Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-01-29

when great and momentous issues are
forced upon their attention, as they have
been during the past year, they do not
need to spend the greater part of their
time discussing political questions; and
the newspapers have responded to the
peoples thought and given the news ele-
ment predominance over politics.
We pick UP at random Il copy OF the
paper published within the year 1896. Let
us see what it contains: Departments Of
farm and home: a chapter of /, serial
story and a little miscellany: column of
state news; lists Of the births. marriages
and deaths of the county. as complete as
it is possible to make them; q small
quantity of political and general editorial
comment; three columns of selected no.
litical matter. touching the national is
sues on which the campaign then in pro-
greSS was fought; between two fnd three
columns of local paragraphs. rejecting
the busy life of the home town in all its
phases: special reports of the meetings OF
three religious and fraternal organixa-
tions; six columns of correspondence from
forty different villages and communities
of the county. giving the happenings of
each place; and a number of columns of
advertisements. which not only assist in
making the paper possible but add to its
local value by furnishing a directory of
the enterprising business concerns. Of
general news there is none. In these days
of rapid communication. when general
newspapersare almost ridiculously cheap,
the country publisher cannot attempt to
compete With ~, Them. n His field is his own.
u
True it is that among this mass of local
news matter is much that is trivial, af-
fording our brethren of the city press
frequent opportunity for the exercise of
their powers of sarcasm and ridicule. Yet
to how many OF the readers do these
trivial items appeal H as news Of neighbors
or lands read the neighborhood gossip as
a letter from fonle? We do not know
We do know that trivial though these
things may be. they are what make up
the daily life Of the community, and are
their own sufficient excuse.
We have thus traced briefly the career
of what we may consider as in the main
a typical country paper. during life of
over sixty years What changes will take
place in a like. period in the future?
Things are moving fast in this age. The
country paper Of sixty years hence may
be printed daily by some process as yet
undiscovered. and delivered to the read
ers before breakfast. by electric carriage.
news matter. Perhaps it will then pub
lish such matters of news as are now
carefully kept out OF print. or left to be
monopolized by the metropolitan papers.
prominent citizen dies. to tell the truth
and call the cause of death delrum tre-
mems, as it now IS to call it heart dis
ease. Perhaps it win get over its present
of the world by exposing the nuisances
and evils which exist in the community,
and demanding their reform. OF one
thing We may be sure: Its prime object
doing that work, and in addition to it.
it will. in the main. exert 4 powerful in
tluence for the right, and will aid in
building up and beneiiting in many ways
the community in which it exists.
After the essay came the following
bright verses. read by the author in his
a,,.,, l,la c,t, VII