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The Press & Public Schools

The press, the great luminary of liberty, is the handmaid of progress. It heralds its doings and makes known its discoveries. It's advance courier, whose coming is eagerly looked for and whose arrival is hailed with joy, as it brings tidings of its latest achievements. The press prepares the way and calls mankind to witness the approaching procession of the triumphal car of progress as it passes on down through the vale of the future. When the car of progress stops the press will cease and the intellectual and mental world will go down in darkness. The press is progress, and progress the press. So intimately are they related, and their interests interwoven, that one cannot exist without the other. Progress made no advancement against the strong tides of ignorance and vice in the barbaric past, until it called to its aid the press. In it is found its greatest discovery, its most valuable aid and the true philosopher's stone. The history of this great discovery dates back to the fifteenth century. Its discovery and subsequent utility resulted from the following causes in the following manner: Laurentins Coster, a native of Haerlem, Holland, while rambling through the forest contiguous to his native city, carved some letters on the bark of a birch tree. Drowsy from the relaxation of a holiday, he wrapped his carvings in a piece of paper and lay down to sleep. While men sleep progress moves, and Coster awoke to discover a phenomenon, to him simple, strange and suggestive. Dampened by the atmospheric moisture, the paper wrapped about his handiwork had taken an impression from them, and the surprised burgher saw on the paper an inverted image of what he had engraved on the bark. The phenomenon was suggestive, because it led to experiments that resulted in establishing a printing office, the first of its kind in the old Dutch town. In this office John Gutenburg served a faithful and appreciative apprenticeship, and from it, at the death of his master, absconding during a Christmas festival, taking with him a considerable portion of the type and apparatus. Gutenburg settled in Mentz, where he won the friendship and partnership of John Faust, a man of sufficient means to place the enterprise on a secure financial basis. Several years later the partnership was dissolved because of a misunderstanding. Gutenburg then formed a partnership with a younger brother who had set up an office at Strasburg, but had not been successful, and becoming involved in lawsuits, had fled from that city to join his brother at Mentz. These brothers were the first to use metal types. Faust, after his dissolution with Gutenburg, took into partnership Peter Schoeffer, his servant, and a most ingenious printer. Schoeffer privately cut matrices for the whole alphabet. Faust was so pleased that he gave Schoeffer his only daughter in marriage. These are the great names in the early history of printing, and each is worthy of special honor. Coster's discovery of wood blocks or plates, on which the page to be printed was engraved, was made some time between 1440 and 1450, and Schoeffer's improvement -casting the type by means of matrices-was made about 1456. For a long time printing was dependent upon most clumsy apparatus. The earliest press had a contrivance for running the forms under the point of pressure by means of a screw. When the pressure was applied the screw was loosened, the form withdrawn and the sheet removed. Improvements were made upon these crude beginnings from time to time until the hand-press now in use is a model of simplicity, durability and execution. In 1844, steam was first applied to cylinder presses by Frederick Kong, a Saxon genius, and the subsequent progress of steam printing has been so remarkable as to almost justify a belief in its absolute perfection. Indeed, to appreciate the improvement in presses alone, one ought to be privileged to stand awhile by the pressman who operated the clumsy machine of Gutenburg, and then he should step into one of the well-appointed modern printing offices of our larger cities where he could notice the roll of dampened paper entering the great power presses, a continuous sheet, and issuing there from as newspapers, ready for the carrier or express. The Romans, in the times of the emperors, had periodicals, notices of passing events, compiled and distributed. These daily events were the newspapers of that age. In 1536, the first newspaper of modern times was issued at Venice, but governmental bigotry compelled its circulation in manuscript form.

In 1663, the Public Intelligencer was published in London, and is credited with being the first English paper to attempt the dissemination of general information. The first American newspaper was the Boston News-Letter, whose first issue was made April 24, 1704. It was a half-sheet, twelve inches by eight, with two columns to the page. John Campbell, the postmaster, was the publisher. The December 21, 1719, and at Philadelphia, December Boston Gazette made its first appearance the American Weekly, 1776, the number of newspapers published 22, 1719. in the colonies was 37; to 852, and at the present time in 1828 the number had increased not less than 2,000 newspapers are supported by our people. Journalism for, by which is meant the compiling of passing public events, instructive, the purpose of making them more generally known and Experience has been its only school has become a powerful educator. for special training, its only text for study, It is scarcely a profession, but is advancing rapidly toward its only test for theory. A distinct department of literature Great editors are writing autobiographies that has been assigned to it. and formulating their methods and opinions; historians are rescuing from oblivion every-day life of deceased journalists; the reprints of interviews with famous journalists, touching the different phases of their profession, are deemed worthy of publication in book form. have contemplated the inauguration designed to fit men and women Leading universities of courses of study specially for the duties of the newspaper These innovations are not untimely, since no other class More than any sanctum of men are so powerful for good or ill as editors other class they form public opinion while expressing it, for most  Even statesmen, not unfrequently get their best men but echo the sentiments of favorite journalists. ministers and learned professors thoughts and ideas from the papers they 

