The Minneapolis journal., 1906-06-07
The Newspaper Reading Habit

T T rs not unusual to hear some one say with an
aRectation Of superiority that he never reads a
newspaper The remark is attributed TO one OF our
well-knoWn historians examination Of whose adj
mirable volumes will show that in order write them
he had been compelled to make careful study Of tho
journals Of the period Of which he treats and that he
relies upon them for many of the facts he makes
Of According to him, them it is worth while to go
back nearly hundred years, and pore the col
Of the dull and comparatively insignificant sheets
of the time in order to know and understand it's his
ory but the much comprehensive and interesting
papers OF today, rejecting and chronicng contepor
ary history much more than they did theirs
should be thrown contemptuously aside as unworthy
of attention. Many q man gives himself up to his
torca study with feeling that he is doing something
very scholarly and meritorous, who fails to realize
that we are living history every day and are in the
very midst Of Of its most fascinating and signif
cant periods and that every morning in any first
class newspaper he may see just how it is made.
In earlier days before the telegraph it was recorded
in driblets Nothing that happened than forty
miles away was heard Of the same day, and months
elapsed before events transpirng the other side
Of the globe became known. Now it is like fash
light picture. The history Of the world for twenty
four hours is thrown upon the white sheets. We
It's main outlines almost glance, and possess
ourselves Of all it's details in half hour. In one
country thousands Of miles away great battle is
Fought before our very eyes another watch the
changes leading up to apoitcal CRISIS and spread
out before us the condition and incidents that bring
1t on Somewhere else listen to the discussion 0f
an international conference and hang on every word
wonderful Inventions social movements religious
changes, vast commercial growths and industrial de-
velopments philanthrop sehenes, educational and
political revolutions are into the history Of
own tme the history which Of all others it behooves
us to know and looking we see each thread take
It's It's place in the changeless picture the loom Of
destiny flashes back and forth around the world His
tory for us, if we awake, is not narrative Of
deeds long gone BY musyt Of vanished kings and
crumbling ruins but the daily chronicle Of the life we
are living VITAL vivid and real that we feel and are
part OF. 1t is this history which the daily papers
bring us, and while there is much in them Of purely
local interest much that is trivial and negligible and
much that, perhaps is not worth the time spent in
learning what it is the press taken together is the
greatest teacher, the most powerful of enght-
enment that has been known to any age of the world
Doubtless there is such q thing as the newspaper
ha61t which comes to be form Of mental dissipation
and tends to weaken the power Of close attention and
prevent the sort Of study and concentration which
leads to intellectual growth That should be avoided
but no man Of today, however much he may be alb,
soi6ed in his occupation, or however much he may
Prlae hmsef On culture that consists chiefly in
knowledge Of bygone things afford to neglect or
oe OF the marvellous daily record that is made
Enquirer. .3}*ssS sz -