Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1896-04-04
NEWSPAPER POWER.
DR.. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY THEME.
The Many Blessings That Come From
a Good Newspaper.

TEXTS: And the wheels were.full Of eyes
Ezekiel K. II. 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.-Act xvii, 81.
What is a preacher to do when be finds two
texts equally good and suggestive? In that
perpiexity take both. Wheels full Of eyes?
What but the wheels Of a newspaper print
ng press? Other wheels are blind. They
roii on, pulling Or crushing. The manufac-
turer's Wicklow it grinds the operator
With fatigues and rolls over nerve and mus
:fe and bone and heart, not knowing what
II 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
very year there are hundreds Of thousands
Of wheels Of mechanism wheels Of enterprise.
wheels Of hard work. in notion. but they are
eynless.
Not 80 the wheels OF the printing press.
Incir entire business is to look and report.
They are full Of optic nerves. from axle to
periphery. They are like those spoken Of by
Ezekiel as full Of eyes. Sharp eyes. near
look down. They look far away. They take
.nthe next street and the next hemisphere.
Eyes OF criticism. eyes OF investigation. eyes
that twinkle with mirth, eyes gloweriny with
Indignation. 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 sea every
thing. And the wheels were full of eyes"
Bat III my second text is the worlds cry for
the newspaper, Paul describes a class Of
people in Athens who spent their time either
IN Safhrrlpg the news or telling it. Why
especially in Athens? Because. the more in
telligent people become, the more inquisi-
tive they are no. about small things. but
great things.
TIE question then most frequently is the
question now most frequently asked, What
is the new52 To answer that cry is the text
Tor the newspaper the cen! RE have put
their wits to work. China first succeeded
and has at pekin newspaper that hats been
printed every week for 1000 years, printed on
six. Rome succeeded by publishing The
A"ta Diurna. II the same column putting
Tires, murders. marriages and tenpests.
! France succeeded by Il physician writing out
the news o. the day for his patients. Eng
laad Succeeded under Queen Elizabeth in
! irs' publishing the news of the Spanish
arna0 AMI going on until she had enough
enterprise. when the battle of Waterloo was
fought, deciding the destiny Of Europe, to
give it one-third of a column in the London
Morning Chronicle. about as much rs the
newspapers Of our day gives rf q small fire.
America succected Ivy Benjamin Harris 5 arst
weekly paper called Public Occurrences, pub
iisnel. In Boston in 1890. and by the first
'laiIv, TIL American Advertiser, published
~ Philadelphia in 1874.
The newspaper did not suddenly spring
upon the world, but came gradually. The
genealogical line OF the newspaper is this:
The Adam OF the race was 4 circular or news
letter. treated by divine impulse in human
nature. and the circular bagat the pamphlet,
and the pamphlet begat the quarterly, and
TIL ..A A. oy-! ~Ay Ill,
weekly be-at The snlni-weekly, and the semi
weekly hegat the daily. But alas. by what a
Struggle il came to its present development?
No sooner had its power been demonstrated
TRAN tyranny and superstition shackled it.
There is nothing that desDotism so fears and
hates as a printing press. 1t has too many
eyes in its wheel. A great writer declared
that the king Of Naples made it unsafe for
him to write OF anything but natural his
tory. Austria could not endure KOsSuth's
journalistic pen pleading for the redemp-
ton OF Hungary. Napoleon l.. trying to
keep his iron heel on the neck Of Nations.
said. Editors are the regents of sovereigns
and the tutor. o: Nations and are only fit for
prison" But tho battle for the freedom Of
the press was fought in the court rooms Of
EngIand and America aud decided before
this century began by Hamilton's eloquent
pea Tor }. Peer z.nger's Gazette in
America. and Erskine's advocacy of the
freedom Of publication in England.
These We're the Marathon and Their
mopyin in which the freedom Of the press
was established in the United States and
Great Eritain, and all the powers Of earth
aud hell will never again be able to put on
toe handcntfs and hopp.es of literary and
political ~despotism. 1t is notable that
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration
Of Independence. wrote also: If l had to
choose bet ween Il government without news
papers O. newspapers without n government.
| should prefer the latter. StunS 10y some
base fabrication coming to us IN PRINT. we
come 20 write or speak Of the unbridled
;~,riutinE press: Or. our new book ground up
hE an unjust critic. WE come to write Or
speak Of the unfairness OF the printing press;
Or. perDapS. through our own lndistinctness
~ utterance. we are reported as saying Just
the opposite of what we did say. and there is
a small riot OF senicolons. hyphens and
anna and we come to speak Or write OF
the biund"rin- printing press: or. seeing a
}aper flied With divorce cases or social
scandal. We speak and write OF the filthy
printing Press: or. seeing n journal. through
bribery. wheel round from one political side
10 the Other liz one night. we speak Of the
corrupt printing press. and many talk about
=. lap poonrv. and the empiricism. and the
sans cu'o.tSm OF the printing press.
Bat discourse now on r subie you have
Eevcs OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and eyerlast'
ln- bleS>in: of Il good newspaper. Thank
God for the wheel full OF eyes. Thank God
THAI we do not have, like the Athenians. to
80 aaout to gather UP and relate the tiding:
of the day. sine the omnivorOus newspaper
does both for Us. The Crandest Temporal
blessing that God has given to the nineteenth
century is the newspaper. We would have
better appreciation of this blessing it WI
knew the money. the brain. the losses. thu
rSaSrrrat.ons. the anXieties. the wear anl
tal- Of heartstrings. involved in the produc
ton OF a good newspaper. Under the i'm
preston that almost anybody can make
laU-papcr, scores Of inexperienced capita.
i~L> every YEAR enter the lists, and cOnse
,~lentiv during the last few years a news
Iat,er has died almost every day. The dis
ra.a j. epidemic. The larce- papers swallow
The small = ones. the Withdrawing down fit
GfnnowS ut one swallow. With more tina,
1000 dajl.e- AMI weekile-il.te United State
AID Cana lit. there are-bSt trfc:-slX a hal
century olt. Newspapers DC not averag
more than five veac existence. Toe mos
u taen dia # Cholera infantum. II Is hiSl
,tne tha the people iound out that the mos
~decessfu! WAY 10 sink money and keep
INK j L Ssart 4 newspaper. There come
4ttne when Amos. everv o~nelssmitten Wit
H. newspaper mania aud starts one, or hay
- IL one he must or die.
Fhe c0uTsa II procedure Is about this.
ft-.-9rN~ ,c.p has ~ t.II I'm Yai ar S,iarftS