Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1853-11-03
From the True Delta.l
Thoughts on EdItorInI Life.
''It's hardly in a body's power
To keen af times from being so,

''It's hardly in body's power
To keep at times from being sour"
Burns.
Job is recorded in Holy Writ as a
model of patience, whom Satan with all
his wiles, could not drive from his in
tegrity; yet there was one test to which
Job was not subjected. He never, for
one hour, was an Editor.
An Editor! A being whose hands,
and brains, and heart must never fail; a
piece of machinery, which however bad
" used, must never stop working-a
sort of perpetual motion, which is never
to wear out.
An Editor is Hercules, before the
might of whose achievements the la
bors of the far famed hero of Mytholo-
gy sinks into utter insignifcance.
Our modern Hercules must strangle
every poisonous serpent bred in the
rank and miry places of human wicked
ness.
He must turn back the river of politi-
cal pollution, purify its turbid waters,
and cause them to seek another channel,
while suffering in his own person, the
effects of disturbing the mass of noisome
reptiles which fed and fattened on its
Shiny bed.
He must pluck the golden apple for
his dear five hundred friends, undaunted
by the snarling official Cerberous, who
guards the entrance to the garden, and
if some chance trophy be left in his
hand, it will prove to him like dead
Sea fruit" crumbling at the touch, and
"ashes at the core"
He must know things by intuition,
which others require years to under
stand, and il, in haste, or WEAKNESS,
some error or misstatement occur, lol
the critics, birds of ill-omen, seize upon
it, and the literary puppies, Tray,
Blanche and Sweetheart, they all do
bark at him."
He must have an open purse, and
ready pen for every beggarly applicant
for aims, or puf, and conscience as
elastic as india-rubber, to meet the de-
mands of many very conscientious and
honest patrons.
No time is allowed him for social
pleasure or domestic happiness; the dear
public never think of such luxuries as
appropriate for an Editor. He is never
to have home of his own, "with some
fair spirit for a minister"
Students and professors have long va
cations; clergymen get bronchial affec-
tions, and are sent to Europe to recover;
lawyers, merchants, occasionally physi-
clans, have respite from toil-a season
for soul-refreshing. time to recover
health and quiet. Seldom does an Edi-
tor escape from thraldom.
While l sit by this open window, and
the balmy breath of summer comes fresh
and fragrant to revive and cheer me; l
pity the tired denizens of cities, pent
within walls of brick and stone, and a
patch of sky o'er head; think of those
immured in editorial sanctums, afar
from field and forest, shut out from
communion with Nature in her sunny
mood.
A thousand flowers and hill sides are
wasting their sweetness for lack of an
editor to appreciate their beauty and
bloom.
In our beautiful lakes the speckled
trout and the fnny beauties are gliding,
which an Editor might have, il. he only
would indulge in fishing.
In our ''grand old woods, noble deer
are hiding, and sight of aught so free
and graceful would be feast for the
eyes, even were the hunter to fail in
bringing one down for sylvan supper.
Editors should take more time to
themselves. They need-rest and ought
to have it. They need health and
strength, and among birds, and flowers,
by babbling brooks, or in shady places, !;
and on green hill-sides, they will be
most sure to find it. The feathered vo-
ealists in every tree viii sing them a
song of welcome.
Wishing to each and all of them pros
perity, am, Editor of the True Delta,
Yours, most sincerely, KATE.