Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-06-15

spectlve ne1gn Dorn0oQ6. on are COM
PEELED to neglect society, and are therefore
| almost ostracised. Your families-(for
the old maxim of "fools for luck and poor
men for babies" will still apply)-grow
up almost without your knowledge and
would need an introduction, if by some
strange chance they could some day be
dressed in style. If this picture is over
drawn as to some, it is not as to others,
and again ask why is this thus2 It is
thus simply because the publishers of
Vermont have for generations done their
business in the most un-business like way.
There may have been a few exceptions,
and there are few now, but with many
there is looseness enough to let the bank
of England slip through, and irregularity
enough to shame the model of noun
tain fence.
ADVANCE PAY.
Two or three years ago this association
resolved that henceforth all newspaper
subscription ought tosbe paid in advance.
How many of you have adhered to the
rule then proposed Not one-third. Why
| Because you have feared that you would
thus reduce your lists. Had you not bet
ter reduce them by every man who does
not pay? To be sure. Very we'll, then,
will any man who. cares for the paper be
| willing to go without it long when the
only consideration in the way is the diff
ference between paying for it now and
paving by and by? ,"But," it may be
plead, 81 charge more for it if not paid
in advance, and thereby make rather than
lose" DO you make J.? Let such a sub
| scriber come in and begin to hint about
some other paper and you will hardly stop
| to talk long about that extra half dollar.
so that if you should figure up the result
at the end of the year, you would find
| that you had not received half nor quar-
ter enough of tn sse extra half dollars to
offset those pleasant little papers from
postmasters in all quarters, marked "otfi-
cial," and informing you that Your paper
addressed to such an one, is refused, or
remains dead in the office, or must be
discontinued because the postage Is not
paid No, gentlemen, the greatest fallacy
we have is trusting strangers for sum
that il too small to collect and then hop
ing to make it up from those who pay
but will not pay extra without a grudge,
and then, if exacted, will not renew.
BOGUS ADVERTISING AGENTS.
Twin brother to this folly is that of ac-
cepting advertisements from those wild
cats who infest the cities, claiming to be
advertising agents, but sailing under diff
ferent names and never paying. If we
cannot get sufficient advertising without
taking it from those whom we do not
know, and therefore ought to know will
never paw, we had better fill up our pa
| ki,~H tho the
darkie would make a cannon-"take a
| hole and run iron around it." In New
York there are two or three-at the most
four-well known and perfectly respon-
sible firms, through whom all our adver-
tising from that quarter ought to come.
| If any others would establish a business,
let them either pay in advance or give
guar 4ut ties, the same as men do in other
branches of business. The publisher who
suffers himself to be yictimized not only
loses in that particular case, but adver-
tises his gullibility to the world, and soen
finds himself verwhelmed with patron
age which will neither pay the butcher
nor the baker, nor save his reputation
from the fools undertaken. He will soon
fiud that if he sells himself thus cheaply
to those who do not pay, those who do pay
own prices on what they send. And thus,
between the upper and the neither mill
stones. product will be ground out
which, far from making bread for his
children will only make paste to seal his
doom.
The newspaper has only two possible
sources of income-subscripti and
space-while it's expenses are many. IL
it fails to utilize its resources to the ut
most, it will either go under itself OF
leave is proprietor under at the end. Ii
ia like ship, which bears precious car
goes if rightly sailed, but which becomes
heavy, unmansgeable and almost worth
less if too many bsrnacles are allowed tc
form upon its hulk.
DEAD HEADS
are the barnacles of newspaper. They
accumulate with surprising rapidity and
stick like brothers. Here they will pro
pose to help you by securing subscribers
or holding those you have; there they
promise to send in news; some will give
you an advertisement and expect the
paper to be "thrown in"-the same al
ladies sometimes expect gift of two dol
lars worth of buttons and thread when
they buy ten dollars worth of dress; 9th
ers will expect the press, as a matter o.
course, to supply them gratis because
they, likewise, are servants, either of The
public or the Lord. And so the list grows
until sometimes it amounts to hundreds
and rarely to less than scores-and wha1
is it all worth ? Not one quarter what il
costs. I know an editor who feels TOT
poor to dress well enough to attend
} church, and yet whose contributions
to the support of the gospel exceed one
hundred dollars year. Half of it OF
more goes to persons whom he does moi
know. and less than one-third of it did ht
ever subscribe. If it were charity giver
in any other form, he would be both
thanked and praised by the bene6ciaries
} though probably he would be watched BY
} his creditors, who would be likely tt
think he had better "be Just before he wa'
generous" The editor knows he is doing
wrong, but he dislikes to be small, and 81
he takes gentle hints and bleeds at every
pore. There is only one safe rule, ane
that is, to do business as business and moi
as charity. If we have anything to give
let US give it as others do-conscieusly
J willingly, from surplus and not from
stock.
THE PoACHERs ON THE PRESS.
There is too widely prevalent notioi
, that country newspapers are published
for the accommodation of their patrons
rather than for their enlightenment. A
consequence, every man who gets mar
) ried expects to inform his friends OF l
, through our columns without expense
though he pays for his license aud pay
the minister for the amen. Others, toe
: if fatker, brother or member OF thei
Lodge dies, though he may have been un
known to ninety-nine one hundredths o
our readers, and, like Pollock's man ma,
never have looked "beyond the visibl
. circle tfat girt him round" yet expect q
+ to yield quarter of column for resolu
? tions, run in the usual mould, and ar
7 quick to upbraid US if we are unwilling
/. RI opnupo har our papar fn that ax ten