The first newspaper published in Monroe county was the Missouri Sentinel. It was established in 1840, by Lucien J. Estill, who continued its publication until 1843, when it was purchased by James Bean and John Adams, who changed the name Paris Mercury, the name it bears to-day. In 1844 the paper was owned and edited by John Adams and J. R. Abernathy. In 1845 J. R. Abernathy became the sole proprietor. In 1848 it passed into the hands of Abernathy & Davis, and in 1851 James M. Bean and A. G. Mason purchased it and ran it until 1874 as partners. On January 24, 1875, in order to release Mr. Bean's  interest when Mr. Bean died. The paper was sold, and William. L. Smiley purchased one-third interest, which was Bean's share. After twelve months, Thomas P. bought out Smiley, and at the end of five years Joseph Burnett sold his interest to Bashaw. The paper is now owned, edited and controlled by A. G. Mason and Joseph Burnett. The Mercury, reaching back almost contemporaneously organization of the county, has been an important factor in the building with the lip of the material interests of the county- in making its location and advantages known - and by its advocacy of such measures and principles as always tended to the best interest of the people. The Monroe Appeal was established in Monroe City by M. C. Brown and H. A. Buchanan, October 8, 1865, the date of its first issue. It afterwards passed into the hands of R. B. Bristow, and was burned, while in his possession, May 6, 1872. It was re-established by M. C. Brown and J. B. Reavis on the 26th of the same month. B. F. Blanton having secured a half interest, the paper was moved to Paris on the 22d of August, 1873. It was conducted by Blanton & Reavis for a short time. On the 17th day of October, 1873, E. M. Anderson purchased the interest of Mr. Reavis. The News was established in Monroe City by Samuel H. Hallock, January 14, 1875. He ran it three years and sold to Peirsol and Chandler, who, after six mnonths, sold to G. W. Johnson, who continued the publication of the paper for two and a half years, when Mr. Hallock again purchased it. Mr. Hallock is now the sole editor and proprietor. The News is Democratic in politics. Monroe County Democrat was started by R. H. Womack, the first issue of the paper appearing August 16, 1882. Mr. Womack sold the paper to Prof. T. Wright & Bro. in April, 1883, and they sold to P. S. Jakobe July 24, 1884.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The schools of the county are sharing with the contents of the newsboy's bundle 'the title of the universities of the poor. The close observation of the working of the public schools shows that if the induction of facts be complete, it could be demonstrated that the public schools turn out more men and women better fitted for business and usefulness than most of our colleges. The freedom and liberty of the public schools afford less room for the growth of effeminacy and pedantry; it educates the youth among the people, and not among a caste or class, and since the man or woman is called upon to do with a nation in which people are the only factors, the education which the public schools afford, especially when they are of the superior standard reached in this country, fit their recipients for a sphere of usefulness nearer the public heart than can be obtained by private schools and academies. The crowning glory of American institutions is the public school system ; nothing else among American institutions is intensely American. They are the colleges of democracy, and if this government is to remain a republic, governed by statesmen, it must be from the public schools they must be graduated. The amount of practical knowledge that the masses here receive is important beyond measure, and forms the chief factor in the problem of material prosperity; but it is not so much the practical knowledge, which it is the ostensible mission of the public schools to impart, that makes the system the sheet anchor of our hopes. It is rather the silent, social influence which the common schools incidentally exert. It is claimed for our country that it is a land of social equality, where all have an equal chance in the race for life; and yet there are many things which give the lie to this boasted claim of aristocracy of manhood. Our churches are open to all, but it is clear that the best pews are occupied by the men of wealth and influence. The sightless goddess extends the scales of justice to all, but it will usually appear that there is - money in the descending beam. It requires money to run for office, or at least it takes money to get office. The first appearance of the American citizen of to-day, however, is in the public schools. If it is a rich man's son, his class-mate is the son of poverty. The seat which the one occupies is no better than that occupied by the other, and when the two are called to the blackboard, the fine clothes of the rich man's son do not keep him from going down, provided he be a drone, neither do the patches on the clothes of the poor man's son keep him down, provided he has the genius and the application to make him rise. The pampered child of fortune may purchase a diploma at many of the select schools of the land, but at the public schools it is genius and and application that win. That State or nation which reaches out this helping hand to the children of want, will not lack for defenders in the time of danger, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually expended for the common education of children is but money loaned to the children, which they will pay back with compound interest when grown to manhood. In a common unassuming way our schools inculcate lessons of common honesty. The boy hears his father make promises and sees him break them. Mr. Jones is promised $20 on Monday; he calls on Monday and again on Tuesday, and finally gets the $20 on Saturday. The boy goes with his father to church, and frequently gets there after the first prayer. In vain does that father teach his boy lessons of common honesty, when the boy knows that the father disappointed Jones, and never reaches the church in time. The boy soon learns at the public school that punctuality and promptness are cardinal virtues; that to be tardy is to get a little black mark, and to absent a day is to get a big black mark. A public school ill which punctuality and promptness are  impartially and fearlessly enforced, is a most potent conservator of public morals. It has been often said that the State of Missouri has not only been indifferent to the subject of education, but that she has been hostile to the cause of common schools. To prove that these are gross misrepresentations, and that her attitude towards an interest so vital and popular does not admit of any question, it is only necessary to say that the constitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875 make this subject of primary importance and guard the public school funds with zealous care. The fact is, the constitution of no State contains more liberal and enlightened provisions relative to popular education, than the Constitution of Missouri, adopted in 1875. During the past sixty-two years of her existence not a solitary line can be found upon her statute books, inimical to the cause of education. No political party in all her history has ever arrayed itself against free schools, and her Governors, each and all, from 1824 to the present time (1884), have been earnest advocates of a broad and liberal system of education. As early as 1839 the State established a general school law and system. In 1853 one-fourth of her annual revenue was dedicated to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely for this cause as the people of any other State. With the single exception of Indiana, she surpasses every other State in the Union in the amount of her available and productive permanent school funds; the productive school fund of Indiana being $9,065,254.73, while that of Missouri is $8,950,805.71, the State of North Carolina ranking third. The State of Indiana levies a tax for school purposes of sixteen cents on the $100 of taxable value, and does not permit a local tax exceeding twenty-five cents on that amount. The State of Missouri levies a tax of five cents and permits a local tax of forty cents without a vote of the people, or sixty-five cents in the county districts and $1 in cities and towns, by a majority vote of the tax-payers voting. For the year ending in April, 1880, only two counties in the State reported a less rate of local taxation than the maximum allowed in Indiana, only one the amount of that maximum, and the average rate of all the counties reported was about thirty-nine cents, or fourteen cents more than the possible rate of that State. It may not be known that Missouri has a greater number of school-houses than Massachusetts, yet such is the fact. The amount she expends annually for public education is nearly double the rate on the amount of her assessed valuation, that the amount expended by the latter State is on her valuation; while the public school funds of Missouri exceed those of Massachusetts $5,405,128.09. The Missouri system of education is perhaps as good as that of any other State, and is becoming more effectively enforced each succeeding year. The only great fault or lack in the laws in reference to common schools is the want of executive agency within the county. The State department should have positive and unequivocal supervision over the county superintendent, and the county superintendent should have control over the school interests of the county under the direction of the State superintendent. When this is done the people of the State will reap the full benefits that should accrue to them from the already admirable system of free schools which are now in successful operation throughout the State. 

