Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1896-04-01

corporations, the anxieties. the wear
and tear OF heartstrings involved in tho
production of n good newspaper. On
der the impression that almost any
body can make newspaper,
scores OF inexperienced capitalists
every year enter the lists. and conse-
quently. during the last few years, q
newspaper has died almost every day.
Inc disease is epidemic. The large pa
pers swallow the smaller ones, the
whale taking down 80 minLows ut one
swallow. With more than 1000 dailics
and wecklics in the United States and
Canada, there are but 80 n half century
Old Newspapers do not average moro
than five years existence. Tho most
of them die of cholera infantum. It Is
high time that the people found out
that the most successful way to sink
money and keep 1t sunk Is to start n
newspaper. There comes time when
almost every one is smittcn with the
newspaper mania and starts one, or
have stock in one he must or die.
The course ofproceduro Is about this:
A literary man has nm agricultural or
scientific or political or religious idea
which he wants to vcntilate. He has
no money of his own-li.crary mon
seldom have. But he talks of his ideas
among confidential friends until they
become inhamed with the idea, aud
forthwith they buy type and press, and
rent composing room, and gather n
corps of editors, and with n prospectus
that proposes To cure everything, the
first copy is flung on the attention of
an admiring world. After n while
one of the plain Stockholders
finds that no great revolution
has been affected by this daily or
weekly publication, that neither sun nor
moon stands still; that the world goes
on lying and cheating and stealing Just
as 1t did before the first issue.
Tho aforesaid mntter-of-fact stock
holder wants TO sell ont his stock, but
nobody wants TO buy, and other stock.
holders get infected and sick of news
paperdom, and an enormous bill ut the
paper factory rolls into an avalanche,
and the printers refuse to work until
back wages arc paid up, and tho COM
positor bows to the managing editor,
managing editor bows to the editor-in-
chief, and the editor-in-chief bows to
the directors, and the directors bow to
the world at large and all the subscribers
wonder why their paper doesn't come.
Tho world will have to learn that n
newspaper Is as much OF an institution
ms the Bank of England or Yale college,
and Is not an enterprise. III you have
the aforesaid agricultural, or scientific,
or religious, or political idea to vcnti-
late, you had better charge upon the
world through the columns already
established. 1t is folly for any one
who can not succeed at anything else
to try newspaperdom. II you can not
climb the hill back of your house IL
IL folly to- try the sides of the Matter
horn.
10 publish newspaper requires the
skill, the precision, the boldness, the
vigilance, the strategy, of command
er in chief. To edit n newspaper re-
quires that one be a statesman, an es-
sayist, geographcr, n statistician, and
in acquisition, encyclopaedia. To man,
to govern, to propel n newspaper until
1t shall be n fixed institution, nation
al fact, demand more qualities than
any business on earth. IL you feel like
starting any newspaper. secular or re-
ligious, understand that you are being
threatened with softening of the brain
or lunacy, and, throwing your pocket
book into your wife's lap, start for
some insane asylum before you do
something desperate. Meanwhile, M
the dead newspapers, week by week,
are carried out to the burial, all the liv-
ing newspapers give respectful obit-
uaries telling when they were born and
when they died. The best printers ink
should give at least one sticlxful of epi-
taph. IL it was good paper, say
Peace to its ashes" IL IL was bad
paper, suggest the epitaph written for
Francis Chartreuse: Here continueth
to rot the body Of Francis Chartreuse
who, with an infiexible constancy and
uniformity of life, persisted in the prac
tice of every human vice, excepting
prodigality and hypocrisy; his insatia
BILE avarice exempted him from the
first, his matchlcss impudence from the
second" 1 say this because want you
to know that n good, healthy, long
lived, entertaining newspaper Is not m
easy blessing but one thst comes TO us
through the fire.
First of all, newspapers make Itnowl-
SNBO anu INC
The public library Is n haymow &C
high up that few can reach IL, 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
newspaper is the tunnel that brings
them down to the pitchers OF all the
people. The chief use of our great II.
braries Is 10 make newspapers out OF.
Great libraries make a few men and
women very wise. Newspapers lift
whole nations into the sunlight. Bet
ter have fifty million people moderate
ly intellingent than one hundred thou
sand solons. A false impression Is
abroad that newspaper knowledge Is
ephemeral because periodicals are
thrown aside, and not one out Of ten
thousand people files them for future
reference. Such knowledge, so far
from being ephemeral, goes into the
very structure Of the worlds heart and
brain, and decides the destiny Of
churches and nations. knowledge on
the shelf is Of little worth. IL Is knowl.
edge afoot, knowledge harnessed.
knowledge in revolution. knowledge
winged, knowledge projected. lnowl-
edge thunderboltcd. SO far from being
ephemeral, nearly all the best minds
and hearts have their hands on the
printing press to-day. and have had