Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1896-04-04

paper factory rolls INTO an aNalducue. anu
the printers refuse to work until back wages
are paid up, and the conpositor bows to the
managing editor, and the managing editor
oows to the editor-in-chiefi and the e4ltor-
in-chlef bows to the directors, and the direc-
tors bow to the world az large, and all the
subscribers wonder why their paper doesn't
come. The world will have to learn that a
newspaper is as much OF an institution rs
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 columns
already established. It is folly for any one
who cannot succeed at anything else to try
newspaperdom- II you cannot climb the
hill back of your house. it is folly 70 try the
sides OF the Ma,terhorn
10 publish q newspaper requires the skill.
the precision, the boldness. the vigilance.
the strategy OF a cOmu2Eder-ln-chlef. 10
edit a newspaper requires that one be a
statesman. an esSayist. a geographer. q
statistIclan, and in acquisition encyclopedia.
To man. 70 govern. to propel a newspaper
until it shall be = fixed institution. a Ma
tional fact. demand more Qualities than any
business ON earth. Ii YOU feel like starting
any newspaper. secular or religious. under
stand hat you are being threatened with
softening Of the brain or lunacy, and. throw
ing your pocketbook into your wife's lap.
q 5Oulc 1ASduc IL Jun UclOio you w
something desperate. Meanwhile. as the
dead newspapers, week by week. are carried
out TO the burial. ell the living newspapers
give respectful obituary. telling when they
were born and when they died. The best
printers ink should give at least one stick
full OF epitaph. II it was a good paper. saw,
''Peace to the ashes" If it Was a bad paper.
I suggest the epitaph written for Francis
Chartreuse: Here continueth to rot the
body of Francis Char.reuse. who. with an
infexib'e constancy and uniformity of life.
persisted in the practice of every human
vice. excepting prodieality and hypocrisy.
His Unsuitable avarice exempted him from
the first, his matchless imprudence from the
second / say this because l want you to
know that a good. healthy. long lived. enter
tanning newspaper is not an easy blessing.
bat one that comes to US through the fire.
First Of all. newspapers make knowledge
democratic and for the multitude. The pub
lie library is a ffaymow so high mp that few
can reach it: while the newspaper throws
down the forage to our feet. Public libraries
are the reservoirs where the great floods are
stored high up and away off. The newspa-
per is the tunnel that brings them down to
the pitchers OF all the people The chief use
Of great libraries is to make newspapers out
Of. Great libraries make a few men and wo-
men very wise. Newspapers lift whole Ma
tons into the sunlight. Better have 5OJ,-
OOosooO PCbRAC AAONSl ltN1S lAtC-AASClt tutd
loo, 900 solons.
A false impression is abroad that nowspa-
per knowledge is e%pheneral because periodi-
calls are thrown aside, and not one out Of ten
thousand people files them for future refer
ence. Such knowledge, so far from being
ephelneral. goes into the very structure Of
the worlds heart and brain and decides the
destiny Of churches and Nations. Knowl-
edge on the shelf is Of little worth. 1t is
knowledge afoot. knowledge harnessed,
knowledge in revolution, knowledge
winged, knowledge projected. knowledge
thunderbolted. SO far from being ephemer-
al, nearly all the best minds and hearts
have their hands on the printing press
to-day and have had since it got enamel
pateo. Adams and Hancock and Otis used
TO go to the Boston Gazette and compose ar
ticles on the rights Of the people. Benjamin
Franklin, De Witt Clinton, Hamilton. Jeffer-
son. Quincy: were strong in ~newspapardom.
Many of the immortal things that have heen
published in book torn first appeared in
cal. All Macaulay's essays first appeared in
Il review. All Cariyle's, all RusAin:s.
all McIntosh's. ali Sydney Smiths.
al Hazlitt's. all Thackerary's. all the e.e-
waited works of fiction in our day are re-
prints from periodicals in which fey ap-
peared as serials. Tennyson's poar~. Rurns's
poems, Longfellow's poems, Emerson's po-
OilSs IN I'll . pOClllss w > | OCillS WSIt
once fugitive pieces. You cannot find ten
literary men in Christendom. with strong
minds and great hearts. but are or have been
somehow connected with the newspaper
printing press. While the book will always
have its place. the newspaper is more potent.
Because the latter is multi udinous do not
conclude it is necessarily superficial. If a
man should from childhood to old age see
only his Bible. Webster's Dictionary aud his
newspaper. he could be prepared for all tn.
duties Of this life and all the happiness OF
the next.
Again. q good newspaper is a useful mir
ror OF life as it is. 1t is sometimes com
planned that newspapers report the evil when
they ought only to report the good. They
| must report the evil as we'll as the good. or
how shall we know what is to be reformed
what guarded against. what fought down:
A newspaper that pictures only the honesty
and virtue of society is a misrepresentation.
That family is best prepared for the duties Of
life which. knowing the evil. is taught to
; select the good. Keep children under the
impression that all is fair and right in the
world. and when they so out into it they
will be as poorly prepared to struggle with
it as a child VINO is thrown into the middle
OF the Atlantic and told to learn how tC
swim. Our only complaint is when sin is
made attractive and morality dun. when yicf
is painted with great headings and goot
deeds are put in obscure corners. inioui,S
set up in great primer and righteousness il
n%onpariel. Sin is Ioathsome; make it loath
some. Virtue is beautifu.: make it beauti
full.
1t would WORK Il vast Improvement if al
our representations. political. literary
should for the most par drop their imper
sonaiity. This would do better justice t
newspaper writers. Many Of the stronSes
and best writers Of the country five and du
unknown and are denied their Just fame. III,
vast public never learns who they are. Mos
of them are on comparatively small income
and after awhile their hand forSe.s it Gun
nlng. and they are without resources. left t
die. Why nor. at least. have his initial at
tached to his most important work? 1t al
ways gave additional force to an articl
when you occasionally saw added TO som
| significant article in the old New Yori
Courier and Enquirer j. W. W.. or in tn,
Tribune 81. G.. or in TIE Herald J. G. D., 0
in The Times H.. J. r.. or in The Evenin,
Post W. c.. B.. or in The Evening EXPIRES
Z. Il.
While thus arrangement would be a fair
and Just thing Tor newspaper writer's. it woul,
be a defense for the puzzle. 1t is sometime
true that things damaging to private charac
ter are said. Who is ~responsible!. I. is the
we Of the editorial! or reporiorial columns
Every NAL in every profession or occupatio,
ought u be responsible for what he Toe.
NJ No.1,,hI, -a.r xr;lI o,.c~