Litchfield enquirer., 1861-06-20
CONFESSIONS uF A COUNTRY
EDITOR.


 wonder if the reader of this sketch ever ed ited a country newspaper; one of those four paged sheets which ar. always hebdomatlally behind with intelligence, which has been fully digested by every body that lives every where, except ill the village where your map of busy life is issued?
 l Our mutual friend C., after twenty five years superintendence of his cherished 'KNIcK. can give you some idea of what the editor of d country journal has to undergo, but not of those petite mseries he suffers, if he be the unfurtu- nate publisher of his own sheet.
 i 'JoHN SMITH, EDITOR AND PUmIsIER,' looks well to the uniniiated, at the head of the Oak town, Bugle but, in reality, it is an honor without a redoeming trait, if it covers a reali- zng sense of personal debts, non-payng sub- scrbers, bad writing, dongh-head correspon- dents dctating partizan lsaders, and printers troubles generally. Among the worst of these, are editorial leaders,. so called because the printer inserts leads between his lines of type, or because old Moneypenny leatls you, by prom ises strongly resembling threats, to write them as he may suggest, without reference to your own opinions.
 | once had years service at the business, as editor and publisher of the Wolftown Ban ner' away out in Illinois; and often found myself without sufficient rocks to purchase a days fodder, which as often was bought with a fulsome puff of the Wolftown Exchange al which hotel would be thus enabled to achieve, a common dinner.
 Then there was one annoyance which, from | its continuity, became the rule, and its excep tions were but few and widely separated by time. The paper.selier did cash or approved paper business. and all the loose change ol the office, tightly collected, went into his pock cts. More frequently, old Moneypenny was call ed in to give his personal security by indorse ment, to keep up the regular issue and these transactions soon led him to consider the Ban ner' as his own private property. This illusion caused him to domineer largely in the style o the politics and general course of the Banner. One of the oldest settlersin the county, wealthy beyond his neighbors, the founder of the village he became the Sir Oracle of all things therein and aspired nightly to congressional honors.
 Not few were the stormy articles which he wrote against opposing men and measures, anl which silently fathered as my own offspring fearing his displeasure, much as detested thei tone and abusive personalities; for. with the pri yileges conferred on him by his station in life he became little tyrannical and garruleus with his years Once he led me into serious diff culty, which, while it laid me up in bed, anG stopped the issue of the Banner for a fortnight ulClmateIy feDOunueu IO tue p6ueHtOi tudG JoQrH al, und cancelled all the notes held against me l by the paperseller.
 I had written a. contemptuous notice of : public meeting of the opposition party, held or previous evening. It disgusted me while wrote it: but we were short of paper the funds were low, and before my next issue, snonld have to call upon Moneypenny for his 'aiaaoie ald in getting a supply.
 Just as had finished the article. in came my dictator. Picking up my manuscript, he glan1 Pretty fair shot lue,y fair! But. bles. your soul not half enough mustard and penpe alOe init: and you have nit done that scoundrel Mea { gles justice, blast him! Give me that nsp se IR set him up as he should be P pen
 So he scratched down an addition to mv or ticle, wherein MT. Meggies, the opposition nan s, didate for Congress, was set up' in a spirit an' language so excessively strong and flowing ths Ii the Evil One himself might consider himself he . fly in comparison with the character sketched b Moneypenny. I objected to it's harshness an to it's going in in that shape, but the curses { I my wealthy owner soon led to an acquiescenol The consequences, I felt, would prove disa. trous, but-- welL interest smothered my terror and in went