The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-03-25
HATS THE NEWS9
Rev. DR.. Talmage Pays His Re-
spects to Newspaperdom.
A Good Newspaper is an Immeasurable and
Everlasting Blessing = Tho Worlds
Redemption May Yet be Brought
About by the Printing Press.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in his most
recent sermon traces the history of the
and claims the clean jour
nal is one of the chief blessings of the
present century. He selected the fol-
lowing texts as the basis of his remarks:
"And the wheels were full of eyes,
Ezekiel 1912. For all the Athenians |
and strangers which were there spent
their time in nothing else but either to
tell or to hear some new thing. Acts
17:21
What is preacher to do when he
finds two texts equally good and sug-
gestive? In that perplexity take
both. Wheels full OF eyes? What but
the wheels Of newspaper printing
press? Other wheels are blind. They
roll on pulling or crushing. The man
ufacturers wheel, how it grinds the
operator with fatigues, and rolls over
nerve and muscle and bone and heart,
not knowing what it does, The sewing
machine wheel sees not the aches and
pains fastened to it-tighter than the
band that moves it, sharper than the
needle which it plies. Every moment
of every hour of every day OF every
month of every year there are hun
dreds of thousands of wheels of mech.
anism, wheels of enterprise, wheels OF
hard work, in motion, but they are
eyeless. Not SO the wheels of the print
ing press. Their entire business is to
look and report. They are full optic
nerves from axle to periphery. They
are like those spoken of by Ezekiel as
full of eyes. Sharp eyes, near-sighted,
far-sighted. They look up. They look
down. They look far away. They
take in the next street, the next hem
isphere. Eyes of criticism, eyes OF in
vestigation; eyes that twinkle with
mirth, eyes glowering with indig-
nation, eyes tender with love;
eyes of suspicion, eyes OF hope;
blue eyes, black eyes, green eyes;
holy eyes, evil eyes, sore eyes,
political eyes, literary eyes, historical
eyes, religious eyes; eyes that see
everything. "And the wheels were
full of eyes" Butin my second text is
the worlds cry for the newspaper
Paul describes class of people in Ath
ems who spent their time either in
gathering the news or tellingit. Why
especially in Athens? Because the
more intelligent people become, th'
more inquisitive they ere-not about
small things, but great things
: The question then most frequentl.
is the question now most frequentl,
asked, What is the news? To answe
that cry in the text for the newspape
the centuries have put their wits t
work. China first succeeded, and ha
at Pekin a newspaper that has bee
y printed every week for LOCO years
i printed on silk. Rome succeeded b
4 publishing the Acta Diurna, in tn
same column putting fires, murders
v marriages. and tempests. France SUI
ceeded by a physician writing out tn
news of the day for his patients EI
gland succeeded under Queen Elizabet
in first publishing the news of tn
Spanish Armada, and going on unit
she had enough enterprise, when tt
, , battle of Waterloo was. fought, deci
ing the destiny of Europe, to give
one-third of column in the Londc
Morning Chronicle, about as much ;
the newspaper of our day gives OF
small fire. America succeeded by Be
N iamin Harris first weekly paper call'
Public Occurrences, published in BE
70 ton in 1890, and by the first daily, Il
American Advertiser, published
Philadelphia in 1884.
- The newspaper did not sudden
{ spring upon the world, but came gra
(. ually. The genealogical line of t
newspaper is this: The Adam of t
race was circular Of news letter, CT
/. ated by divine impulse in human
ture; and the circular begat the pamr
~ let; and the pamphlet begat the qu'
terly, and the quarterly begat t
81 weekly, and the weekly begat the ser
weekly, and the semi-weelly begat t
daily. But alas! by what struggle
el came to it's present development!
sooner had its power been demonst
ted, than tyranny and superstiti
shackled it. There is nothing that d
. potism so fears and hates as print
7l' press. 1t has too many eyes in
wheel. A great writer declared tt
the King of Naples made it unsafe
him to write of anything but natu
- history. Austria could not end,
Kossuth's journalistic pen, pie
ing for the redemption of Hunga
Napoleon l., trying to keep
iron heel on theQeck of nations, Sc
Editors are the regents of sovereii
and the tutors of nations, and are O
fit for prison" But the battle for
freedom of the press was fought in
court rooms of England and Amerl
and decided before this century be-
by Hamilton's eloquent plea for j. Pc
Zenger's Gazette in America, and i
kine's advocacy of the freedom of p
lication in England. These were
Marathon and Thermopyl@ in WI
the freedom of the press was est
lished in the United States and CIR
Britain, and all the powers OF earth
hell will never again be able to put
the handcuffs and hopples OF liter
and political despotism. 1t is not'
that Thomas jefferson, who wrote
Declaration of American Independe
wrote, also: 'If ! had to choose
tween government without ne
papers or newspapers without a
ernment, should prefer the latt
Stung by some base fabrication cen
to us in print, we come to write
sneak of the unbridled printing pl