The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1869-02-05
Pride.


In our brief experience as the
conductor of a newspaper, We think
we have observed that journalists
are more frequently sustained in
business by Pride than by Money.
Whether those who employ the press
come up to their obligations or not,
the paper is expected to make its
appearance regularly, the hands are
always required to be On hand to do
up a job, the local matters relating
to town, village or neighborhood
are expected to be dished up and
prepared for the taste of the reader;
the carrier is slightly cursed if he
does not deliver the paper promptly,
the advertisements are looked at
with closencss and scrutiny which
sometimes seems unkind, and if a
word is out of order or a display line
in place not agreeable to the
taste of the employer, "the devil is
to pay sure enough. There is no
business where greater amount of
promptItule and care is exacted by
patronizing public, and yet there
is mono that is SO universally neg
lected by those who boast of fur-
nishing it support. A gentleman
steps into your Office and after pass
ing time day, he blandly informs
you that he bag concluded ''to take
your paper for which he expects
YOU to DO extremely grateful. His
name is entered. Post Once, County
and State duly recorded, and after
a common place remark or two your
PATRON retires. Fora whole year
you write his name and address ev-
cry week on sheet that costs you
over one cent before it was printed
on, and your pay for the whole work
is less than five cents q week! #
you get the money at the end Of the
year you may count yourself lucky
the more gentle style is to keep
on sending it until the account be-
comes too large to collect without a
suit-about this time the Office is
insolvent, the printer abandons it,
and it is sold by the sheriff to q
new man who can master means or
credit enough to run it through a
second series with like results. As
it is with subscriptions, so it is in
Jobs and Advertisements. They
are ordcrod with magnanimous lib
erality, but in very many cases all
profits they bring are scl6shly ap-
propriated to private use, and the
printer is remembered only as a
SOMETHING which it is tao DUTY of
the town aud county "to support!"
He is thought of as "6rst rate
fellow and the patron hardly knows
how to dispense with him, but that
important thought, show much do l
owe him." and it more important
sequence, the payment Of the debt,
rarely interferes with the general
tenor Of his reflections on Stocks
and Lands and trades, Sc, &c.
Now when the paper appears reg.
ularly, and Jobs are executed
promptly, and your Advertisements
occupy space to tho exclusion of
matter Of public interest, and il you
fail to pay for 1T, whether is it
Pride or Money, that keeps that Of
fee up? True, tho Printer may have
money to begin with, and credit to
continue, but it has been truly said
that always taking out and never
putting in, soon comes to the bot
tom, and after the means necessa-
ry to set the press agoing are ran
out, the only sensible course would
be to stop and wind up; but here
comes Pride. The proprietor has
obtained notoriesy-his name is ia
miliar to the general reader in this
sectisn, and known to his brethren
in distress throughout the State.
The reputation of the paper and by
identification, his own character is
at stake, and rather than "stay the
press he struggles on thrcgh diff
eulties, borrows little money hert,
a little paper there, begs tho hands
in his employ to be patient, such aud
such patrons will certainly pay up
shortly-until, like the soul spoken
Of by somo poet, he 4 .a@t
Raves rosni the wall Of his lNgY tenament
Til forced at last to the trenondous verge
He sinks at last 10 everlasting ruin" '-~ ~
We don't know If the lines are
correctly quoted, but the idea is
there and that is all We arc after, J
Do not understand US as applying
these ref ctions to our own case, or
taking this method to wake up ouR
patrons, As body of mon We %
not believe tue. names Of q hetter
paying crowd can be found on The
b51is ofany off Q IN America, hgt We
have noticed within a few. .Meel,s that
ever twcnty of Qur Westesn, soten7
p6rarics lave expired, Or, aaaonQeel
themselves in she last grasp, anil