The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-17
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
rHH NOTED DTvINEs SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject "Newspapers and Their In,
nucnco.n

.tfNA#Nla WNlHN MniN kMNE6 spent tNNlf NiNh
in nothing else but either % tell OF Do hoar
some new thing. Acts xvii, "a,
WAT IL a preacher 10 do when he finds two
texts equally good and suggostlve2 in that
perplexlty take both. Wheels iul Of eyCa}
What but the wheels OF a newspaper prlnl-
ing pfosal Other wheels are blind. They
roll on, pulling or crushing. Tho manufac-
turor'a wheol-hoW d grinds the operator
with fatguos and rolls over nerve and mus
Gle and bone and heart, not knowing what
Y foes. The sewing machine wheel secs not
the aches and pains fastened 10 it-ilghter
than the band that moves a. sharper than
the needle which e plies. Every moment Of
every hour OF every day Of every month OF
every year there ara hundreds Of thousands
Of wheels Of mechanism. wheels Of enterprise.
wheels Of hard work, In motion, but they are
eyeeas.
Not so the wheels OF the printing press.
Their entire business is 20 look and report.
They are iull Oi optic nerves, from axle 90
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. ThoY take
"a the next street and the next hemisphere
/ Eyes Of criticism, eyes Of investigation, eyes
/ that twinkle with mirth, eyes glowerlng with
indignation. eyes tender with love, eyes OF
| eyes, green eyes, holy eyes, evil eyes, sore
/ eyes, political eyes, literary eyes, historical
/ eyes, religious eyes. eyes that seo every
! thing. "And the wheels we're fun Of eyes.
| But Ia my second text Is the worlds cry for
| the newspaper. Paul describes a class Of
| people In Athens who spent their time either
/ IA gathering the news or telling IT, Why
| especially IN Athens2 Because. the more in-
| telligent people become, the more inquisi-
] HfasaN h.rs oh. huH
great things.
The question then most frequently is the
| question now most frequently asked, What
Is the news2 To answer that cry Is the text
] for the newspaper the centuries have put
1 their wits TO work China first succeeded
and has az Pekin newspaper that has been
printed every week for 1000 years, printed on
elk. Rome succeeded by publishing The
Acta Dlurna, In the same column putting
hres, murders, marriages and tempests.
France succeeded by physician writing out
the news OF the day for his patients. Eng
land succeeded under Queen Elizabeth In
first publishing the news OF the Spanish
armada, and going on until she had enough
enterprise 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 as much as the
newspapers Of our day gives of a small fire.
America succeeded by Benjamin Harris's first
weekly paper called Public Occurrences, pub
lished In Boston in $780, and by the first
daily, The American Advertiser, published
IN Philadelphia In 1884.
The newspaper did not suddenly spring
upon the world, but came gradually. The
genealogical line OF the newspaper is this;
The Adam OF the race was a circular or news
letter. treated by divine impulse in human
nature, ind 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 begat the daily. But alas, by what a
struggle It came to its present developments
No sooner had its power been demonstrated
than tyranny and superstition shackled It.
There is nothing that despotism so fears and
hates as a printing press. II has too many
eyes In its Wheel A great writer declared
that the king of Naples made it unsafe for
him to write of anything but natural his
tory. Austria could not endure Kossuth's
journalistic pen pleading for the redemp-
tion Of Hungary. Napoleon l., trying to
keep his iron heel on the neck Of Nations
said, editors are the regents OF soyereigns
and the tutors Of Nations and are only tit fol
prison." But the battle for the freedom Of
the press was fought in the court rooms Of
England and America and decided before
this century began by Hamilton's eloquent
plea for ]. Peter zenger's Gazette in
, America, and Erskines advocacy Of the
freedom of publication in England
These were the Marathon and Their
mopyAs in which the freedom Of the pres
was established in the United States anC
> Great Britain, and all the powers Of eartl
and hell will never again be able to put OF
the handouts and hopples Of literary ant
political despotism. 1t is notable tina
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration
OF Independence, wrote also: eff had t
| choose between a government without news
papers or newspapers without a government
should prefer the latter" Stung by som
base fabrication coming to us in print, "
come 70 write or speak OF the unbndle
7 printing press; or. our new book ground u
by an unjust critic, we come to write G
speak of the unfairness Of the printing pres
: or, perhaps, through our own indistinctneS
of utterance, we are reported as saying jul
the opposite of what we did say, and there
a small riot of semicolons, hyphens an
commas, and we come to speak or write (
, the laundering printing press; or, seeing
! paper filled with divorce cases or sociI
scandal we speak and write Of the filth
3 printing press; or, seeing journal, throug
! bribery, wheel round from one political sic
to the other in one night, we speak Of tn
l corrupt printing press, and many talk abou
the lampoonry, and the empiricism, and th
sans culottism of the printing press.
l But discourse now on a subject you hay
never rd--theimmeasurable and everlas
. ing blessing of good newspaper. Than
! God for the wheel full Of eyes. Thank Go
that we do not have, like the Athenians, I
g go about to gather up and relate the tiding
! Of the day, since the omnivorous neWspapt
: does both for us. The grandest temporI
g blessing that God has given to the nineteent
:, century is the newspaper. We would hay
better appreciation Of this blessing II "
{ knew the money, the brain, the losses, II
exasperations, the anxieties, TIE wear an
: tear of heartstrings, involved in the produ
= tion of good newspaper. Under the in
preston that almost anybody can make
! newspaper, scores of inexperienced capita
n lists every year enter the lists, and cons
quently during the last few years new
i; paper has died almost every day. The di
ease is epidemic The larger papers swallo
the smaller ones, the whale taking down AZ
II minnows at one swallow. With more this
\ 1000 dailies and weel1lies the United Stat
~ and Canada, there are but thirty-six a ha
4 ~