 22.-Newspa-
per row, as it is called here in Wash
ington, the long row of Offices connected
with prominent journals throughout the
land, pays so much attention to DIR.
Talmage they may be glad to hear what
he thinks Of them while he discusses a
subject in which the whole country is
interested. His text today was, "And
the wheels were full of eyes" Ezekiel
Z, 12), For all the Athenians and
strangers which were there spent their
time in nothing else but either to tell
or to hear some new thing" (Acts xvii,
81.
What is a preacher to do when he
finds two texts equally good and sug-
gestive? In that perplexity / take both.
Wheels full Of eyes? What but the
wheels Of a newspaper printing press:
Other wheels are blind. They roll on,
pulling or crushing. The manufacturer S
wheel-how it grinds the operator with
fatigues and rolls over nerve and mus
Gle and bone and heart, not knowing
what II does. The sewing machine
wheel sees not the aches and pains fas-
tened to it-tighter than the band that
moves it, sharper than the needle which
II plies. Every moment Of every hour Of
every day of every month OF every year
there are hundreds Of thousands OF
wheels Of mechanism, wheels Of enter
prise, wheels Of hard work, in motion,
but they are eyeless.
Not so the wheels Of the printing
press. Their entire business is to look
and report. They are full Of optic
nerves, from axle to periphery. They
are like those spoken Of by Ezekiel as
full Of eyes. Sharp eyes, near sighted,
far sighted. They look up. They look
down. They look far away. They take
In the next street and the next hemi-
sphere. Eyes Of criticism, eyes Of inyes-
tigation, eyes that twinkle with mirth'
ewes qlowering with indignation, eyes
tender with love, eyes Of suspicion
eyes Of hope, blue oyes, black eyes,
green eyes, holy eyes, evil eyes, sore
eyes, political eyes, literary eyes, his
torical 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 a class Of people in Athens
who spent their time either in gather
ing the news or telling it, Why espe-
cially in Athens? Because the more intel
liQent people become, the more inqulsi-
tive they are-not about small things,
but great things.
Genealogy of the Newspaper.
The question then most frequently Is
the question now most frequently
asked, What is the news? To answer
that cry in the text for the newspaper
the centuries have put their wits tc
work. China first succeeded, and has
at Peking a 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
ceeded by a physician writing ont the
news of the day for his patients. Eng
land succeeded under Queen Elizabeth
in first publishing the news of the Span
ish armada, and going on until she hac
enough enterprise, when the battle o.
Waterloo was fought, deciding the des
tiny Of Europe, to give it one-third OF
column in the London Morning Chron
iole. about as much as the newspaper o.
our day gives of a small fire. Americ'
succeeded by Benjamin Harris frs
weekly paper called Public Occurrences
nublished in Boston in 1880, and by th'
| first daily, The American Advertiser
published in Philadelphia in 1884.
The newspaper did not suddenly sprint
unon the world, but came gradually
The genealogical line of the newpape
Is this The Adam Of the race was a CIR
cular or news letter, created by diyin
impulse in human nature, and the cir
oular begat the pamphlet, and the pam
phlet begat the quarterly, and the quar-
terly begat the weekly, and the week.,
berat the semiweekly, and the semi
weekly beRat the daily. But alas, b.
what struggle it came to its presen
development No sooner had its powe
been demonstrated than tyranny and su
uerstition shackled it. There is nothln
that despotism so fears and hates as
printing press. 1t has too many eyes j
its wheel. A great writer declared tha
the king OF Naples made it unsafe TO
him to write Of anything but naiura
history. Austria could not endure Kos
mth's journalistic pen pleading for th
redemption Of Hungary. Napoleon
irving TO keep his iron heel ON the nee
Of nations, said, Editors are the rt
gents Of sovereigns and the tutors OF na
tious and are only fit for prison. " Bu
the hattie Tor the freedom Of the pres
was fought in the courtrooms Of Eng Ian
and America and decided before tn
century began by HamiltOn's eloquer
plaa for ]. Peter Zenger's Gazette
? America, and Erskine's advocacy OF tl
q freedom Of publication in Eng lan'
!, These were the Marathon and The
mopyle in which the freedom OF Ii
press was established in the Unite