The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-17

NfH|. |'IHNNINH N"NI. #aa|N H"HNN#H
tom, aud with a prospectus Thar proposes %
euro everything ihe first copy la flung on Che
attention Of an admir.ns world. After
awhile one OF tho plain stockholders finds
that nn rfeat revolution has brrn ciretoi by
thIa daily or weekly puhueatioHithal neither
Huu nor noon stands aulli ihHt ihr world
goes ON lyiuF aud cheating ana stealing iut
Hs did before the ful issue. IheaIoreshid
matter of fact toekholder Wunis lo feh out
81 stock. but nobody wants 90 buy. and
other stockholders gee Injected And sick
nawsnanerd0m, aud nn enormous hI.l Ht Nh
paper factory rolls into an avalanche and
the printers refuse 90 work until back wGges
are paid up. and the comp0sitor bows % the
managing editor, aud the managing editor
bows 90 the editor-lu-chiof. aud the editor
iu-chioi bows 30 the directors, and gho dlrec.
tors bow 60 the world a, large, and ali the
subscribers wonder why their paper doesn't
come. The world will have 90 learn that
newspaper Il az much of an institution ne
the Bank OF England or Yale College and is
not an enterprise. IN you have the al0re-
said agricultural or scientific or ralgloun or
political idoa % ventIlate, you had better
charge upon the world through the columns
already established. Il is folly for any ono
who cannot succeed nj anything else 10 try
ueWspaperiom. II you cannot climb tho
bill back Of your house, Il Is folly 10 try the
sides 81 the Maiterhorn
To publish a newspaper requires the skin.
the precision, the boldness, the vigilance,
the strategy Of q cOmmander-ln-chlef To
edit newspaper requires that ona be a
| statesman, an easayiai. a geographer. n
| statistlcian, and Ia acquisition encyclopedia.
| To man, 20 govern, 20 propel a newspaper
until Il shall be fixed institution, Ma
| tonal fact, demand more qualities than any
/ business on earth. II YOU feel like starting
| any newspaper, secular or religious. under
| stand that you ara being threatened with
/ s0itening Of the brain or lunacy, and. throw
/ Ing your pocketbook into your wiie's lap.
start for some insane asylum before you do
/ something desperate. Meanwhile, rs the
| dead newspapers, week by week, are carried
/ out 20 the burial, all the living newspapers
| give respectful obituary, telling when they
were born and when they died. The best
/ printers ink should give at least one stick
tul OF epitaph II II was a good paper. say,
! "Peaee TO the ashes" n Il was bad paper.
| suggest the epitaph written for Francis
| Chartreuse; Here contlnueth 10 rot the
body OF Francis Chartreuse. who. with an
inhexibe eonstanoy and uniformity OF life,
persisted in the practice OF every human
vice, excepting prodlgality and hypocrisy.
His Unsuitable avarlce exempted him from
the first, his matchless imprudence from the
second" say this because / want you to
know that good, healthy, long lived, enter
tanning newspaper is not an easy blessing,
but one that comes 10 US through the fire.
First OF all, newspapers make knowledge
democratic and for the multitude. The pub
lie library Is haymow 80 high up that few
can reach II, while the newspaper throws
down the forage to our feet. Public libraries
are the reservoirs where the great floods are
stored hi0h up and away of The newsDa-
per is the tunnel that brings them down to
the pitchers OF all the people. The chief use
OF great libraries Is to make newspapers out
OF. Great libraries make a few men and wo-
men very wise. Newspapers lift whole Ma
tons into the sunlight. Better have 50O,-
100000 people moderately intelligent than
100000 solons.
A false impression Is abroad that newspa-
Fer knowledge Is ephemeral because perlodi-
Gals are thrown aside, and not one out Of ten
thousand people hles them for future refer
ence. 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. KnOWl-
edge on the shelf is of little worth. Il is
knowledge afoot, knowledge harnessed,
knowledge in revolution, knowledge
winged, knowledge projected. knowledge
thunderbolted. SO far from being ephemer-
al nearly all the best minds and hearts
have their hands on the printing pres.
to-day aud have had since 1t got enamel
pated Adams and Hancock and Otis used
to go to the Boston Gazette and compose ar
ticles on the rights Of the people. Benjamin
Franklin, De Witt Clinton, Hamilton, Jeffer
son, Quincy, we're strong in neWspaperdom.
Many of the immortal things that have beer
published in book form first appeared IL
what you may call the ephemeral period.
cal. All Macaulay's essays first appeared In
a review. All Carlyle's all Ruskin's
all McIntosh's all Sydney Smiths
all Hazlitt's, all Thackerarys, ali the ele
waited works Of fiction In our day are re
prints from periodicals in which they ap
peared as serials. Tennyson's poems, Burnsi
poems, Longfellow's poems, Emerson's pc.
ems, LoWelPs POEMS Whittier's poems, wer
once fugitive pieces. You cannot and tel
literary men in Christendom with stronj
minds and great hearts, but are or have beef
somehow connected with the newspape
: printing press. While the book will Away
have its place, the newspaper is more potent
! Because the latter Is multitudinous do no
2 conclude it is necessarily superficial. II
] man should from childhood to old age SO
P only his Bible, Webster's Dictionary and hi
I newspaper, he could be prepared for all tn
!; duties OF this life and all the happiness c
8 the next.
t Again, good newspaper is useful mil
. rOr OF life as II is. 1t is sometimes con
q planned that newspapers report the evil whe
u they ought only to report the good. The
9 must report the evil as we'll as the good, {
Il how shall we know what Ia to be reformed
what guarded against, what fought dowr
a A newspaper that pictures only the honest
. and virtue of society is a misrepresentation
Q That family is best prepared for the duties
[ life which, knowing the evil, is taught
9 select the good. Keep children under Il
impression that all is fair and right in II
Q world, and when they 20 out into it tbs
: will be as poorly prepared to struggle vii
< ii as a child who is thrown into the midd
d Of the Atlantic and told to learn how
0 swim. Our only complaint is when sin
: made attractive and morality dull. when vi
T is painted with great headings and goo
u deeds are put in obscure corners. iniqui
q set up in great primer and righteousness
9 nonpariel. Sin Is loathsome; make 1t Loaf
Q some. Virtue is beautiful; make it beau
9 full.
d 1t would work vast improvement II
: our papers-religious, political, literary
l. | should for tbn moot MART drOn fhafr fror ~