The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-05-02

fcportorial professions l know men
may tumble by what seems acci-
dent into = newspaper Office as
they may tumble into other occupa-
tions; but IL would be al incalculable
advantage If those proposing news
paper life had an institution to which
they might go to learn the qualifica.
lions, the responsibilities, the trials.
the temptations, the dangers, the mag.
nificent opportunities of newspaper
life. Let there be lectureship in
which there shall appear the leading
editors of the United States, telling
the story of their struggles, their
victories, their mistakes, how
they worked and what they
found out TO be the best way OF work
ing. There will be strong men who
viii climb up without such aid into
editorial power and efficiency. So do
men climb up to success in other
branches by sheer grit. But ii we
want learned institutions to make
lawyers and artists and doctors
and ministers, we much more
need learned institutions to make
editors, who occupy a position OF in
| fluencea hundredfold greater. l do not
put the truth too strongly when say
the most potent influence for good on
earth is a good editor; and the most
potent influence for bad is bad one.
The best way to reinf0rce and Inn
prove the newspaper is to endow
editorial professorships. When will
Princeton, OF Harvard; or Yale, or
Rochester lead the way?
| Another blessing of the newspaper
is the foundation it lays for accurate
history of the time in which we live.
I'VE for the most part blindly guess
about the ages that ante-date the
newspaper, and are dependent upon
the prejudices of this or that
historian. But after 100 or 200
years what a 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, tile 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, Washingtoh's death, and
Boston massacre, and the oppressive
| foreign tax on luxuries which turned
Boston harbor into a teapot, and Paul
Revere's midnight ride. and Rhode
Island rebellion, and South Caro-
lima notification. But what a field
fuf the cl1ronicler of the great
future when he opens the files
of hundred standard Ameri:
can newspapers, giving the minutia OF
all things occurring under the social,
political, ecclesiastical, international
headings! Five hundred. years from
now, if the world lasts SO long, Gle ssu'
dent looking for stirring, decisive his
tory will pass by the misty corridors
of other centuries and SAY to the
Libraries: .iFi1d me the volume that
give the century in which the Afieri'
can presidents were assassinated, the
civil war enacted, and the cotton gin.
the steam locomotive, and telegraph,
and electric pen, and telephone, and
cylinder presses were invented"
Once more l remark, that good
newspaper is blessing as an evan
1elistic influence. You know there is
great change Ia out as. taking
place. All the secular newspapers
of the day-for / 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 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 ths
right wing of the apocalyptic angel
The cylinder of the Ghristianized
printing press will be the front
wheel of the Lords chariot. / take
the music of this day, and l do mo-
mark it diminuendo-I mark 1t ere
scendo. A pastor on a Sabbath
breaches to a few hundred, or few
. thousand people, and on Monday, o.
during the week; the printing pres
will take the same sermon an,
preach it to millions of people
God speed the printing press
| God save the printing press! Coz
Christianize the printing press!
, When / see the printing press stand
ing with the electric telegraph on tn
, one side gathering up material. ant
5 the lightning express train on tn
| other side waiting for the tons o
folded sheets of newspapers, | pre-
; nounce it the mightiest force in on
, civilization. So l commend you t
, pray for all those who man
age the newspapers of the land
for oil typesetters, for all re
portefs, for all editors, for all publish
1 ers, that, sitting or standing In pos
: tions of such great influence, the.
| may give all that influence for 60
' and the betterment of the human race
: An aged woman making her living b
$ knitting, unwound the yarn from tn
E ball until she found in the center Q
: the ball there was an old piece Q
!. newspaper. She opened 1t and read a
/ advertisement which announced tina
s she had become heiress to large PROF
$ erty, and that fragment of newspa
+ per lifted her from pauperism to anu
a epce. And do not know but as tn