Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-01-01

writing crudities on any subject that
arises, with great rapidity and round
sentences, but these leading articles are
perhaps the very part Of thepaper OF
which the public might be deprived
with least injury; they certainly form
a very insignificant portion ofthe use
full matter Of a paper, and of The mat
ter for which the prcprietors Of the pa
per pay.
Every thing in newspaper is paid
for, either by those who insert it, as
in the case Of the advertisements, or
by the proprietors Of the paper, as in
the case Of every thing else. Even
with voluntary contributions, the pro-
prietors pay severely in the discredit
they suffer when they are weak enough
to admit them, for it is an axiom which
the experience of all periodical works
establishes beyond question, that every
unpaid contributor is an ass. We OF
course except those cases in which ne
endeayors to cheat the advertisement
duty, or plots in some other way a
gainst the revenue, or his neighbours
property. Every thing is paid for
from the accounts of pugilistic fights,
to Mr.. Irving's sermons. The sum
total of newspaper circulation is not
large enough to admit of different jour-
mails for the different classes of men,
1t is this, perhaps, that leads vulgar
and unrefecting minds to think light
III of newspapers. Every man finds
that they are not written for himself
alone- 9E
Hard task to hit the palate of such guests,
When Oldfeld loves what Dartineuf detests."
We had occasion to know, not long
ago, that the salaries paid to the edit
or, the reporters, and other regular
contributors to London morning pa
per, amounted to between S and 6oooi.
year; and we believe the paper in
question, which was not the highest
in sale, was not the highest in its scale
of expense. Yet this great expendi-
ture was part only of what may be
properly called the expenses of the.co-
pywright. 1t was independent not on
ly of the sums paid for obtaining for
eign journals, and other intelligence OF
the same nature, of the great expendi-
ture consequent on the efforts to obtain
reports rapidly from distant parts Of
the country, but even of the payments
for the reports of the proceedings of
inferior courts of law, of police Offices,
and Of miscellaneous occurrences, the
great mass of which are rendered to
the newspapers by persons not regu-
larly engaged by them, and to whom
payment is made according to the
number of lines that are inserted. A
great part of the mass of salaries we
have mentioned, is rendered necessary
by the duty which the papers have i'm
posedupon themselves, and which they
perform with a zeal and fidelity beyond
all praise, of laying before their read
ers reports of the proceedings of courts
of law, ofpublic meetings., and parti-
cularly of parliament. The expense
of procuring the reports of the pro-
ceedings Of parliament alone, is. r.
each Of the morning papers, upwards
Of 3oool. a year.
1t is in their reports of proceedings
and debates particularly, that the Eng
lish papers are superior to those Of AZ
ny country in the world. The Ameri-
can ones, which ought to rival them,
are very irregular in their reports OF
legal, and very rude and very brief. in
their reports of legislative proceed
ings. This defect, as far as it regards
the proceedings of the Congress, is a
consequence, and very important one,
of the arrangement that has fixed the
seat Of the Legislature of the Union,
not in Philadelphia or New-York, but
in a city that consists of houses yet I'M
built, and streets yet unpaved. Wash
ington City would not support news
paper in the expense which would be
necessary for reporting; and as it would
be quite impossible to prevent reports
from being very speedily printed by
the papers in every part Of the Union,
which respectively possess other at
fractions for their local readers, it
would be impossible to print paper
at Washington for general circulation
by post. Like the many brave men
before Agamemnon, the orators ofthe
new world languish in comparatiyeob-
security. -
Dloo~os vTl,~oOn