Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-03-27

States and Great Britain, and all the
powers Of earth and hell will never
again be able to put on the handouts
and hopples Of literary and political des-
potism. 1t is notable that Thomas JEFF
ferson, who wrote the Declaration Of
American Independence, wrote also; IF
| had to choose between a government
without newspapers or newspapers with
out a government, l should prefer the
latter. Stung by some base fabrication
coming to US in print, we come to write
or speak Of the unbridled printing press;
or, our new book ground up by an un-
Just critic, we come to write or speak Of
the unfairness Of the printing press; or,
perhaps, through our own indistinctness
Of utterance, we are reported as saying
Just the opposite Of what we did say,
and there is q small riot Of gemic0lons,
hyphens and commas, and we come to
speak Or write Of the blundering print
ing press; or. seeing a paper filed with
divorce cases or social scandal, we speak
aud write Of the filthy printing press;
or, seeing q Journal, through bribery,
wheel Yound from ore political side to
the other in one night. We speak Of the
corrupt printing press, and many talk
about the lampoonry, and the empiri-
oism, and the sans culottism Of the
printing press.
An Everlasting Blessing.
But / discourse now on a subject you
have never heard-the immeasurable
and everlasting blessing Of good news
paper. Thank God for the wheel full Of
eyes. Thank God that we do not have,
like the Athenians, to 60 about to gath
er up and relate the tidings Of the day,
since the omnivorous newspaper does
both for us. The grandest temporal
blessing that God has given to the nine
teenth century is the newspaper. We
would have better appreciation OF this
blessing if we knew the money, the
brain, the losses. the exasperations, the
anxieties, the wear and tear Of heart
strings, involved in the production OF
good newspaper. Under the impression
that almost anybody can make a news
paper, scores Of inexperienced capitalists
every year enter the lists, and conse-
ouently during the last few years a
newspaper has died almost every day.
The disease is epidemic. The larger pa
pers swallow the smaller ones, the
whale taking down so minnows at one
swallow. With more than 1000 dailies
and weeklies in the United States and
Canada, there are but 36 half century
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 newspaper.
There comes a time when almost every
one is smitten with the newspaper mania
and starts one, or have stock in one he
must or die.
The course Of procedure is about this;
A literary man has an agricultural or
scientific or political or religious idea
which he wants to ventilate. He has no
money Of his own-literary men seldom
have. But he talks Of his ideas among
confidential friends until they become
infamed with the idea, and forthwith
they buy type and press and rent com
posing room and gather a corps Of edi-
tors, and with a prospectus that proposes
to cure everything the first copy is flung
on the attention of an admiring world.
After awhile one Of the plain stockhold-
ers finds that no great revolution has
been effected by this daily or weekly
publication; that neither sun nor moon
stands still; that the world goes on ly-
ing and cheating and stealing just as 1t
did before the first issue. The aforesaid
matter Of fact stockholder wants to sell
ont his stock. but nobody wants to buy,
and other stockholders get infected and
sick Of newspaperdom, 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 compOsitor bows to the managing
editor. and the managing editor bows TO
the editor in chief, and the editor III
chief bows to the directors, and the di-
rectors bow to the world at large, and
all the subscribers wonder why their
naper doesn't come. The world Will
have to learn that a newspaper Is as
much of an institution as the Bank OF
England or Yale college and is not an
enterprise. If you have the aforesaid
agricultural or scientific or religious or
political idea TO ventilate, you had bet
ter charge upon the world through the
columns already established. 1t is folly
for any one who cannot succeed at any
thing else to try newspaperdom. If you
cannot climb the hill back Of your house,
it is folly to try the sides Of the Matter
horn.
Comes Through Fire.
To publish newspaper requires the
skill, the precision, the boldness, the
vigilance. the strategy Of a commander
in chief To edit newspaper requires
that one be a statesman, an essayist' a
peographer. a statistician, and IN ac-
ouisition encyclopedia. To man, to
govern, to propel newspaper until II
shall be fixed intuition, national
fact demand more qualities than any
business on earth. If you feel like start
ing any newspaper, secular or religious
understand that you are being threat
eued with softening Of the brain or lu-
macy. and, throwing your pocketbook In
to your wife's lap, start for some insane
asylum before you do something des-
perate. Meanwhile, as the dead news
papers. week by week, are carried out
TO the burial, all the living newspapers
give respectful obituary, telling when
thew were born and when they died.
The best printers ink should give al
least one stickful Of epitaph. II it was
a good paper, say. "Peace to its ashes.
| If il was bad paper, suggest the cpl.
taph written for Francis Chartregke
Here continueth to rot the bsdy o.
Francis Chartreuse. who, with IAN in
flexible constancy and uniformity Of
life persisted in the practice OF every
human vice, excepting prodigality anc