The Empire County argus., 1855-11-10
What Becomes of Old Editors.
By THE RED NoeED NAN.

THE RED NosED
There fell under my observation, one rainy af.
ternoon, an obituary notice in some old newspaper,
-, Mr.. Timothy So-and-so, for several years ed.
itor of the - Gazette Up to this period, had
maintained an opinion something similar to that
held by Mr.. Weller junior, relative to post-boys.
when he expressed his firm conviction that they
never died at all, but rode out of the world in
some surreptitous manner on the back of an old
donkey, similarly constituted; had, in fact. ar
rived at the conclusion that the old editors and the
old newspapers evaporated in pairs, 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 On
old editor had shufded off this mortal coil Just as
every day people do had written his last paragraph.
and had gone to have his proof revised in another
world.
Well, it was long time ere could get into my
old train of thought True, had heard of editors
dying, but they were not editors at the period of
their demise; they were not summoned directly
from the paste, scissors and quill. Some had, by
some means or other, got into the Legislature,
either State or National; Others had taken to por
ing Chitty and other authorities, bound in law
calf--some had laid down the pen and taken up
physic; some the pulpit, and not few the poor
house. They could not be said to have gone out of
the world edatoraoAy, having gone back into obscu-
to which editors are constantly appealing, but from
which, in my mind, they are totally distinct. Nei-
ther can book-makers either of prose or poetry,
review writers or pamphleteers, be comprised in
the category; they come under the designation Of
authorS-that class of men who are prone to living
in garrets, and are given to weaving paper dickes
poor devils
But your editor, the man who writes the leaders,
complies the dts, and says cutting things Of
our cotemporaries in the daily newspaper is
different sort of being altogether. He occupies,
it were, isolated position, and like Alexander
Selkirk, is monarch of all he surveys Does the
President of the Uuited States the Queen of Eng
land, or the Ottoman Porte commit any overt act'
who but the editor handles them without Gloves?
Who is it but the man who edits the newspaper
that takes in hand some half million of people
at time, and tells them to their face that they
dogged, wrong-headed and ill-condoned set of
beings who are going to their ruin as fast as their
blind delusion can carry them? Who has the
daring to say so to those very people every morning
as they read his paper over their toast and coffee?
Who but he has the temerity to say that public
opinion may sometimes be wrong, and moreover,
who acts as godfather, sponsor, and guardian to
any unhedged opinion that obtains in the COM
munty! Who but the newspaper man taketh up
on himself to cut up huge quartos, criticise the
critics, and express his opinions, in plain English,
of scribbling divnes, doctors, poets, and pun ma
kcrs? Who shall say that, as the editor lives a
literary otentate, he may nevertheless make his
exit from this great earthly stage like the Pegasus
he bestrides, the public for one can't bring
myself to believe it,
1t is very common thing to see in paper some
such notice as-'Owng to the illness of the editor
our readers must excuse our lack of editorial mat
ter in to-days paper Some may argue from this
that as editor is subject to the ills that flesh is
heir to- he also experiences the ultimate mortal in.
conveniences therefrom; but fortunately for my
theory. If invariably happeps that somn Iro her
editor few days afterward announces in three
line paragraph that said editor, happy to say has
entirely recovered from his late illness and has re-
sumed his editorial chair 1t is always the CASE
notice is to follow the other as day is to
succeed night. They never make a die of it,
Now what in the world has become of old tdit-
ors-the newspaper men of yesterday--the 1cient
regime! No Ola Mortality living has seen any
thing relative to their whereabouts on the tomb
stones--the parish records are silent on the SUBJ
ject, and the vestry books say notqing about it.
Ask any of the Oldest inhabitants what has become
of the editor OF such paper, and they shake their
heads and tell you they don't know--he moved
away and that was the last they heard of him
One of two things must be the fact either hat
these editorial monarchs become wearied of power
after a time, write pathetic farewell address to
their readers, then quietly abdicate and go to hoe
ing caObages, and writing letters from under
brldge'--Inove into the woods and 90 crazy, like
old Lear, or dry up and'blow away some day when
the mail fails without giving any previous notice
to any one | sagely suspect the latter, and that
they are borne off on the wings of some brilliant
idea to sojourn for time in the land of defunct
paying subscribers whom they attack and
write down and then go off where truth is stereo-
typed and the result of their abors in the of
virtue and good morals is collected in files, bound
up and laid away on the shelves of eternity
Others may think as they please, but that is my
opinion N. o. Paper.