Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1879 — The Word “Boom.” [ARTICLE]

The Word “Boom.”

The power of the press has never been more beautifully illustrated than in the recent history of the word “ boom.” It was always a good, sonorous word, but its latent possibilities have only recently been discovered. As applied to the booming of a cannon or of rushing waters, it is euphonious and expressive, but it was left for the press to develop its general adaptation to human affairs, and its special significance in a political sense. The word was first applied to the Grant move - ment, which, on account of its sudden, rushing character, was aptly termed a boom. The papers took it up somewhat cautiously at first, on account of its slangy aspect, but gradually the word was taken into favor, until all the papers were talking about the Grant boom. Its use by the press made it popular, and the people adopted it. Then there came the Sherman boom, the Blaine boom, the Tilden boom, and many others. Nearly every public man had a boom, oi wanted one. From politics the word passed into general use, and we had the business boom, the wheat boom, the iron boom, etc. A business man remarked yesterday: “Nearly everything has had a boom except soap, and I am looking for a soap boom every day.” A year ago the

word was hardly known; now it is in universal use, and one almost wonders how we ever got along without it. All this has been accomplished by a free and untrammeled press. Great as the innate capabilities of the word are, they might have lain dormant hundreds of years longer, as they had already lain hundreds of years, it the press, with its mighty power of dissemination, had not taken it np and sent it booming through the land.