Year: 1859

| xIeCisefy tudt CLASS OF papers WHICH, Dy
the manner in which they are conducted
evince the least appreciation of the true
province and responsibility of public jour.
nalism, have most to say in praise of "the
newspaper" and love to tickle their own
vanity with praises which are undeserved
only when applied to themselves. The pa
per that conscientiously aims to make itself
useful and respectable, can afford to leave
its repgtation with those who read it, and
strive to deserve instead of proclaiming that
it has one. Nevertheless, sucha paper, con-
dHcted with honest purposes, devoted to the
the best interest of the country at large, has
right to assert its claims upon the public,
and to demand patronage sufficient for its
support. 1t has right to complain, also,
if it receives but scanty reward for its SER
vices; it has right to be indignant if the
majority in community are willing to use
but not to assist it; if those who are con.
stantly benefited by its existence se16shly
abandon it to the chances of disastrous fail
ure. The assertion that a local newspaper
is of positive value to the immediate vicinity
of its publication, will not be disputed by
the very class of people limited at; yet they
will coolly pocket every advantage flowing
from it, careless whether it reaps any for it
self or not. They will literally patronize
papers from abroad and leave the one pub
lished at their doors to get along as
best it may. The resources of the section
of country in which they live and do busi-
ness are proclaimed for them, and popula-
tion attracted around them to the building
up of their fortunes and increase of their
comforts; and for this they show their graf
itude by borrowing the local paper of their
more liberal neighbor, taking it from his
very hand, oftentimes. These are the men
who are the self-elected critics of a news
paper; who nose out all its faults and blum
ders, and manifest their superior wisdom by
exposing them; who pounce upon a typo





who wonder at the ignorance of printers !;
constantly condemn the opinions or the
course of the local sheet, and issue the dread
fiat that they fancy will prove its annihila-
ton.


But there is larger class of citizens who
neglect the local paper, not from meanness,
but from thoughtlessness; who, if they sup
posed their patronage was needed, would
gladly extend it, and that right liberally.-
1t is just to this class that these remarke are
addressed. Indifference is what starves out
the local press, nine times in ten, as it
blights the noblest enterprises. There are
hundreds who are proud to see the place in
which they live become Of consequence and
acquire wide reputation; who read with
pleasure in journals published abroad, what
was originally published in their neigh
borhood; who, perhaps, even point with
pride to the home journal that effects these
things, yet never do the least thing to. insure
its vitality. They sip from it what they can
as they sip their tea or coffee, or breath the
cooling breezes of summer, without think
ing, whence they came and if some day the
village sheet is missing, they are full of Won
der at its sudden demise, and say they
"thought the printers were getting rich !"
Yet they are the very folks who kept them
poor


There is point to this brief article which,
it is to be hoped, does not need elaboration
nor application. All who believe local
press of any value, and that it cannot sub
sst as does the chameleon, will appreciate
the point at once and make their own appli-
cation.