Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-26

newspapers in our cities-towns OF
over four hundred thousand-aggre-
gates something over eleven millions.
Inc other daily newspapers in the
country circulate more than twelve
mliiions, and the weeklies circulate
twenty millions more. and most of
these weeklies are printed in our
small country towns. We have. there
fore, newspaper circulation of nearly
thlrty-four millions outside of our
great cities. and only eleven millions
IN the great cities. At least so says
our latest census bulletin. And the
money we country editors have invest
ed is proportionately larger than that
our city brethren have invested.
But the beauty and the joy OF our
papers and their little worlds is that
we who live in the country towns
know our own heroes. Who knows
Murphy in New York? Only a few
Yet in Emporia we all know Tom
love him. Who knows
Morgan in New York? One man in a
hundred thousand. Yet in Emporia
who does not know George Newman,
our banker and merchant prince?
-D'SNSA PNopiN plIh up Jutli ulhS
papers and read with shuddering hor-
ror OF the crimes of their daily villain,
! yet read without that fine thrill that
we have when we hear that AL Lu-
dorph is in jail again in Emporia. For
we all know Al; we've ridden in his
hack score of times. And we take
up our paper with the story of his
fralltles as readers who begin the mar
rative of an old friends adventures
The society columns of our city pa
pers set down the goings and comings,
the marriage and the deaths of peo-
pie who are known only by name;
there are gowns realized only in
dreams; there are social functions
that seem staged upon distant stars.
Yet you city people read of these things
with avN1ity. But our social activities,
chronicled in our country papers, tell
of real people, whose hired girls are
sisters to our hired girls, and so we
know the secrets of their hearts. We
know a gown when it appears three
seasons in our social columns, dis
gu1sed by its trimmings and its cover
ingS, and it becomes a familiar friend |
To read of it recalls other and happier
days. And when we read of funeral
in our country newspapers, we do not
visualize 1t as a mere church fight to |
see the grand persons in their solemn
array on dress parade. A funeral no !
tice to us country readers means some |
thing human and sad Between the
formal lines that tell of the mournful |
affair we read many a tragedy; we
L ha
restitution that must come when the |
flowers are taken to the hospital; |
we know what insurance the !
dead man carried, and how it |
must be stretched to meet the !
needs. We can see the quiet lines on
each side of the walk leading from
the house of sorrow after the services |
the men on one side, the women on
the other-waiting to see the mourning |
families, and to be seen by them; we
may smile through our tears at the
uncongenlal pall-bearers and wonder |
what common ground of mirth they
Will ind to till on the way back from
the cemetery. In lists of wedding
guests in our papers we know just /
what poor kin was remembered, and |
what was snubbed. We know when
we read of a bankruptcy just which
member of the firm or family brought
1t on, by extravaganza or sloth. We
read that the wife of the hardware
merchant is in Kansas City, and we
know the feelings Of the drygoods |
merchant who reads it and sees his
own silks ignored. So when we see
new kind Of lawn mower on the drv-
goods merchants lawn, we don't blame
him much for sending to the city for
it.
Our papers, our little country pa
pers, seem drab and miserably provin-
clal to strangers; yet we who read
them read in their lines the sweet, in
innate story of life. And all these
touches of nature make US wondrous
kind. 1t is the country newspaper.
bringing together daily the threads of
the towns life, weaving them into
something rich and strange, and set
ting the pattern as it weaves, directing
the loom, and giving the cloth its color
by mixing the lives of all the people
IN It's color pOt-it is this country +
newspaper that reveals us to ourselves,
that keeps our country hearts quick
and our country minds open and our
country faith strong.
When the girl at the glove counter
marrles the boy in the wholesale house.
the news of their wedding is good for a
4O-llne wedding notice, and the 40 lines
IN the country paper give them self
respect. When in due course we know
that their baby is a 12-pounder, named
Grover or Theodore or Woodrow. we
nave that neighborly feeling that
breeds the real democracy When we
read OF death in that home we can
mourn with them that mourn. When
we see them moving upward in tho
world, into firm. and out toward the
country club nelghbOrhood, we rejoice
with them that rainina Thorofnro |