Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/238

 rmed; whose

minds are ductile and open to new impressions, and whose intellectual characters he, in some measure, moulds. He becomes the thinker, in fact, for a vast number of his fellow-beings. His mind transfuses itself through many bodies. His station renders him, not an individual, but a host; not one, but legion. Is this not a vocation of inherent dignity? to address, daily, myriads of men, not in words that fall on cold and inattentive ears, and are scarce heard, to be immediately forgotten; but in language clothed with all that undefinable influence which typog- raphy possesses over oral communication, and claiming attention not in the hurry of business, or amidst the distractions of a crowded assemblage, but when the thoughts have leisure to concentrate them- selves upon it, and follow the writer in all the windings of his argument. If the censures were well founded which are lavished on "The vile penny press," as some of the larger papers are prone to term their cheaper rivals, they should but provoke minds governed by right prin- ciples to a more earnest endeavour to reform the character of an instru- ment, which must be powerful, either for evil or for good. That they are so vile we do not admit. We have found, ourselves, honourable and courteous antagonists among them; and if those who apply to them the harshest epithets, would treat them instead, with respectful con- sideration, copying from their columns as readily as from those of other journals, when intrinsic circumstances presented no particular motive of preference, and contesting their errors of opinion on terms of equal controversy, they would do far more towards raising the character and increasing the usefulness of that important branch of popular literature, than general and sweeping condemnation can possibly do to degrade it. For ourselves, professing that our main object is to promote the cause of truth in politics and morals, we should consider ourselves acting with palpable inconsistency, if we were governed, in any degree, by so narrow a principle of exclusion as that which our correspondent re- commends. That newspaper best consults its real dignity which never loses sight of the dignity of truth, nor avoids any opportunity of ex- tending its influence.

SUCCESS OF NEW PRESS

Not all of the six-penny newspapers, however, were so chari- table toward their younger brethren found in the penny press. They resented the strenuous competition which they must meet in the gathering and selling of news. The aristocrats of the day thought that the newspaper was their especial property and should be published for them exclusively. It was something of an honor before the establishment of the penny press to be a newspaper subscriber; it was somewhat similar to having a piano