Mightier Than the Pom-pom.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue XII, 21 September 1901, Page 537

Mightier Than the Pom-pom.

The capture of ex-I’resident Steyn’s printing press at Fauriesberg must count for more than the taking of many pom-poms mid waggons of ammunition, for it has certainly been much more productive of harm than any engine of war in the Boer ranks. Probably a worn out font of type and an antiquated Minerva press comprised the wholeextent of that printing establishment, but one feels safe in saying that never in the annals of the gutter press of any country was there ever printed by any machine the same amount, of unadulterated lies as has issued from that press. I think I can see it grown shaky in the service of falsehood, with its battered types, which have spelt out treason in every conceivable form. In a way it was almost a pity that the British should have destroyed it, as the cable says they did. Surely it would havb been on object of much greater interest than the captured guns, which will adorn the cities of the Empire when the struggle is over and done. Yet you can understand how our men, regarding it as an instrument of the devil, which it no doubt was, thought best to wreathe it in guncotton and blow it to the moon. With its disappearance Steyn has lost his most useful ally, presuming he has no other printing contrivance to take its place. No longer can he sow falsehood on every wind and exhort the burgher wavering towards surrender to continue the hopeless fight. No hand that ever wielded pen can do what the press did in the way of disseminating treason. The pen may be might-

ier than the sword, but tn thia instance it would be a poor mechanical substitute for the printing press; and did Steyn and his friends renounce the lethal weapon for the moment and scribble proclamations till their flngers were palsied they could never make good their loss. What written document could exercise the same influence on the burghers as the little leaflet which proclaimed in all the black strength of broad capitals that there could be no peace without independence. The Chinese, we are told, have such a reverence for the written word that men are employed going round the streets to pick up all the waste pieces of paper on which any characters have been written. There is among ignorant people something of the same regard for printed matter. Tell a man anything and he may doubt you. Write it to him and he may still question the correctness of your statement. Show it him In print and he accepts it at once. Even we in these days who cannot open our eyes without encountering printed matter, we who are accustomed from our cradles to the morning and evening newspapers, have we lost our respect for print? We may pretend we have, but it is only pretence. What, then, must it lie in the case of the untaught burgher, who, having no book, in many cases, but his Bible, was wont to attribute to any printed document some of the infallibility of Holy Writ. And I fancy that it was much more from the secular than the sacred source that he drew justification for the struggle and hope in the issue. Deprived of the first, the chances are that he will act as mercy and common sense and his own interest all prompt him to do. o o o o o