Page 54 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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SAN ANTONIO-HER TRADE,

laws were enacted regulating the privileges, people were prosecuted for
having in their possession copies of what a despotic rule would call "in-
cendiary sheets."
Literature, when placed before the eyes of enlightened classes, has
never failed to wield an influence. It has the effect of teachings from the
mother to the child. It has had its derogatory effects, it has brought
misery and destitution upon thousands of communities and homes, has
caused the guilotine to do its savage work for one free expression. But
those days have passed; liberty has shone in resplendent colors upon the
minds of nearly all crowned heads; the work of the press has been enfran-
chised, and to-day looks upon the prosperity and enlightenment of the
world's people. All is due to the work of the press, and the consequent
actions of those following the dictates of wise heads, who have sent their
injunctions and advice through its columns to an enlightened and progres-
sive race.
Statistics relative to the present standing of the world's medium for
free thought and expression would be trebly interesting, but we must con-
fine the rest of this article to its status in our own city. The outer world
judges us by our own interchange of local thought, and, looking at the re-
sult, forms. its own opinions; which, in the present instance, cannot be
but complimentary. The discussions in newspapers, as a rule, are greatly
confined to national subjects—politics, in other words—and, of course,
local sheets espouse local causes. But, aside from that, let us look at the
ability with which our papers are conducted, the good they do and have
done, the intelligence of our community shown in the ample and strong
patronage of journalism, and "last but not least," the
STATUS OF SAN ANTONIO'S PRESS.
Our city upholds four daily papers, namely: The San Antonio Ex-
press, The San Antonio Daily Light, The San Antonio Times, and The
Freie Presse Fuer Texas, the latter being a German sheet. The month-
lies are: The Texas School Journal, The Southwest and The Church
Record. The Spanish medium is El Centinella, a semi-weekly. The
Texas Stockman, devoted entirely to stock interests, is a weekly.
The Express was incorporated in 1866, and had its trials, its struggles
for existence like many other sheets of that date; but it has outlived the
many competitors which were born in the mean while, and to-day is the
largest daily published in this section of the State. Its management has
always been able and untiring in efforts to build up the city. Its success
of recent days has been phenominal, and is now •on as solid and paying
a business as any paper in the State. To the exertions of this sheet, San
Antonio owes many of the inducements that brought the railroads to her
door, and now her people do not fail to appreciate its claim upon them,
and their just title to a portion of the general prosperity.
The San Antonio Light.—We frequently hear of phenomena in all
general undertakings and, although the prosperity of our other papers