Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-03-23

edge, SO far from being ephemeral, goes
into the very structure of the world S
! heart and brain and decides the destiny
Sf churches and nations Knowledge on
the shelf is Of little worth. It is knovl-
edge afoot, knowledge harnessed, knovl-
edge in revolution, knowledge winged,
knowledge projected, knowledge thun
derbolted. So far from being ephem-
eral, nearly all the best minds and hearts
have their hands on the printing press
today and have had since it got emanci-
pated. Adams and Hancock and Otis
used to go to the Boston Gazette and
compose articles on the rights of the
people. Benjamin Franklin, De Witt
| Clinton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Quincy,
were strong in newspaperdom. Many of
the immortal things that have been pub
lished in book form first appeared in
what you may call the ephemeral period
ical. AL Macaulay S essays first appeared
in a review. All Carlyle's, all Ruskin's,
all Mcintosh s, all Sydney Smiths, all
Hazlitt's, all Thackerary's, all the ele-
waited works of fiction III our day, are
reprints from periodicals in which
they appeared as serials. Tennyson's
poems, Burns poems, LongfelIow'
poems, Emerson s poems, LowelIs
poems, Whittier's poems, were once
fugitive pieces. You cannot find ten lit
erary men III Christendom, with strO1 :
minds and great hearts, but are or have
been somehow connected with the news
paper printing press. While the book
will always have its place, the newspa-
per is more potent. Because the latter is
multitudinous do not conclude it is nee
essarily superficial. IF q man should
from childhood to old age see only his
Bible, Webster's Dictionary and his
newspaper, he could be prepared for all
the duties of this life ard all the happi
ness of the next.
A Mirror of Life.
Again, good newspaper is q useful
mirror Of life as it is. Tt is sometimes
complained that newspapers report the
evil when they ought only to report Il 9
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 go out into
it they will be as poorly prepared to
struggle with it as child who is thrown
into the middle of the Atlantic and told
to learn how to swim. Our only com
plant is when sin is made attractive
and morality dull, when vice is painted
with great headings and good deeds are
put in obscure corners, iniquity set up in
great primer and righteousness in non
parell. Sin is lOathSOnle; make it lOath- |
some Virtue is beautiful; make it beau
tiful.
1t would work a vast improvement il
all our representations, political, lit
erary-should for the most part drop
their impersonality. This would do bet |
ter justice to newspaper writers. Many |
of the strongest and best writers Of the |
country live and die unknown and are |
denied their just fame. The vast public |
never learns who they are Most of |
them are on comparatively small in
come, and after awhile their hand for |
gets it cunning, and they are without |
resources, left to die Why not, at least, |
portant work? 1t always gave additional |
force to an article when you occasional
ly saw added to some significant article |
in the old New York Courier and En-
quirer J. W. W., or in The Tribune Fl.
G., OF in The Herald J. G. B., or III
The Times Ii. J. R., or in The Evening |
Post W. G. B., or in The Evening Elk
press E. B.
While this arrangement would be a
fair and just thing for newspaper writ
ers, it would be defense for the pub
lie. 1t is sometimes true that things
damaging to private character are said.
Who is responsible? 1t is the I've Of
the editorial or reportorial columns.
Every man in every profession or occu
patton ought to be responsible for what
he does. No honorable man will ever
write that which he would be afraid to
sign. But thousands of persons have
suffered from the impersOnality of
newspapers. What can one private citi
zen wronged in his reputation do in a
contest with Misrepresentation multi
piled into twenty or fifty thousand
copies? An injustice done in print is IL
imitably worse than injustice done
in private life. During loss of temper a
man may say that for which he will be
sorry III ten minutes, but newspaper
injustice has first to be written, set up
in type, then the proof taken off and
read and corrected, and then for six or
ten hours the presses are busy running
off the ISSUE Plenty of time to correct.
Plenty of time to cool off. Plenty of
time to repent. But all that is hidden
in the impersonality of a newspaper. 1t
will be long step forward when all is
changed, and newspaper writers get
credit for the good and are held respon-
sible for the evil.
The Most Potent Influence.