Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-03-14

Probably there IL no profession that re-
quires 80 much thankless drudge work az
the fourth estate.n Let lawyer imag-
Inc himself having case to plead In court
every working day the year round, be-
sides attending TO his office business,
looking up authorities, giving advice,
making out papers, &c. (; let doctor inn
agine half dozen old ladies in his office
at once, telling, with needless multipli-
cation of words, Of their own and their
families ailments, while he keeps the
pestle. moving, compounding prescrip-
tion for some one else and knows that
five miles away in different directions
two good customers are dying and need
his help; and they may get some idea of
the constant vexatiOns Of editorial life.--
Captain Maryatt thus describes them: 1t
IL not the writing Of the leading article
ITSELF but the obligation To write that
article every day (or week. whether in
ciined or not, In sickness or In health (;
| in afsliction, disease Of mind, winter and
summer, year after year tied down to the
task, remaining on the spot. 1t Is some
thing like the walking Of thousand
hours. have fellow feeling, for l
know how periodical will wear down
ones existence. In itself il appears
nothing; the labor Is not manifest; nor
Is it the labor, but il is the continued at
tention which it requires. Your life be-
comes, as 1t were, the publication. One
days Tor week'sl Is no sooner corrected
and printed than on comes another. 1t
| is the stone of Sisypbus; an endless
! repetition Of toll, constant weight upon
the intellect and spirits demanding all
| the exerti0ns Of your faculties at the
same time that you are compelled to do
| the severest kind of drudgery. To write
, for newspaper Is very well, but to edit
one is to condemn yourself to slavery. u
/ Yet Maryatt was only an editor of q
magazine-a comparatively easy task.
He. never sat at his table with unpre-
! pared copy before him, and had long
winded visitor insist upon spinning
some interminable yarn or laying down
in detail some theory on subject of no
particular Importance, entirely Oblivious
of the fact that the paper must go to
press in two hours, and somehow or
| other that copy must all be gone through
carefully, put into the hands of the COM
positor, transferred to type and the
! proofs read and corrected before the press
can start. He never had people habitu-
/ ally mistake his sanctum for a reading
room, occasionally reading aloud choice
| extracts from papers which he has
already perlsed and thrown by. He
never received calls from idiots who
! WanIeu 10 Know whether Sucn anu buCil
| an article meant go and so, and, If 80,
whether he was willing to make suitable
retraction and explanation. But an
editor of daily paper has to endure this
and much more.
i, One of the most vexatious things is
the imperfection of manuscripts. Dur
! ing the past three years there have not
come into this Office half dozen manu-
scripts-even from regular paid cores
pondents who have written for the press
for years-that were fit to put into the
hands of the compositor. There are his
torical errors, geographical blunders, bat
rhetoric, bad grammar, bad spelling
words Inadvertently omitted, incOrrec
paragraphing and punctuation, to 8
greater or less extent, scattered al
through them. An editor has to go care
fully over every page, pencil in hafid
and make corrections; and when the
letter appears in print, of course the
credit all goes to the correspondent
whose signature is attached-none to the
editor. The most invariable fault o.
manuscripts is in the punctuation, which
in many cases is positively fearful. Yet
the rules of punctuation are simple, and
all founded on principles easily under.
stood; and there is less excuse for had
punctuation than for bad spelling. The
most common error is in punctuating toe
much. Do MT punctuate your compost
tion to DEATH Rochester Democrat.