Litchfield enquirer., 1870-11-24
Editorial Grievances.

On our first page we republish Mark Twain's Memorandum on editorial pres. ents, from the December Galasy. We have so little to complain of in the way of presents, that we must protest that our se- lection is not made by way of Init" at any one in Litchfeld County. One or two matters, however, Mark diatribe suggests, of which we have often intended speaking.
 We constantly receive long selections, with special request for their publication. which cOnld be of very little general interest to our subscribers in general. Not seeing their articles in the ENQUIRER, most of those sending let the matter drop, but now and then, just as his clipping has been de, finitively lost, some tormentor writes for it's return. Having nothing satisfactory to say at this stage of the game, we usually keep silence. Then at the end of another month, comes another epistle as scathing as the writer can make it, enclosing three cent stamp, and heavily underscored de. mand of the precious literary gem unwit- tingly entrusted to us. Then we are in . bad fix; we usually apologize. lay the loss of the copy to our devil, send back a new clipping about the size of the old one,a or, if the man is greatly in arrears, enclose his bill. so that he may realize how much it will cost him to "stop my paper.
 Another nuisance is the advertiser in correspondents clothing. who sends us 8 "death" and few local items," viz.:-, Item 1st, that Mir. Jones has painted his house; item 2d, that ''our enterprising merchant 1.-the correspondent himself1 has just received his new fall goods, some of the cheapest poplins eyer imported. and a line of ginghams that beats the county" !" It is curious feature of our editorial car reer, that we usually have just room enough for that 'death" and the item about Jones' house, but no space left for ''our enter; prising merchant" When $ our enterr prising merchant" gets some friend to write for him. detection is little more difficult; but we have noticed that only the most irregular, occasional correspondents lend themselves to such games 4a- 2" VI
 Another serious editorial bother is a re- quest fnr the return of manuscript. By the time the editor has condensed, and the devil set it, manuscript is not often worth returning. Furthermore, the existence of manuscript in any form in printing-of. fee is brief. No editor thinks of preserv. ing copy" unless request for its pres ervation is made at the time it is sent. Last week, a gentleman sent us commu. nication too long for publication entire. We condensed, Clipping all we could, to save rewriting, and, then wrote half is weeks editorials on the back of what was left In day or two, came 2 request fol a return of the portions of the article not publishedi If all the ''hooks', had beer searched. the office swept. and the ashe
 sifted. we couldn't have found half the re
 mains of that manuscript. bssag4 D
 This article is too far spent for us to ven
 ture On the sea of troubles resulting iron typographical and other printers'a blum
 dsrs- Many raw newspaper contributed Is 50 disgnsted with the outrages his tex
 endures in transmutation into print, tha be never makes a second trial. Yet th, most provoking errors result from hisowl eArslessness. Blindly written proper names imperfect figures. and confused compost tiOn. lead to these worst mistakes, which
 Estle care and little experience. soon en
 able him to avoid. .se..ss,.; v
 -------- 8gal