The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1896-04-03
GOOD NEWSPAPERS.
An lmmeasurable and Everlasting
Blessing.
The Most Potent Influence for Good on
Earth il u Healthy Journal-Scrmon
by Rev. 4. De Witt Taimage.

l. WASHINGTON, March ~. News
paper Row. as it is called here in
Washington, the long row Of offices
connected with prominent Journals
throughout the land, pays so much
attention to Or. Talmage, they may
be glad to hear what he thinks of
them, while he discusses subject in
which the whole country is sintercstcd.
His text to-day was "And the wheels
were full Of eyes" Ezekiel x. y. "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, 2l.
What is preacher to do when lie
finds two texts equally good and sug-
gcStivc? In that pcrplexity | take
both. Wheels fun Of eyes? What
but the wheels OF II newspaper print
ing press? Other wheels are blind.
They roll on. pulling or crushing.
The manufacturers wheel, how it
grinds the operator with fatigues, and
rolls over nerve and muscle and bone
and heart, not knowing what it docs.
The sewing machine wheel secs not
the aches and pains fastened to it
tighter than the hand that moves il,
sharper than the needle which it 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 enterprise,
wheels Of hard work, in mot ion, but
they are cyclcss. Not so the wheels
Of the printing press Their entire
business is to look and report. They
are full OF optic nerves flUm the axe
to the periphery. They are like those
spoken Of by Ezekiel as full of eyes.
Sharp eyes, ncar-Sightcd, far-sighted.
They look far away. They take in
the next street and the next hemi-
sphere. Eyes Of criticism, eyes Of in
ycStigatiDn: eyes that twinkle with
mirth. eyes gl0wering with lndigna-
tion, eyes tc lder 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 sull 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 gat herring the news or
telling it. Why ;rcci lily in Athens ?
Because the more intelligent people
became, the more inquisitive they are
not about small things, but great
things.
ADVENT OF THE NEWSPAPER.
The question then most frequently
is the question now most frequently
asked, What is the news? Toanswcr
that cry is the text the newspapers of
the centuries have put their wits to
work. China first succeeded, and has
at Pcking a newspaper that has been
printed every week for a Thousand
years, printed on silk. Rome succeed
cd by publishing the Acta Diurna, in
the same column putting fires, mur-
dcrs, marriages and tcmpests. France
succeeded by physician writing out
the news of the day for his patients.
England succeeded under Queen Eliza
beth in first publishing the news of
the Spanish Armada, ana going on
until she had enough enterprise, when
the battle of Waterloo was fought,
deciding the destiny of Europe, togive
it one-third Of column in the Lon.
don Morning Chronicle, about the
same amount OF space as the
newspapers of our day give to small
fire. America succeeded by Benjamin
Ilarris' first weekly paper called Pub
lie Occurrences, published in Boston
in 1900, and by the first Ssaily, the
American Advertiser, published in
Philadelphia in 1854.
The newspaper did not suddenly
spring upon the world, but came grad
ually. The genealogical line Of the
ne wspapcr is this: The Adam of the
race was Il circular or newsletter,
created by Divine impulse in human
nature; and the circular bceat the
pamphlet, and the pamphlet begat
the rterly and the quarterly begat
the weekly, and the weekly bcgat the
daily. But alas by what struggle
it came to its preset development
No sooner had its power been demon
stratcd, than tyranny and supersti-
tion shackled it. There is nothing
that despotiSm so fears and hates as a
printing press. 1t has too many eyes
in its wheel. A great writer declared
that the King Of Naples made II I'M
safe for him to write Of anything but
natural history. Austria could not
endure kossutR's journalistic pen
pleading for tie redemption OF Hun
gary. Napoleon l., trying to keep his
iron heel on the neck of nations, said:
Editors are the regents OF sovcrcigns
and the tutors ofnations, and arc only
tit for prison." But-the battle for the
freedom OF the press was fought in
the courtrooms of ENGLAND and Amer.
ica. and decided before this century