The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-02-23
THE PRINTING PRESS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Tells What He
Thinks Of It.
The Decent Newspapers and the Pulpit
are the Worlds Strongest Forces for
Good-The Trials of Newspaper
Men Commented Upon.

'AASAA ""J AhUO UlS newspapers his
text was Nahum 2: 4: "They shall
seem like torches; they shall run like
the lightnings."
Express, rail train, and telegraphic
communication are suggested if not
foretold in this text, and from it l start
to preach a sermon in gratitude to God
and the newspaper press for the fact
that have had the opportunity of de-
livering through the newspaper press
1000 sermons or religious addresses,
30 that l have for many years been
allowed the privilege of preaching the
gospel every week to every neighbor-
hood in Christendom, and in many
lands outside of Christendom. Many
have wondered at the process by which
1t has come to pass, and for the first
time in public place l state the three
causes. Many years ago young man
who has since become eminent in his
profession, was then studying law in a
distant city. He came to me- and said
that for lack of funds he must stop his
studying, unless through stenography
l would give him sketches of sermons
that he might by the sale of them Sc
cure means for the completion of his
education. 1 positively declined, be-
cause it seemed to me an impossibility,
but after some months had passed, and
l had reflected upon the great sadness
for such a brilliant young man to be
defeated in his ambition for the legal
profession, undertook to serve him:
OF course, free of charge. Within three
weeks there came request for those
stenographic reports from many parts
of the continent. Time passed on, and
some gentlemen of my own profession
evidently thinking that there was
hardly room for them and for myself
in this continent began to assail me,
and became so violent in their assaults
that the chief newspapers of America
putspecial correspondents in my church
Sabbath by Sabbath to take down such
reply as might make. never made
reply, except once for about three min
utes, but those correspondents could
not waste their time, and so they tele-
graphed the sermons to their particu-
lar papers.
After awhile DR.. Louis Klopsch, of
New York, systematized the work into
a syndicate, until through that and
other sydicates he has put the dis
courses week by week before more
than 10000, 900 people on both sides of
the sea. There have been so many
guesses on this subject, many of them
inaccurate. that | now tell the true
story. | have not improved the oppor-
tunity as ought, but 1 feel the time
has come when as a matter of common
justice to the enewspaper press, l should
make this statement in sermon com
memorative of the two thousanth full
publication of sermons and religious
addresses, saying nothing of fragmen-
tary reports, which would run up into
many thousands more.
The newspaper is the great educator
OF the nineteenth century. There is
no force compared with it. 1t is book,
pulpit, platform, forum, all in one. And
there is not an interest-religious, lit
erary, commercial, scientific, agricul-
tural, or mechanical-that is not with
in its grasp. All our churches, and
schools, and colleges, and asylums, and
art galleries feel the quaking of the
printing press.
The institution of newspapers arose
in Italy. In Venice the first newspa-
per was published, and monthly, dur
ing the time Venice was warning
against Solyman the Second in Dalma-
ia, it was printed for the purpose of
giving military and commercial infor-
nation to the Venetians. The first
newspaper published in England was
in 1888, and called the English Mercury.
Who can estimate the political, scien-
tific, commercial and religious revolu-
lions reused up in England for many
years past by the press?
The first attempt at this institution
in France was in 1881, by physician,
who published the News, for the
amusement and health, of his patients.
The French nation understood fully
how to appreciate this power So early
rs in 1920 there were in Paris 1850 Jour
nails. But in the, United States the
newspaper has come to unlimited sway.
Though in ITS there. were, but 81. in
The whole country, the,number of pub
ishedt journals is now counted by thou /
sands, and to-day-we may as we'll ac-
knowledge it as not-the religious and
secular newspapers are the great edu-
,ators of the country. + 's''%' !'H
But alas! through what struggle the
newspaper has come to its present de-
'elopment, Just as soon as it began to 4
demonstrate it's power, superstition /
md tyranny shackled it,. There, is |
nothing that despotism so much fears
md hates as the printing press, A great
writer in the south of Europe declared
hat the king of Naples had made il
lnsafe for him to write on any subject !
ave natural history, Austria could |
lot bear Kossuth's journalistic pen
Heading for the redemption of Hun
'ary. Napoleon l., wanting to keep his
ron heel on the neck of nations, said
hat the newspaper was the regent of
'ings, and the only safe place to keep
N editor was in prison. But the great
'attle for the freedom of the press was
ought in the court rooms of England
nd the United States before this CEN
ury began, when Hamilton made his
reat speech in behalf of the freedom
4 j. Peter Zenger's Gazette in Ameri-
a, and when Erskine made his great