THE POWER OF THE PRESS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2426, 28 January 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE POWER OF THE PRESS.

" We have grown so accustomed to newspapers," said an old soldi .: to an American reporter," that those of us living in cities fail to appreciate how necessary they are to our comfort and contentment of mind . Now , I was in the Confederate army and during our long campaigns in uhe South we rarely heard from home. A newspaper—and we saw few of them — was as welcome as a square meal to a starving man. Aa the battle of Chickamauga a detachment of Federals were posted behind Lee and Gordon's mills on the Chickamauga river opposite us. The enemy were firing npon us ,but we managed to plunge through the water and reach the bank- Just as I climbed up it I saw lying upon the ground a copy of the Louisville Journal. It was only two days old and entirely utisoiled. I stooped down in the middle of the charge, under the hottest kind of a fire, and folding up that paper put it in my pocket. We drove the Yankees ont of the mills, and after the battle was over, I sat clown and read tho paper, advertisements and all, with the most intense pleasure. It passed from one soldier to another, and they read it until it was so badly worn that the letters could no longer be deciphered."