The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-03-17
TALMAGE ON
NEWSPAPERS.
GOOD AND BAD NEWSPAPERS.
Trials in Newspaper Life.
II.

Following is another instalment OF
Dr. Talmage's great sermon on news
papers, delivered Sunday. Feb. 81:
There are only two kinds of news
papers-the one good, very good the
other, bad, very bad. A newspaper
may be started with an undecided
character, but after it has been going
on for years everybody finds out just
what 1t is, and it Is very good or 1t Is
very bad. The one paper is the en-
bodiment of news, the ally OF virtue,
the foe of crime, the delectation OF ele-
waited taste, the mightiest agency on
earth for making the world better. The
other paper is brigand among moral
forces, it is beslimer of reputation, 1t
Is the right arm of death and hell, it is
the mightiest agency in the universe
tor making the world worse and bat
Ting against the cause OF God-the one
an angel OF intelligence and mercy, the
other fiend of darkness. Between
this archangel and this fury is to be
fought the great battle which is to
decide the fate of the world. If you
have any doubt as to which is to- be
victor, ask the prophecies, ask God.
The chief batteries with which he
would vindicate the right and thunder
down the wrong are now unlimbered.
The great Armageddon OF the nations
is not to be fought with swords, but
with steel pens not with bullets, but
with type; not with cannon, but with
lightning perfecting presses, and the
Sumters and Moultries and the Pulas-
kls and the Gibraltars of that conflict
will be the editorial and reportorial
~rooms of our great newspaper establish
ments. Men of the press, God has put
a more stupendous responsibility upon
you than upon any other class OF per-
sons. What long strides your probes
sion has made in influence and power
since the day when Peter Shelter in
vented cast metal type, and because
two books were found just alike they
were ascrlbed to the work of the devil,
and books we're printed on strips of
bamboo, and Rev. Jesse Glover origi-
mated the first American printing press,
and the common council of New York
in solemn resolution offered 5000 to any
printer VINO would come there and live,
and when the speaker of the house OF
parliament in England announced with
indignation that the public prints had
recognized some of their doings, until
in this day, when we have in this coun-
try many thousands of skilled steno-
graphers and newspapers sending out
copies by the billion. The press and
the telegraph have gone down Into the
same great harvest field to reap, and
the telegraph says to the newspaper,
"I1l rake while you bind" and the iron
teeth of the telegraph are set down at
one end of the harvest field and drawn
clean across, and the newspapers
gather up the sheayes, setting down
one sheaf on the breakfast table in the
shape OF morning newspaper and put
ting down another sheaf on the tea
table in the shape of an evening newspa-
per, and that man who neither reads nor
takes newspaper would be curiosity
What vast progress since the days
when Cardinal Wolsey declared that
either the printing press must 60 down
or the church of God must go down to
this time, when the printing press and
the pulpit are in hundreds of glorious
combinations and alliances
TRIALS OF NEWSPAPER WORK.
One of the great trials of this news
paper profession is the fact that they
are compelled to see more of the shams
OF the world than any other profession.
Through every newspaper Office, day
by day, go the weakness of the world,
the vanities that want to be pulled, the
revenges that want to be wrecked, all
the mistakes that want to be corrected,
all the dull speakers who want to be
thought eloquent, all the meanness
that wants to get Its wares noticed
gratis in the editorial columns in order
to save the tax of the advertising col
umn. all the men who want to be set
right who never were right, all the
crack Drained philosophers, with story
as long as their hair and as gloomy as
their finger nails, all the itlnerant
bores who come to stay five minutes
and stop an hour. From the editorial
and reportorial rooms all the follies
and shams OF the world are seen day
by day, and the temptation Is to be-
lieye neither in God, man, nor woman.
It is no surprise to me that in your
profession there are some skeptical
men. ] only wonder that you believe
anything. Unless an editor or a re-
porter has In his present or In his
early home model of earnest char
actar or he throw himself unon tho un-