Milford chronicle., 1896-03-27

literary man has an agricultural or sci
entiiiG or political or religious idea whigl
l. he wants to yentilate He has 10 Monej
- of his own--litarary men seldom have
. but be talks Of bis ideas among conildon
tial friends until they become infiamet
with the idea, and forthwith they buy type
n. and press and rent composing room and
gHther "a corps OF editors, and with a pro
? speutus that proposes o cure everything tho
first copy IS flung on the attention Of an
: Rdmiring world. Afitr awhile one Of tho
o plain stockholders finds that no great rev
$ olution has been effected by this daily ur
4 weekly publications; that neither sun nor
moon stands still; that the world gees on
lying and cheating and stealing just as 1t
did before the first issue Tho aforesaid
matter of fact stakeholder wants TO sell
out his stock, but nobody wants TO buy,
and other stockholders get injected and
sick OF EewspaperdOm, and an enormous
bill at the paper factory rolls into an ava
lanche, and the printers refuse to work
until baoS wages are paid up and the
compositor bows to the managing editor,
and the managing editor bows TO tho cdi-
tor in chief, and the editor in chief bows
to the directors, and the directors bow TO
tho world at large, and all the subscribers
wonder why their paper doesn't come,
The world will have to learn that news
paper is as much Of an institution as the
Bank Of England or Yale college and is
not an enterprise. If you have the afore-
said agricultural or scientific or religious
or political idea to ventilate, you had better
charge upon the world through the col
umns already established. IL is folly Tor
any one who cannot succeed at anything
else to try newspaperdom. If you cannot
climb the hill back of your house, it is folly
to try the sides Of the Matterhorn.
Near to the People.
To publish newspaper requires the
skill, the precision, the boldness, tho vigil
lance, tho strategy Of commander in chief.
To edit newspaper requires that one DO q
statesman, an essayist, a geogFapher, q
statistician and, in acquisition, enoyclope-
diac. To man, to govern, to propcl news
paper until it shall be IL fixed institution,
national fact, demands more qualities
than any business on earth. If you feel
Ike starting any newspaper, secular or re-
ligious. understand that you are being
threatened with softening OF the brain or
lunacy, and throwing your pooketbook into
your wife's lap start for some insane asy-
lum before you do something desperate.
Meanwhile as tho dead newspapers week
after week are carried ont to burial al the
living newspapers give respectful Obitu-
airy, telling when they wero born and
when they died. The best printers ink
should give at least one stickful Of epitaph.
If it was a good paper, say, "Peaco to its
ashes If IL was a bad paper, l suggest
the epltaph written for Francis Char
treuse: Hero continueth to rot tho body
Of Francis Chartreuse who, with an in
flexible c0nstancy and uniformity Of life,
persisted in the practice Of every human
vice excepting prodigality and hypocrisy
His Unsuitable Gvaricg exempted him from
the first, his matghless impudonco from
the second. I say this because l want
you to know that q good, healthy. long
lived, entertaining newspaper is not an
easy blessing, but ono THAT comes % us
through the Gre.
First Of ali, newspapers make knowledge
democratic and for the multitude. The
public library ia huymQW so high UP
that few can reach it, while tho newspaper
throws down the forage 10 our feet. Pub
lie libraries are tbs reservoirs where tho
great floods arc stored high up and away
off The newspaper is the tunnel that
brings them down to the pitchers OF all
the people Tho chief usu Of great libra
ries is to make newspapers out Of Great
libraries mako a few men and women very
wise Newspapers lift whole nations into
the sunlight Better have 80, 600, coo peO- I
ple moderately intelligent than 100000 ,
solons.
A false impression is abroad that news
paper Knowledge is ephemeral because /
arc thrown aside, and not one
out of 10, OO0 people files them for future {
reference. Such knowledge, so far from /
being ephemaral, goes into the very struo- c
5uro Of the worlds heart and brain and de- s
sides tho destiny of churches and nations. d
knowledge on the shelf is of little worth L
It is knowledge afont, knowledge harness.
ID, knowledge in revolution, knowledge
winged, knowledge projected, knowledge :,
So far from being ephem-
,ral nearly all tho best minds and hearts, /;
lavo their hands on the printing press to- 1
lay and have had since il got emancipated. /,
Adams and Hancock and Otis used TO go :
O the Ecston Gazette and compose articles y
III the rights of tho people. Benjamin q
De Witt Clinton, Hamilton, =
jefferson Quincy, were strong in newspa- 4
Many of tho immortal things !,
hat have been published in book form :
lrst appeared in what you may call the 4
phcmural periodical. All biaGnulay's es- -
avs first appeared i'll review, All Car 3
fla's, all Ruskin's, all Mclntosh's, all
ydney Smiths all Huzlitt's, all Thack- =;
ray S, all tho elevated works Of fiction in =,
ur day, ara reprints from periodicals in :,
Ihioh thoy appeared as serials Tommy Il
ln's poems Burns poems Longfellow's I
uems Emerson's poems, Lowell's poems, =,
7hittier' poems, were once fugitive pieces. -
on cannot find ten literary mon in Chris a,
,ndum with strong minds and great hearts ~,
ut are OF hayo been solaehoW connected :,
18th the newspaper printing press. Whils Al
ie book will always have its place, the =
ewspnpor Is moro potent. Because the -
ttcr is multitudinous do nO6 conclude 1t "
necessarily superficial. If man should
ON childhood to old age see only his
lble Wobstors Dictionary and his news Z.
sper, he could be prepared fer all the du %
es OF this life and all the happiness of "a
ie next. -
A Useful Mirror of Life, ~
Again, a good newspaper is q useful NJ
irror Of life rs it Is. 1t Is sometimes no
implanted that newspapers report the IN
il when they ought only to report the su
Dod They must report the evil as well ~
the good, or how shall we know what is of
be reformed, what guarded against i'm
hat fought down? A newspaper that vo
lbures only the honesty and virtue of So ccl
ETY. is a Misrepresentation. That family mo
best prepared for the duties Of life which, nd
rowing the evil, is taught to select the In
od. Keep children under fhe impression an
at all is fair and right in the world, and be
hen they go out into it they will be as do
orly prepared 60 struggle with IL as rol
lid who is thrown into the middle Of the III,
tlantio anu told 70 learn how to swim, n,
IT only complaint Is whom sin Is made raf
tractlyo and morality dull, when vice Is
inted with great headings and good
eds are put in obscure corners, iniquity
! up in great primer and righteousness
nonpareil Sin is loathsome, make IL
lthesamo. Virtue is beautiful; make it
autiful.
1t would work a vast improvement If ern
our papers-rellg ious, political, literary VIII
should for the most part drop their Inn der
This would 10 bpfter fustico hul