The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-05-20
A SENSIBLE MOVE.
The Wing of yesterday morning contained

The Wing OF yesterday morning co"'"'"''
the following paragraph:
We are compelled, by necessity, to adopt tne
rule of our contemporary OF the
and subject every Communication to adsefus-
ing terms. By pursuing the opposi'e eouise,
| our columns are often overwhelmed WIN aIti-
| cjes which possess no interest Whatever 10 me
sansr.i r.sder. Persons may publish what
i,hay nlease. respecting themselves, or friends,
within the limits of our advertising columns
Rut the space reserved for general and political
intelligence, shall not be invaded.
Our neighbors of the Enquirer and Times
will have TO come TO this before long, and the
sooner they do it the better. The Examiner
has already made short work of the W hole band
Of voluntary contributors. Their name is le-
gion, as every body who has ever had any thing
10 do with the political press knows. During
long connection with the Richmond Wing
renewed after lapse of several years, at sun
dry different times, the writer of this article
does not recollect ever to have seen a day,
when he could not have made out paper with
the communications on hand. They were al
most always uninteresting TO any body but the
man who wrote them, and few of his imme-
date friends. Having nothing to pay for pub
LEGATION, they spread themselves TO their utmost
limits. Nothing less thaa two columns would
ever content them. g Sometimes they under
took to discuss questions of Federal interest,
and then it was invariably the case that they
rehashed the editorials which we had ourselves
written, offering nothing new, and, as far as we
could see, imparting no fresh interest to any
thing that was old. We recolleet, especially,
that in the yery agony Of the campaign of l84S,
| q gentleman who had no claim on the paper,
any farther than that he was subscriber to it.,
sent seven or eight essays, all under one cover,
with imperative orders to print them directly.
We could not comply, for the scenes were
shifting as rapidly as we see them shifted in the
theatre, and news came so thick and fast that
it spoiled by OBTAINING tia day. The essays
were upon subjects that were four or FIVE
months old, and had already been forgotten.-
Besides, they had been publicly discussed, and
the writer offered no new views. He became
furious at our delay, and to get rid of him, we
| at last published his communication. He paid
FIVE dollars for his paper, by the year. The
composition employed in setting up his essays,
at the present rate of 80 cents to the thousand
ems, would have amounted to twelve or fifteen.
! Now, had this man been charged for his plea
sure, he would either have never written at all,
or would have made his communications very
short. Talk about studying Tacitus to &C.
! occ l.
| parting it so certain as that of making the
writer pay by the square. Our contemporaries
of the political press will confer benefit upon
| literature, if they will adopt this rule.
| We can readily enough conceive how the
practice of loading newspapers with long es-
says came into fashion in Virginia. For many
years after the revolution, it took the mail three
| days to go from here TO Washington, and the
| same lenst tn of time to come from Washington
here. There were then no steamboats,, no rail-
roads, no telegraphs, and not only no ocean
steamers, but not even line of sail packets
The papers were published but twice week.
and even then there was very often not enough
news to put in them. Politics running very
| high, the great men of both parties gave their
views, for the advantage of their adherents
through the newspapers, and the people had
| time to read them. But it is not so now We
have two northern and two southern mails full
of news every day. 1t gets stale in an hour,
and must therefore be put in hand directly. The
public have no time to read essays. It's mind
hurries along with the ocean steamers, with the
railroads, with the telegraph. For this reason
essays have been long since voted "bore."
They are not read, and of course not appre-
ciated. Charge every man for publishing his
essays, say we. But we would deal very diff.
ferently with correspondents who have news
TO tell US, and who do not write merely for the
sake of seeing themselves in print.