The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-04-29
Editorial Thieves.

Seeing an editorial OF some length, which |
cost us considerable labor in writing bodily |
copied by contemporary and passed off as his
own production, reminds US that there is an
immense deal ofpetty thieving going on in this
world. Editors, who are provcrbially honest in
pecuniary matters, are we fear, not altogether
safe from suspicion of criminality IN handling /
certain property of intangible form not belong
ing to themselves. There is growing evil in
the particular of stealing articles, and assum-
ing the credit of the production thereof, which
should be discountenanced by respectable edi-
tors, and stopped by ALL Every editor seems
to take it for granted, that his subscribers must
have certain quantity of reading matter I'M
der the head of editorial-that is matter writ
ten. by the editor. But all editors are not
equally industrious or capable. Yet under
the present cabbaging system, the drone sup
plies his readers as fully in this particular as
the working bee. The dull and stupid pre-
tender.is quite as fluent and spicy as the ready
wit, whose pen is his wealth and reputation.
This cabbaging process may be carried on to
the total deception of the reader, but it very
rarely deceives an old editorial drudge. Some
times the article published under the form of
an editorial has partial credit right at the
beginning, which credit is supposed by the
general reader to cover one idea or a sentence,
but which the editor uses to steal whole
article. Again the credit is placed at the bot
tom of long article, Immediately beneath
~, tha tb.f
it alone was not written by the gentleman
whose name heads the paper. In various ways
is partial credit thus given to that which
should be credited entirely to some other pa
per. We have beforo us every day numbers
of papers edited just about in this style-the
editors passing themselves off as at least in
dustrious in their vocation, if not talented
The editors OF the small Daiies being the hard
est ridden set of fellows, are generally the
most expert and least conscientious OF TINS par
ticular class of cabbage heads, although there
are of course many exceptions. Small loaded
rca0s items are generally considered among the
fraternity as property common to all, no mat
ter where originated-yet each editor should
endeavor to contribute his share to the fund
in which he is as toekholder.
But the worst stealing of all, is the repub-
fishing of articles not news as original matter
without giving any credit at all. An editor
would be equally as honest in stealing gar
ments to cloth his body, as in stealing other
mems ideas and language to clothe his own
mental nakedness. We have before us well
edited country paper. the editor Of which is
abundantly capable of writing interesting ar
.ticleS and in this paper is an article of a col
umnswritten in the N. Y. Tribune's best style,
on Henry Clay. which is boldly passed off as
original by this modest cotemporary. We
only give this as an example of a very COM
mon business transaction with some editors.
We trust our hints will have beneficial in
fusnce, although they may call down strict
moss from some of the sufferers.