The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-02-27

ais. is that newspaper edits itself. Tho
good souls who hold to this view will
saunter leisurely into the editorial de-
partment of an Office, and blandly talk
by the hoursupon the crops, politics,
marriages and deaths, state of business,
etc. No delicate hint comes near them.
They finally drive the long suffering
editors TO despair and are snubbed sans
ceremenie. ofcourse they retire boiling
with rage and internally threatening
vengeance upon the sheet, instead of
feeling grateful that they have not pro-
voked q case for the Mayors Court.
A common delusion in connection
with newspapers is in reference to their
capacity for holding matter. Many
persons suppose that a newspaper, like
an omnibus, is never full and never can
he filled. They bring voluminous nan
usoript at unreasonable times, and get
provoked because it is rejected. This Is
a very difficult delusion to cure. The
vanity of composition and the inability
to write tersely, conspire to foster and
keep it alive. The old delusion that
homemade poetry is essential to the
existence Of = newspaper, we have not
the hardihood 20 attack. Nations may
flourish or decay, and planets may go in
@Gn yn firm nun nh
the domestic poets will continue to tune
their small organs and grind blisstu'ly
, OF. This is 1 disease for which there Is
! 70 remedy. The renowned DR.. Jacob
Townsend did not dare ~ prescribe for
il in his palmiest days.
A deiusion that might rs we'll he
noted here, concerns the ofice-seeking
politicians. These gentlemen have in
some way gotten the idea into their
craniums that they have an ill-defined,
but still indisputable right to control
the conduct Of newspapers. 1t requires
. large share of brazeu assurance to ask
o journal to give up, gratuitously day
after day, the use of its columns to sub
serve the schemes Of some political
hack. The veteran politician has the
impudence to do this, and if he meets .
rebuff he is so genuinely indignant that
we feel sure the nan has regarded him
self as part proprietor of the establish
ment, not in the perception of profits
bat in the conduct Of its columns. This
brilliant hallucination il closely iden-
tilted with the delusion that the pub
LEGATION Of a newspaper costs no money.
The people who indulge in this idea
wish puffs of individuals, solicitations
for the benefit of institutions, notices
Of new inventions, all manner of mat
ter that is properly of az advertising
CHARACTER to go in free. These people
tax the forbearance of newspaper men
| almost beyond endurance. 1t seems well
nigh impossible to persuade them that
a newspaper office is not supported like
the Chameleon and Spanish moss-on
air, or by some special ~interposition of
} Divine Providence kept going without
the necessity of vulgar cash. We re-
greet to add that, when they learn that
money is essential to the conduct of a
paper, their respect for it is vastly les.
.tsened. They really thought it had some
mysterious power of sucking life out of
the atmosphere and inspiration from
the stars, and was altogether too sub
lime an institution to be troubled about
stamps
Concerning the delusion that a news
paper must be edited to suit everybody,
we have only to say, that the journal
ist who tries it will be a 6t subject de
iaaatico iaqair endo. The old fable Of
the man. who killed his ass because
some fool insisted that he should mount
his son with him on the beast, conveys
a lesson that is erer fresh and instruc-
tive. Lord Erskins in his defence Of
the printer who wa tried for libel in
printing Paine's Gage Of Reason" haz-
arded the idea that when the Almighty
came to look over the map of man'slife,
if it was in the main clear and unspot-
ted, the great Judge would not look in
corners for flaws or specks. So with
newspapers. An intelligent community
will decide upon the average merit of .
sheet, and not expect perfection. Those
microscopic souls who are looking ont
for specks, DO not deserve to be re-
garded.
There is a delusion that a newspaper
should be absolutely consistent at the
expense of truth and right dealing, aud
without reference to any change of time
or circumstance. Having said the horse
was fifteen feet high, stick 80 it. BE-
tween the paper that would persist
from such a notion of consistency in adj
vocating error, and the paper that is
ever shifting its ground, there is little
choice. Here, as in most things, the
middle course is the safest. We omit
this topic not because We have gone
over the entire field, but because We
are ourselves o little fatigued with the
mere recital of the delusions with
which our business Is surrounded and
, often embarrassed by thoughtless or In.
considerate persons. 1t is unpleasant
at times to take caro- of ourselves by ex-
|, posing the folly Of other people, but the
|, necessity for doing It il constant oc-