Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-06-03
EDITING n PAPER.

That our readers may not be too envious
or covetous Of our easy position and pleasant
| responsibilities, We will give them the follow
| ing extract from the Lutheran Observer as
indicative of some of the things that occur
weekly in the experience of every editor; we
do the best we can to please and profit all, but
if our readers were of the same mind and TASTE
we think we might succeed much better than
we do:
There are certain perplexities inherent in
editing paper. 1t is impossible to meet the
wishes of all. Writers sometimes send an
article which the editor may think unsuited to
his columns. It may have merely local in
terest. It may contain personalities. It may
be on a subject foreign to the general character
of the paper. One reader may wish his news
paper to be grave and solemn throughout; an
other wishes it gemmed with wit and relieved
by pleasantries. One would wish for stories
and narratives another wants doctrinal dis
cussions. One asks for controvcrsy-another
for gentleness and charity. One asks for
church news-another for abstract and pro
found essays. One delights in short and pithy
articles-another sees no value IN anything but
full and thorough handling of the subject in
| hand. One wishes his religious paper to give
him daguerrean picture of the intelligence of
| the day from the whole world; another wants
the columns filed with articles on one and the
same tropic. With these various and opposite
tastes and judgements among some thousands of
of readers, it is utterly impossible to crafty
them all. We do the best we can. We bring
our best Judgment into exercise and do the
best we can for the good of our readers and
e T.l Al. I-c-l
that we have found much less of annoyance
than some of the editorial fraternity, one of
whom speaks thus:
"The truth is, an editor cannot step without
treading on somebody's toes. Ifhe express his
opinions fearlessly and frankly he is arrogant
and presumptuous. Ifhe states facts without
comment, he dares not to express his senti-
ments. If he conscientiously refuses to advo-
cate the claims of an individual to office, he
| is accused of hostility. A iackanape who
measures off words into verse as clerk does
tape-by the yard-hands him parcel of
stuff that jingles like a handful of rusty nails
and gimlets, and if the editor is not fool enough
to print the nonsense, "Stop mp paper; won't
patronize man that's no better judge of poe
try as if it were patronage to buy paper at
about one-haf more than so much waste pa
per would cost One murmurs because his pa
per is not iterary-another because it is lit
erary-another because it is not literary
enough. One grumbles because the advertise
ment engross too much room-another com
plains that the paper is too large-we can't
find time to read it all. One wants type so
small that a microscope would be indispen-
sable in every family-another threatens to
discontinue the paper unless the letters are
half an inch long-an old lady actually offered
an additional price for paper that should be
printed in type as large as is used for hand
bills. Every subscriber has plan of his own
| for conducting q journal