The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-01-03
&ittmnGh 4ispattb.
TUESDAY MORNING. JANUARY 3, LEGO.
NJ No Northern mail was received in this
city yesterday.

-
TUESDAY MORNING. JANUARY 3. leo.
NJ No Northern mali was received in this
city yesterday.
Prize kssays..Newspaper writins-.Writ-
ing IL General.
Awrtter In Blaek,rood's 3fogas ins. OF Decem-
her. asks the very pertinent question why II
10 that prize essays are seldom or never read.
He adds, 'the chief producers Of this
" are amateurs who have no NOTION OF writ
ing. and with infinite difficulty send forth an
article which has the same relation to a genu-
Inc book that shoddy has 10 broadcioth." This
EXPLANATION is good as far as it goes, but it i'm
medtately suggests a couple OF new enquiries
Is IL true that the competitors for prizes are,
generally, or even in . majority of cases. un-
practiced hands, and If it be true, why is it so
Prizes offered, in other cases, never fail to
bring forward the best article that can be pro-
duced. II = reward be offered for the fattest
hog or the heaviest beef. or the finest horse,
fat hogs, heavy bullocks, and fast horses, will
not fail to pour in SO rapidly that IL Will soon
become impossible TO do full justice 10 them
all. But prize essays, prize poems, prize de-
signs, and prize monuments, are, all over the.
world, with the fewest possible exceptions. OF
such a character that they are intoIerable to
men and gods alike. Ii was not so iE the days
OF ancient Greece. II may not bs true, rs the
f~anciful biographers of HOMER would have
us believe, that that great bard contendea with
HKsIoD for n prize, and died OF yexation be
cause it was adjudged to his rival. Yet there
IAN be no doubt of the fact, that some Of the
greatest productions of Grecian genius were
prize essays, and that the prizes offered at the
Olympic games led to a rivalry aneng writers
and artists Of every description, that had 4
vast inf uence in rendering Greece the wonder
Of the world for all succeeding times and ma
tions.
The reviewer, although he admits that prize
essays are in general very unreadable things.
vet contends that the very fact OF writing
them is vastly beneficial to the writer. No
man, says Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON, ever I'M
ders,ands a thing thoroughly until he has
written about it. The offer OF a prize for the
best essay upon any given subject never fails
TO enlist a large number OF unpracticed writ
srs. Each one studies the subject, and digesis
his knowledge by writing about it. Take any
subject that may be presented; let any mar
engage to write an essay upon it let him ac-
tually write the essay, and 1t Will be iouhd,
upon conversing with him or il, that he has
increased MS hiOW leuSc Ill III wv. -
il in this view of the matter thai We hold
public lectures to be especially Beneficial
That a vast number of very worthless lectures
may be delivered every winter in all our great
sities. may b. true enough. There are, not
withstanding. many others highly suggestive,
amusing, or instructive. But the very worst
lecture, il it is Of service to no one else, con-
ferx an essential benefit upon the lecturer
H.. H.. ts, boo al l~a
ola particular subject by writing and speaking
about it, and always, afterwards, upon that
particular one, he will! be found armed cGP a
pte.
Writing for newspapers is another exercise
admirably calculated tomake a man digest the
knowledge he has. There is no profession in
the world which is more absolutely and essen
TALLY a profession. Many persons are apt to
believe that any man who has talents and edn-
cation can become a newspaper writer in Il
moment; or, rather, that such persons are
Heaven-born editors. There never was Il
greater mistake. The greatest genius that ever
lived would be beaten TO death, in Il newspa-
per contest, by a very ordinary writer, who
had become familiar by practice with the use
of the pen. Nothing is easier than to trace the
tyro in conducting a newspaper. They all
have the same itch for long editorials, the same
passion for high-sounding phrases, the same
admiration Of particular passages i'll fayorite
authors, the same disposition TO write forever.
when there is no use in writing. Your green
editor is sure to indite a paragraph, within
one week after he takes his seat, in which he
assures his. readers that they know nothing
about the trials of an editor. life, just as a
boy, when be is getting high in his teens, drinks
grog and swears hard TO convince the incredu-
lous that he is every inch 4 man. These things
are universal. They happen to all editors, the
great as we'll as the small. 1t is only by prac-
tice that they grow perfect in their art, and
before they shall have become so, they will
most assuredly be read with less pleasure than
men Of tar inferior parts, with the one Il dvan-
tage which they do not possess. A French
dancing master not five feet high would run
HERCULES through the body half-a-dozen times
before he could bring his club to 4 level with
his head. No man is an editor until he is mas
ter of his tools, let his strength be what it
may.