St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-05-16

viee h painted With great headings
and good deeds are put In Obscure COR
nsEs; inlquity set mp In great primer
AID Righteousness In nonpareil. Sin
Il loathsoms; make It loathsome. vir-
tue IL beautiful; make It beautiful.
It would work . vast Improvement
Il all our papers-religious political.
literary-should for the most part drop
their impersonality. This would do
better Justice to newspaper writera
Many Of the strongest and best writ
ers of this country live and die UNI
known. and are denied their just
fame. The vast public never learns
who they arc. Most Of them are
on comparatively small income,
and after awhile their hand for.
gets it, cunning, and they are
without resources, left to die. Why
not. ut least, have his initial attached
to his most important workf It always
gave additional force to the article
when you occasionally saw added to
some significant article in the old New
York Courier and Enquirer ]. W.
W., or in the Tribune II. g., or in
tho Herald ]. G. B.. or In the Times H.
J. R., or in the Evening Post
w. G. b., or in the Even
ing Express Z. B. While this
arrangement would be fair
and just thing for newspaper writer's,
It would be q defense for the public.
It is sometimes true that things dam
aging to private character are said.
Who IL responsible? 1t is the I'VE" OF
the editorial or reportorial columns.
Every man in every profession or oc-
cupation ought to be responsible for
what he does. No honorable man
will ever write that which he
would be afraid to sign. But
thousands Of persons have suf-
fered from the impersonality of
newspapers. What can one private
citizen, wronged in his reputation, do
In q contest with misrepr esentation
multiplied into 10000 or SC, 1000 copies?
An injustice done in print is illimitably
worse than an injustice done In pri-
vate life. During loss Of temper .
man may say that for which no
will be sorry in ten minutes;
but . newspaper injustice has hrse
to be written. set mp In type.
then the proof taken on and read
and corrected, and then for ssr>> ten
hours the presses are busy running OF
the issue. Plenty Of time to correct.
Plenty Of time to cool on. Plenty of
time to repent. But all that's hidden
in the impersonslity of . newspaper.
1t will be long step forward when all
is changed, and newspaper writer's get
credit for the good and are held ~
sponsible for the evil.
Another blessing of the newspaper
Is the foundation It lays for accurate
history of the time in which we live.
We for the most part blindly guess
about the ages that ante-date the
newspaper, and are dependent upon
the prejudices Of this or thaS
historian. But after 100 or zoo
years what q splendid opportunity
the historian will have to teach |
the people the lesson of this day. Our
Bancrofts got from the early newspa- |
pers Of this country, from the Boston
Newsletter, the New York Gazette
and the American Rag Bag and Royal
Gazetteer and Independent Chronicle,
and Massachusetts, Spy" and the Phil
adelphia Aurora, accounts Of Perry's
Victory, and Hamilton's duel,
and Washingtons death, and
Boston massacre, and the oppressive
foreign tax on luxuries which turned
Boston harbor into teapot, and Paul |
Revere's midnight ride, and Rhode |
Island rebellion, and South Caro-
lima notification. But what field
for the chronicler of the great
future when he opens the files
of hundred standard Ameri- |
can newspapers, giving the minutim of |
all things occurring under the social.
political, ecclesiastical, international |
headings! Five hundred years from |
now, II tho world lasts 20 long, the stu |
dent looking for stirring. decisive his
tory will pass by tho misty corridors |
of other centuries and say to the |
libraries: Find me the volume that |
give the century in which the Ameri-
can presidents were assassinated, tho
civil war enacted, and the cotton gin,
the steam locomotive, and telegraph,
and electric pen, and telephone, and
cylinder presses were invented"
Once more 1 remark, that . good
newspaper is blessing ~ an evan
gelistic influence. You know there is /
great change in our day taking
place. All the secular newspapers
of the day-for 1 am not speaking
now of the religious newspapers
all the secular newspapers of the
day discuss all the questions of God,
eternity, and the dead, and all the
questions of the past, present and
future. There is not a single doctrine
Of theology but has been discussed In
the last ten years by the secular news
papers of the country. They gather
up all the news of the earth
bearing on religious subjects, and then
they scatter the news abroad again. |
The Christian newspaper will be the
right wing of the apocalyptic angel
The cylinder Of the ChTistianized
printing press will be the front
wheel of the Lords chariot. take
the music of this day, and do not
mark it diminuendo-I mark il cre-
scendo. A pastor on Sabbath
breaches to . few hundred, or few
thousand people, and on Monday, or
during the week, the printing press
will take the same sermon and
preach it to millions Of people.
God speed the printing pressi
God save the printing press! God
Christianize the printing press!
When see the printing press stand
ing with the electric telegraph ON tho
one side gathering up material, and
the lightning express train on tho
other side waiting for the tons Of
folded sheets Of newspapers, l pro-
nounce it the mightiest force in our
So I commend you to
pray for all those who man.
age the newspapers of the land.
for all typesetters, for all re-
porters, for all editors, for all publish
ers, that, sitting or standing in posi-.