Newbern weekly progress., 1860-01-17
KLYPROGRESS.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JAN. IL, 1860.
Lu., What We Intended to Say:

We had lust seized our pen to tell 1e" grow
ler, who think that their patronage, of few dol
lars ycr amnum, (by which transaction they are
the marty most benefited is the sole stay or our
paper. and those aspiring politicians who have
80 adroitIy advised us, by proxy, to " come out
and advocate the principles of their party all to
90 to the ID, when we happened to light upon
the folloainr sparks of wisdom from that glorious
fellow, Ridgway, who presides over the editorial
aerartmeut Of the Richmond Whig. Had we
lain in trsrce for thousand years and had woke
ND and found this composition in our decaying
vau,t we could have sworn that Ridgway wrote
it. So like him; so true to life--so cutting and
so bitterly sarcastic on those bralniess tops ana
half-witted demagogues who act as though all
men who preside over the editorial desuhleS VI d
newspaper, from the Cross roads B"gte to the Lon
don Thunderer, are but so many automatons VINO
may be used by every aspiring, presumPtuouS'
unprincipled creature who Knows how TO toucn
the secret springs that move his parts. That many
who degrade and disgrace the Press can be thus
t,sed we know is but too true, but as true DeneV-
olence and elevated virtues are sometimes found
in dens of vice and moral depraTity, so are there
sometimes men to be found among our much
abused ''Eraft" who cannot be botght by reward
nor with PROMISES of rewatd-tnen who, regard
less of individual conseqTeHces and Pecunlary
results viii follow where, in their Judgment, du-
ty leads, though the heavens fall 10 such men
the secret devices. cunning, duplicity and frauds
nracticed by party leaders to achieve party ends
can only be view ed as moral lazaroni more to
be dispised and worse to be endured than the most
abject serfdom.
But we keep our readers too long from the
flashes from Ridgway's fevered BRAIN
An Editors Lje.-It would require a master
hand to sketch with hdehty that poor ana aousfu d
pen remarkable versatility of knowledge, correct
iudgrnent and considerable nerve. If you lntrude
upon him you discover him writing, sclssorlng. lie
Will talk but his pen does not stops he spatters the
ink he fumbles over books; he hunts among news
papers he grows savage in lfa4sf & or ealnd1 nand1
artists ask his fa9orabe notice; inventors have mod
els to show him He is addressed more subjects
than it was intended a single mind should compre-
hend and while his journal is called by some in
fuential' valuable" etc, there are others who
bluntly pronounce it ''scurrous' and poor" Swim
ming upon foods Of excitement, battling, chahng,
arguing consenting, exalting friends and crushing
foes, thinking, working, is the sum and substance
of an editors At home, he writes with his
wife at his elbow and his child his knee in the
street he weaves out those ideas which, IN few
hours will startle the men who nowjostle and crowd
him in his sanctum, he makes ready thunder bolts,
moulded with pen, but more powerful than any ev-
er hurled from JOve. He delivers lectures he is
politician; he holds office: he is a traveler he gives
verdict upon manuscripts which are more precious
than the apple of their eye to aspiring authors; he
pleads for the poor, he nubs the rich; he conc1ll-
ates, he defes, ne arouses nations, ne dethrones
tent
Up in garfIts IN out-ofthe way places-sometimes
furnished like parfor sometims worse than pig
Den-is his sanetum sanctorum the "holy of holies"
Are you partial to frowns Do you wish to hear
growl? Disregard the notices OF = Editor 5, Room
Private. No admttance," and enter Che den;
YOU observe the contracting brow; you do not know
Whether you are saluted or insulted; your tongue
proposes to speak, and legs incline you to run away;
he ad lifts itself pen and linked fingers point
YOU a seat, which tax you instant to reach, but
ere you have done So the monster has his clutches
so deeply in idea that he has forgotten your exis
tence There you sit you try to count the pyramids
of newspapers, and wonder If to be an editor 1t is
necessary to be a savage. You see books and maps;
but you would meddle with the cub OF a
bear as anything in which the wild animal before
YOU has an interest. Delegations of "devils' from
the printing office come for " copy" and a great
many things are going on which are strange to you.
Other gentry come in, who glance contemptuously
at yourself. They seat themselves, and you hear
nothing but SCI atch scratch with gold pens steel
pens and goose quills they pull at their whiskers
they clear their throats; they look up at the ceing
they help each other when their ideas run aground ;
they write and re write: they expunge and amend;
they become cheerful If their productions please
them, and crusty if they do not. Now, remember
that this mental toll must go or by day and by night
when the head is dizzy by Sickness ard the heart
weary with sadness that 1T entails study, research
and thought; that the themes are suggested and
discussed WlIuln Ine Iloul anu you VII
why you are not wanted in an editors sanctum.-
Presently, however, he will talk to you; he will cut
short your long speeches; he will bring you at
to your business he will dispatch it, and you will
discover that necessity, If not inclination,
urges him to resume his pen.
In summer, when the flowers are SO tempting at
midnight, with the glare of artificial light pouring
upon h1m thee he is-a toiling slave He writes Of
your pleasures-he adds to your joys. DO yoJi ever
think of his exhausted brain, his fading life his pre-
mature death Literature was, perhaps, passion
of his boyhood, and he has pursued the wicked
phantom from year to year, finding, in the gratica-
ti0n of refined taste, some small reward for his
painful infatuation.