Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-03-13
Mark Twaln as Eal,or.ln.Ch,ef.

Mark Twain, in his new volume
Rougbing 1t, gives his experience as
local editor Of the Virginia City NE
vada) Daily Enterprise and incidentally
credits the leading writer of a daily
journal in a manner as rare as it usually
is deserved. In the case mentioned
Mark had tired of his labor as local
editor. He says: 50 7iaha
/ wanted variety of some kind. II
came Mr. Goodman went away for q
week and left me the post Of chief edi.
tor. 1t destroyed me- The first day ]
wrote my leader in the forenoon. The
second day | had no subject, and put il
off till the afternoon. The third day ]
put it Off till evening, and then copied
an elaborate editorial out of the Ameri.
can Cyclopedia, that steadfast friend Of
the editor all over the land. The fourth
day fooled around till midnight, and
then fell back on the Cyclopedia again.
The fifth day cudgeled my brain till
midnight, and then kept the press wait
ing while | penned some bitter perso-
nalities on six different people. The
sixth day l labored in anguish till far
into the night and brought forth
nothing. The paper went to press with
out an editorial. The seventh day |
resigned. On the eighth Mr.. Goodman
returned and found six duels on his
hands my personalities had borne
fruit, Nobody, except he has tried it,
knows what it is to be an editor. 1t is
easy to scribble local rubbish, With the
facts all before you; it is easy to clip Sc
lections from other papers; it is easy to
string out correspondence from any
locality; but it is an unspeakable hard
ship to write editorials-subjects are the
troubles-the dreary lack OF them
mean. Every day it is a drag, drag,
drag-think and worry and suffer-all
the world is dull blank; and yet the
editorial column must be filed. Only
give the editor subject, and his work is
done-it is no trouble to write it up; but
fancy how you would feel if you had to
pump your brains dry every day in the
week, fifty-twe weeks in the year. 1t
makes one low-spirited simply to think
of it. The matter that each editor of a
daily paper in America writes in the
course of year would FIJI from four to
eight bulky volumes like this book.
Fancy what library an editors
work wsuld make after twenty or
thirty years service. Yet people
often marvel that Dickens, Scott,
Bulwer, Dumas, etc, have been able
to produce so many books. If these au-
thors had wrought as voluminously as
newspaper editors do, the result would
be something to marvel at indeed, How
editors can continue this tremendous
labor, this exhausting consumption Of
brain-fber (for their work is creative,
and not q mere mechanical laying up of
facts, like reporting), day after day and
year after year, is incomprehensible.
Preachers take two months holiday in
for they find that to pro
duce two sermons week is wearying in
the long run. In truth it must be so;
aud, therefore, how an editor can take
from ten to twenty texts and build upon
them from ten to twenty painstaking edi-
torials week, and keep it up for all the
year round, is further beyond compre-
hension than ever. Ever since | sur
vived my week as editor have found at
least one pleasure in any newspaper that
comes to my hand; it is in admiring the
long columns of editorials, and wonder
ing to myself how in the mischief he
did il. IH