The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-05-29
PRESS ASSOCIATION.
Mavor DIAL Of Meridian, Welcomes
the Press Association.
rhs Keys of the City of Meridian Turned
over to the Representatives of
the Fourth Estate.

sissippi Press Association:
If is with no little pleasure that we
.one you to the Queen City of the Eas
inst nine years ago, in 1887, Merida
Mad the honor of entertaining the Stat
Press Association, and pleasing recolle,
films of that occasion linger with Il
ehll We are gratified that before a do
cade from that time has run it's round W
have you with US again; and 1 greet 70
todav as friends and fellow-citizens, Miss
issippians with interest in common witt
our own, interested in every achievement
. within the boundaries of your State, a.
men of busy brains and busy hands, til,
| night toiers and day toilers, leaders O.
our public thought and action, our path
finders, our sentinels upon the watch
towers who signal every rising ray Of
prosperity and every distant danger; men
who must be alert to pursue and catch
every item of local interest in their re-
spective communities, who must know by
intuition and make note of the incom-
ings and outgoings of every man and his
family and his visiting kin, shoot every
folly that flies, nourish with editorial
favor every new movement born in the
interest of church or state or material
advancement, and be personally present
to take notes at every public meeting. DO
litical gathering, religious revival and
amateur theatrical performance, and
know as much of each social function as
if you had been there, or were even in
yited men who must sit up at night to
catch every spark of news that leaps
from the busy electric wires, who, with
burning eyeballs must read proof sheet
after proof sheet, and stay as wide
awake and as charmed over column
Of market reports as over a dainty bit of
spring poetry yet men who at the same
time must steer the business ends of their
crafts SO that they may glide in safety
past the bank drafts and acceptances and
other similar objects that loom I'D every |
day to poster and impede
In extending our welcome / shall omit |
much of the ornate language usually en-
ployed in speaking Of the importance and
dignity of your profession. l take it for
granted that you are sufficiently i'm
,ressed with the responsibilities and du-
les of your high calling. To quote from
history evidence to sustain the allega-
ION that the newspaper is one of the
reatest agencies employed in the ad- i
ancement of civilization and in the up
fling of mankind, would be but an eff {
'rt on my part to establish proposition .
ready Demonstrated fact known of !,
i mankind, universally recognized. To il
que the power of the press would be b
'eless attempt to prove the truth of an e
effort to gid refined gold. a
Inc press and its power, its multiform =
ID multifarious blessings, it's countless n
Votees, the high priests who minister in b
temples, that great character who has p
pressed the world, moved the world,
ed the world-that sage and that seer, N
editor in his sanctum sanctorum-all {,
'Se need no laudation or panegyric at in
hands. G.
true coral needs no painters brush, w
NOT needs be daubed with red" tr
happens, l may venture to say, that ca
'Slsslppi has no papers that lay claim W.
ne huge proportions, the costly equip 80
u.s. the wonderful facilities and ex- wi
'iVe methods of gathering, handling, de
distributing news that characterize da
great metropolitan dailies of this age; WI
IuSe Mississippi has no great metropo- y!
'ithin her borders. But she, neverthe- e.,
mas dailies ably edited, intelligently int
ucted, abreast always with the times. VIII
with an influence far-reaching-re- ne'
'eu and consulted at home and MOI
au clean and pure in tone-dailies ~
would be a credit to any State; and tba
mes 100, that go, like white-winged all
easers, into the thousand happy and abo
'n'ed homes of Mississippi's honest din
auiy' where, at night around the VIII,
hies OF winter, or at the flow
WIDOWS in the cool, refreshing "Yc
. OF summer, they are read to Mr..
ana oairns by hardy sons of rustic 6,
WIN that "patriarchal grace" that ro,,
e.erlzes the honest and reverential Nor
day niobt ~ al VI d oco'tish beyt
ncy liLo ana - 70 a con you
Y mainlr .na' the Mississlppi he's
like tbosa al, ,,, anu i. is Iron i've,
liefIv snr;n ", Mississlppi grand dict;
the fnll 60. 'nis Is Iar from push
circulation and influence; for ot;v,
.au, clear, and familiar pages are sinc'
:. watched for in the homes and he's
- houses and factories of the 1909