Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1843-04-01
WHAT BECOMES OF THE OLD EDIT.
OR5.
BY THE REDNosED MAN.

By THE REDNosED MAN.
There fell under my observation, one rainy
afternoon, and obituary notice III some old
newspaper. which went on to say" De-
parted this life, Oh tle-, Mr.. Timelhy
So-afd q, or several years editor OF the
'iazet e. Up to this period | had main
aimed an optn'"h eomethir. similar 10 that
Deld y MIR. Weller, junior, relative 10 post
boys, when he expressed his firm convection
that they never died at all, but rode out OF
the world in so,ue surreptitious manner on
The back Of an old donkey, similarly c%onstitu-
ted | had, in fact, arrived at the conclusion
that the old editors and the old newspapers
evaporated in pairF, in some such manner, no.
body knew where. But here was the faith
OF many long years staggered in an instant
here was the fact staring me in the face, that
an old editor had sbutilcd off this mortal coil
just az everyday people do, had written his
last paragraph. and had gone 10 have his proof
revised IN another world!
Well, 1t was a long time ere I could get
into III y old train of thought. True, | had
heard of editors dying, but, then they we're
rot editors at The period of their demise :;
they were not summoned directly from the
paste, scissors, aud The quill. Some had, by
some meals OF other. got into the Legislature,
either State or Natiorat--othnrs aga1t, had
taken 10 pouring over Chitty aud o,hor author
ties, OF octave size, bound in law calt--some
had laid down the pen and taken ~ physlc
--sotne the pn 'pi', and not a few the poor
house. They could not he said TO have
gone out of the world editor1alln having gone
back Into obscurity among the great mass Of
the publlc-a body TO which editors are con-
sta1ltiy appealing, but rom which, i'll NY mind,
they are totally distinct. Neither can book
makers, either of prose or poetry, review
writers or pamphleteere, be comprised in the
category, they come under the designation OF
duthors-that class of men who are prone to
living IN sarrets. and ave given TO wearing
paper dtckics pour devils!
But your Editor. the man who writes the
leader, complies the on dts, and SAYS cutting
things of our contemporaries" in the daily
newspaper, is a different sort of a being al
together. He occupies, as it were, an isola-
ted position, and like Alexander selrick, is
Is monarch of all he surveys" Does the Pre-
sident Of The United States, the Queen of
England, or the Ottoman Porte commit any
" overt ac,,'' and who but Tie editor L" han
dies them without gIoves?" Who is it but
the man who edits The newspaper that takes
IN hand some half a million Of people at a
time, aud tells Them TO their face that they
are a dogged, wrong headed and III condition.
ed set ol beings, who are going to llrelr ruin
as fast as their blind dellsion can carry them!
Who has the daring to say 50 TO those resy
people every morning as they read his paper
over their toast and coffee Who but he
has the temerityt to say thu public OF inion may
sometimes be wrong, and, moreover, who acts
az godfather. sponsor, and guardian to any
unfledged opinion that obtains in The com
muuity? Who but the newspaper man Ia
keith upon himself to cut up huge q~uarios, cri-
ticise the critics, and express bis opinions in
PLAN English, of scribbltng divines, doctors,
poets, and pun makers? Who shall say that, as
the editor lives a literary potentate, he may
nevertheless make bis exit from thus, great
earthly stage like the pegasus be bestrides,
the "public !" |, for ore, cant bring N.Y.
self TO believe it.
1t is a very common thing to see in a paper
some such notice as" Owing to the illness
OF lie editor, our readers must excuse the
lack OF editorial matter III io-day's paper"
Some may argue from this that as an editor
is subject othe Ills which flesh is heir to-
he also experiences the ultimate mortal ia
conrehfeuees thereirom !; but fortunately for
my theory, 1t invariably happens that some
brother editor a lew days afterwards, annuuu
ees Ii 4 three tine paragraph that the said
edit :, lie is "haPpy 10 say entirely recov-
ered iron his late illness, and has resumed
ais editorial char" 1t is always the Case
one notIce Is as sure to follow the Other as
day IS 10 succeed night. They never i" make
a d e ot it."
Now what in the world has become Of old
edtors-the newspaper men of Yesterday
the ancient regime? No Old Mortality LIVING
has seer any thing relative TO their here
abouts on the tembstones-tlle parish records
are silen, upon the subject, and the veslry
books say nothing about it. Ask any of the
Oldest inhabitants what became of the editor
ofsuch and such a paper, and they shake
their heads and tell you that they don't know
he moved away, and hat was the last they
heard Of h m. One of Two things must be
The fact. either that these editorial nonarchs
become weatied Of power alter a time, write
a pathetic farewell address o their readers,
then quietly abdlcale, 90 10 hoeing cab ages,
aud writing shelters from under a BRIDGE
move into he woods ard 90 crazy like old
Lear: or dry up aud blow ava; some day
when the mai! fails. without giving any pre-.
Fious hoite 10 a'yDoug' l sageiy suspect
the latter, aud that they are borne of on
the wings of some brilliant idea, %sojourn for
a me III The land of defunct non paying sub
s~crtbers, whom they attack ard wt.;e down,
and then go oft where truth Is stereotyped,
and the result Of their Iabors in the cause OF
virtue and good morals are collected IN files,
bound UP, and laid away on the shelves OF
eternity! ohers may think as they please,
hat that is my oPlnion.-N. o. Republican.