Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-09-15

not one out Of ten thousand people files
them for future reference. Such knowl-
edge, SO far from being ephemeral, goes
into the very structure of the worlds
heart and brain and decides the destiny
of churches and nations. knowledge Oh
the shelf is of little worth. 1t is knowl-
edge afoot, knowledge harnessed, knowl
edge in revolution, knowledge winged,
knowledge projected, knowledge thun-
derbolted. So far from being ephem-
eral, nearly all the best minds and hearts
have their hands on the printing press
today and have had since it got emanci-
pated. Adams and Hancock and Otis
used to go to the Boston Gazette and
compose articles on the rights of the
people. Benjamin Franklin, De Witt
Clinton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Quincy,
were strong in newspaperdom. Many of
the immortal things that have been pub
lished in book form first appeared in
what you may call the ephemeral period
ical. All Macaulay S essays first appeared
in review. All Carlyle's, all Ruskin's,
all McIntosh's, all Sydney Smiths, all
Hazlitt's, all Thackerary all the ele-
waited works of fiction i'll our day, are
reprints from periodicals i'll which
they appeared as serials. Tennyson' S
poems, Burns poems, Longfellow's
poems, Emerson's poems, Lowell's
poems, Whittier's poems, We're once
fugitive pieces You cannot find ten lit
erary men in Clristendom, with strong
minds and great hearts, but are or have
been somehow connected with the news
paper printing press. While the book
will always have its place, the newspa-
per is more potent Because the latter is
multitudinous do not conclude II Is nec-
essarily superficial If man should
from childhood to old age see only his
Bible, Websters Dictionary and his
newspaper, he could be prepared for all
the duties of this life and all the happi
ness of the next.
A Mirror of Life.
Again "a good newspaper is useful
mirror of life as it is. 1t is sometimes
complained that newspapers report the
evil when they ought only to report the
good. They must report the evil as well
as the good, or how shall we know what
is to be reformed, what guarded against,
what fought down: A newspaper that
pictures only the honesty and virtue of
society is a misrepresentation. That
family is best prepared for the duties OF
life which, knowing the evil, is taught
to select the good. Keep children under
the impression that all is fair and right
in the world and when they go out into
it they will be rs poorly prepared to
struggle with it as child who is thrown
into the middle of the Atlantic and told
to learn how to swim. Our only COM
plant is when sin is made attractive
and morality dull, when vice is painted
with great headings and good deeds are
put in obscure corners, iniquity set up in
great primer and righteousness i'll non
pareil. Sin is loathsome make it loath-
some. Virtue is beautiful; make it beau
tiful.
1t would work vast improvement If
all our papers-religious, political, lit
erary-should for the most part drop
their impersonality. This would do bet
ter justice to newspaper writers. Many
of the strongest and best writers of the
country live and die unknown and are
denied their Just fame. The vast public
never learns who they are. Most of
them are on comparatively small in
come, and after awhile their hand for
gets it cunning, and they are without
resources, left to die. Why not at least.
have his initial attached to his most i'm
portant work? 1t always gave additional
force to an article when you occasional
ly saw added to some significant article
in the old New York Courier and En-
quirer j. W. W., or in The Tribune II.
c., or in The Herald j. q. b.. or in
The Times Fl. j. R., or i'll The Evening
Post W. C. B., or in The Evening Ex-
press E, Il.
The Most Potent Influence.