The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1896-04-03

j. Peter Zcrger's Gazette in America
and Erskine's advocacy OF tho freedom
of publication in England. TGest
were the Marathon and Thermopyla,
in which the freedom Of the press wa.
established in the United States ant
Great Britain, and all the powers o
earth and he'll will never again be ablt
to put on the handouts and llopples oI
literary and political despotism.
BLESSING OF A GOOD PAPER.
4 II Is notable that Thomas Jefferson
who wrote the Declaration of Amcri
can Independence, wrote also: IF
had to choose between Il government
without newspapers and newspapers
without government, | should pre-.
fer the latter" Stung by some base
fabrication coming to us in print, we
come to wlitc or speak of the unbri.
died press: or, our new book, ground
up by an unjust critic, we come t.
write or speak Of the unfairness Of the
printing press; or, perhaps, through
our own lndistinctncss of uttcrancc,
we arc reported as saying just the op-
p0sitc Of what we did say, and there
is Il small riot OF semlcOlons, hyphcns
and commas, and We come to speak OF
write Of the blundcring printing press;
or, seeing paper filled with divorce
cases or social scandal, we speak OF
write of the tilthy printing press; or,
seeing journal, through bribery,
wheel round from one political side to
the other in one night, we speak OF
the corrupt printing press; and many
talk about the lampooncry, and the
empiriciSm, and the sans-culoltcism
Of the printing press.
But discourse now on a subject
you have never hcard-thc immcasur-
able and everlasting blessing Of IA good
newspaper. Thank God for the wheel
full Of eyes. Thank God that we do
not hayc-like the Athcnians-to 60
about to gather up and relate the
tidings Of the day since the Omniyer-
Gus newspaper does both for us. The
grandest temporal blessing that God
has given the nineteenth century is
the newspaper. We would have bet
ter appreciation of the blessing If we
knew the money. the brain, the losses,
the eXasperationS, the anXicties. the
wear and tear of heartstrings involved
in the production of good ncwspa-
per. Under the impression that al
lnoSt anybody can make a newspaper.
scores Of inexperienced capitalists
every year enter the lists, and, conSe-
qucntly, during the last few years a
newspaper has died almost every day.
The disease is epidemic. The larger
papers swallow the smaller ones, the
the whale taking down llfty minnows
at one swallow. With more than seven
thousand dailcs and wecklies in the
United States and Canadas, there are
but thirty-sX more than half cent
ury old. Newspapers do not average
more than five years existence. The
most OF them die of cholera infantum
1t is high time that the people found
out that the most successful way to
sink money and keep it sunk is to
start Il newspaper. There comes a
time when almost every one is smit-
ten with the newspaper mania and
starts one, or have stock in one he
must or die.
GOOD WAY TO SINK MONEY.
The course of procedure is about this:
A literary man has an agricultural
or scientific or political or religious
idea which he wants to ycntilate. He
has no money of his 0wn-literary
men seldom have. But he talks Of
his IDEAS among confidential friends
until they become inhamed with the
idea, and forthwith they buy type and
press, and rent composing room, and
gather corps of editors, and with a
prospectus that proposes to cure every
thing, the first copy is flung on the
attention OF an admiring world. After
awhile one of the plain stockholders
finds that no great revolution has been
effected by this daily or weekly publ
cation; that neither sun nor moon
stands still; that the world goes on
lying and cheating and stealing just
as it did before the first issue. The
aforesaid matter.of-fact stockhoder
wants to sell out his stock, but nobody
wants to buy, and other stockholders
get infected and sick OF newspaper
dom, and an enormous bill at the
paper factory rolls into an avalanche.
and the printers refuse to work until
back wages are paid up, and the com
positor bows to the managing editor,
and the managing editor bows to the
editor-in-chief, and the editor-in-chief
bows to the directors, and the dircc-
tors bow to the world at large, and all
the subscribers wonder why their
paper doesn't come. The world will
have to learn that newspaper is as
much Of an Institution as the Bank OF
England or Yale College, and is not
an enterprise. II you have the afore-
said agricultural, or scientific, or reli-
gious or political idea to ventillate,
you had better charge upon the world
through the columns already estab.
lisllcd. 1t Is folly for any one who
cannot succeed at anything else to
try newspaperdom. II You can not
climb the hill at the back of your
a.. = .