The Newspaper Habit: A Cure for 'Old-World' Stagnation
An 1877 Snohomish editorial argues that the key to becoming a 'live man' in the American West is the daily consumption of news.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
While on the other hand, the newspaper reader, in the old world or the new, is alive; he is found in the forward car of every train of enterprise, and if possible would take a seat on the cow-catcher of its locomotive. Reading of newspapers imparts vigor, vim and push to every man, and he who neglects or despises such reading will inevitably fall into the ranks of old fogyism, help swell the army of croakers, growlers and evil prophets, will always find some one ahead of them in every enterprise they may contemplate, and will be kicked, pulled, pushed and elbowed out of the way at every turn, by those who are superior in nothing save the general information that newspaper reading has given. Young man, form the habit of reading newspapers.
“Reading of newspapers imparts vigor, vim and push to every man.”
In an era of digital information overload, this 1877 plea for the 'newspaper habit' feels strangely resonant. It reflects the frontier anxiety that connection to global and regional information was the only barrier against being left behind by a rapidly modernizing, industrializing Washington.
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