Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-04-05
NEWSPAPER READING

perior person say that he rarely or never reads a newspaper. Such an ex- pression is reported to have been made by a prominent historian; a perusal of whose interesting volumes reveals the fact that in writing it he referred con stantly to the papers of that period which his work covers, and quoted them as reliable authority, for the facts he makes use of. It would seem to be worth while, then, from his point of view, to go back a century and study the columns of the comparatively trivial and minteresting journals of that time in order to learn its history, while those of today, where are found recorded of the time, are to be thrown aside as unworthy of attention and demoralizing to those who read them. Such an atti- tude is largely made up of airs and af- fectation. Men give themselves up to the study of earlier periods with the conviction that they are engaged in a most scholarly and meritorious oecupa- tion, apparently unaware that history is being lived every day, and that we are now in the midst of one of its most important and significant epochs, the making of which can be seen from day to day in the press.
 Before the telegraph, contemporary history was recorded little by little. Events taking place fifty miles away were rarely heard of for twenty-four hours, and months passed before hap penings across the sea became known. Consequently, contemporary history was learned by piecemeal. Now the whole world s doings for day are thrown on canvas the next morning by flash light picture. The main outlines can be taken in at glance, and the details mastered and eomprehended in half an hour. In one country, the other side of the world, q victory is won before our very eyes. We see the smoke of battle before it has drifted from the field, and hear it's echoing thunders before they have died away. In another we may trace every change and move bringing on political crisis, and watch the shift. ing scenes as it eliminates. Elsewhere we may follow the discussion of parlia. ment or conference, and catch every word that weighs for peace or war. Marvellous discoveries, new social de- velopments, shifting of religious beliefs, commercial changes, industrial and la bor movements, philanthropic achieve ment, educational and political revolu- tions, are woven into the record of every passing day, things of which least of all we ought to be ignorant Look. ing on we see each thread taking its place in the fadeless picture, as the loom of fate flashes back and forth around the world. History, if we use our eyes, is not a narrative of ancient deeds, moldy tale of long, dead kings and tottering ruins, but stirring chron. icle of the life we are living, vital, real and vivid, which we feel and are part of. This is the history we may study every day, and while there is, of course, much in the press that is wholly local in interest, much that is trivial and negligible, and in some pa pers good deal that is harmful, taken altogether the newspapers of the time are the greatest teachers, the most pow erful means of enlightenment and the strongest molding influence that has been known in any age of the world. He who boasts that he never reads one is boasting his own ignorance of what from every point of view he ought to know.
 What is known as the newspaper habit is, of course, to be deprecated. 1t may be carried so far as to become mental dissipation, tending to destroy the power of concentration, which is essential to intellectual growth. That should not be indulged in, but no man If our day, however busy or how much. soeyer he may pride himself on eul. ture which feeds wholly on the past, gan afford to ignore the marvellous daily record of the time in which we live.- Washington Post.