The public schools of Monroe county were organized soon after the close of the Civil War. At first a prejudice existed in the minds of the people, generally, against the public school system, but as time passed and the practical utility and great benefits arising there from were fairly demonstrated, this prejudice gradually subsided, and now the public schools are regarded with great favor by all.  From a few straggling log-cabin school-houses, which were poorly supplied and equipped with conveniences for instruction, and liberally patronized, the number has increased to 108, many of which are first-class in appearance and appointments and all are neat and comfortable and during the school year are filled with as bright and intelligent a class of pupils as cal be found anywhere. One hundred and twenty-five teachers are employed to take charge of these schools. Fifty of these are males and sixty-five are females. The males receive a salary of $42 a month, and females $32. There are in the county, according to the enumeration for 1884, 2,992 white male children, 1,323 colored male children, 2,728 white female children and 304 colored female children, making a total of 6,347.

The county has a magnificent school fund which is exceeded in amount by only five counties in the State. The school fund now reaches the sum of $110,062.92. During the year 1883 there was paid to teachers the sum of $27,639.17; for repairs and rents, $1,326.35, and for erection of school-houses, $1,789.85. The schools are under the excellent management and superintendence of Prof. Lewis, who brings to the work many years of experience and, being energetic and thoroughly qualified, the public schools through his instrumentality have attained a degree of excellence of which the people of the county may well feel proud.