Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-10-28

| w uat IL you are interrupted every moWeDt
or two by some irrelevant interrogatory urged
with singular indication of obliviousness to
what you are about? You must hold on to
tthe thread Of an idea, if you happen to have
one, and still dothe agreeable to your friend ;
you must write with some appearance of un-
derstanding what youare saying, whether in
reality you know what you are about or not !;
you must feel your way through like man
walking through narrow pass on dark
highland having reached the end of your
| sheet, You may take long breath, and turn
away in search of some other subject. And
there is no end to this; for as soon as you
have succeeded in arranging for one number,
the burden of another is upon you, from the
first week in January until the last in De-
cember.
But the writing of editorials is small
part in comparison with the aggregate Of
other duties Here is an article well meant
and full of rensible sayings. But it is bad.
ly written, perhaps badly spelled, perhaps
poorly put together. You must go over it.
You must dash outan unnecessary word here,
and put in an omitted word yonder. You
must be grammarian forthe writer, who either
has never learned grammar, or has permitted
himself to write without revision. You
must, in short, prepare his irregular compo-
sition for the press, and where you cannot
make out precisely what he intended to write,
guess it, and let your readers have the bene.
it of your guessing.
To read newspaper for past.time is very
interesting employment. Buthere are twen-
ty received by mornings mail. You take
scissors in hand and glance over them
What treat it would be to some people
people who have leisure toread them through.
But your work is to scissorisc. You are
looking for scraps. Here is one, but it was
in your paper last week. Here is another,
but it is too sectarian. Here third, but it
is one of last years creations, that has lodged
awhile on the shore Of forgetfulness, and is
now swept again upon the tide of the news,
to float until it can find another standing
place. After an hour or two of search you
gather up the result. 1t is your column of
clippings from the exchanges! What
search for so meagre a reward!
Well, haveyou done? See there is a roll
of proofs. The type is set, and the foreman
wishes to make up the form. Here is let
ter upside down-there a word you never
saw before-hereisa sentence without mean
ing. What are you to do? Looking at ev-.
cry letter-read every line-make every in
tended correction-and send it back to be
printed after your alterations shall have been
made. You must do this at once.. You
must not take half day for it. Drop
everything you have before you, and read
your proofs. The press will be waiting for
you, and unless you are in time, your place
will be taken by another, and your issue de-
layed. Presses work by steam now, and ed
itors must not be behind time. Locomotives
are off at the minute advertised. Happy
the editor who, when his sheet is out, does
not find dozen errors that he could not find
before! Thrice happy he who, besides all
this, does not find many that he did see still
glaring upon him, in all their ugly deformi-
ty and provoking calmness, despite all his
care!
But We must not treat even this subject
atlength. 1t is long enough already. One
thing would reconcile US to this sort of labor.
What is that L? The evidence of apprecia-
tion-the sensible evidence that those for
whom we labor, remember US. The best
mode of showing tais appreciation, is prompt
remittance. Do you ask, then, the object of
all this if you OWE for the paper, pay for
it at once! "Sen,2 on fae money!" 1t will
tighten our cares, quicken our faculties, pay
our debts, and quiet our conscience!
TIE STAMP BUREAU OF THE POST Or