The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-04-03

without newspapers or newspaper
without q government, should prefe
the latter" Stung by some base fat
rication coming to us in print, W
come to write or speak OF tn
unbridled printing press; or, on
new book ground up by an unJus
critic, we come to write or speak O
the unfairness of the printing press
or, perhaps, through our own indis
tinctness of utterance. we are reporte'
as saying just the opposite of what w
did say, and there is small riot OF semi
colons, hyphens and commas, and W.
came to speak or write of the blunder
ing printing press; or, seeing a papel
| filled with divorce cases or social scan
dial, we speak and write Of the filthy
printing press; or, seeing journal
through bribery, wheel round from ont
political side to the other in one night,
we speak Of the corrupt printing press,
and many talk about the lampoonery,
and the empiricism, and the sans-cou'
lotteism Of the printing press.
But discourse now on subject you
haveanever heard-the Unreasonable
and everlasting blessing of a good
newspaper. Thank God for the wheel
full of eyes. Thank God that we do
not have-like the Athenians-to 20
about to gather up and relate the It'd
ings Of the day, since the omnivorous
newspaper does both for us. The
grandest temporal blessing that God
has given to the nineteenth century is
the newspaper. We would have bet
ter appreciation of this blessing II
we knew the money, the brain, the
losses, the exasperations, the ankle
ties, the wear and tear Of heartstrings
involved in the production OF good
newspaper. Under the impression that
almost anybody can make newspa-
per, scores of inexperienced capitalists
every year enter the lists, and, conse-
quently, during the last few years, a
has died almost every day.
The disease is epidemic. The large
papers 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 Canadas, they are but
thirty-six half century old. News
papers do not average more than five
years existence. b The most Of them
die of cholera infantum. It is high
time that the people found out that
the most successful way to sink money
and keep it sunk is to start a newspa-
per. There comes time when almost
every one is smitten with the newspa-
per mania, and starts one, or have
stock in one he must or die.
To publish newspaper requires the
skill, the precision, the holiness, the
vigilance, the strategy Of command
,r-in-chief, To edit a newspaper re-
luires that one be a statesman, an
sssayist, a geographer, a statistician,
md, in acquisition, encyclopedia.
70 man, to govern, to propel news
PAPER until it shall be fixed institu-
ion, national fact, demand more
qualities than any business on earth.
+ you feel like starting any newspa-
yer, secular or religious, understand
hat you are being threatened with soft
ming Of the brain or lunacy and throw
ng your pocketbook into your wife's |
ap, start for some insane asylum be- |
ore you do something desperate.
deanwhile, as the dead newspapers,
week by week, are carried out to the |
'urial, all the living newspapers give
obituary, telling when they |
we're born and when they died. The |
'est printers ink should give at least |
ne stickful of epitaph. If it was a
God paper, say, peace to it's ashes"
it was bad paper, suggest the
pitaph written for Francis Chart
euse Here continueth to rot the
ody of Francis Chartreuse, who, with
n inhexible constancy and uniformity |
t life, persisted in the practice of every |
uman vice, except prodigality and |
his Unsuitable avarice ex-
mpted him from the first, his match
,ss impudence from the second" 1
ay this because want you to know
hat good, healthy, long-lived, enter
aiming newspaper is not an easy bless
lg, but one that comes to us through |
he fire.
Again, good newspaper is a useful
mirror of life as it is. 1t is sometimes
that newspapers report the
vii when they ought only to report
he good. They must report the evil |
Is well as the good, or how shall we
snow what is to be reformed, what |
against, what fought down?
newspaper that pictures only the
Ionesty and virtue of society is mis-
representation. That family is best
for the duties of life
which, knowing the evil. is taught
o select the good. Keep children
nder the impression that all is fair
nd right in the world, and when they
o out into it they will be as poorly |