Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1872-03-21
marL rvnin N. Ea,.or.in.Chirr

Mark Twain, in his new volume,
"Roughing It." gives his experience
rs local editor of the Virginia City
(Nevada) Daily Enterprise, and incl
dentally credits the "leading writer
OF q dailyjournal In a manner as rare as
it usually is deserved. In the case
mentioned Mark had tired OF his labor
Us local editor. He Gays:
wanted variety Of some kind. IL
came. Mr.. Goodman went away FORA
week and left me the post Of chief edi-
tor. It destroyed me. The first day l
wrote my leader In the forenoon. The
second day I had no subject, and put it
off till evening, aud then copied an
elaborate editorial out Of the American
Cuciopedid, that steadfast friend Of the
editor all ovsr the land. The fourth
day I fooled around" till midnight.
and then fell back on the C~yctopedta
again. The fifth day | cudgeled my
brain till midnight. and then kept tho
pres, waiting while l penned some
bitter personalities OH six different peo-
ple, The sixth day 1 labored till far
into the night and brought forth-noth-
ing. The paper went to press without
All editorial. The seventh day | re-
signed. On the eighth Mr.. Goodman
returned and found six duels on his
hands-my personalities had borne
fruit.
Nobody, except he who has tried 1t,
knows what 1t is to be an editor. 1t Is
easy to scribble local rubbish, with the
facts all before you 1t Is easy to clip
selections from other papers; 1t Is
easy to string out a correspondence
from any locality but It is m un-
speakable hardship to write editorials.
Subjects are the trouble-the drcary
lack of them, | mean. Every day 1t Is
a drag, drag, drag-think and worry
and suffer-all the world Is 4 dull
blank, and yet the editorial column
must be filled. Only give the editor 4
subject and his work is done-it Is no
trouble to write it up but fancy how
you would feel II you had to pump
your brains dry every day in the week,
titty-two weeks In the year. 1t makes
one low spirited simply to think Of 1t.
The matter that eaclI editor Of I daily
paper In America writes In the course
4 wear would fill from four to eight
bulky volumes like this book. Fancy
what a library an editors work would
make after twenty or thirty years ser
vice. Yet people often wonder that
Dickens, Scott, Bulwer, Dumas, etc.,
hive been able to produce 80 many
books. If these authors had wrought
rs voluminously as newspaper editors
do, the result would be something to
marvel at indeed.
How editors a continue this tire.
mendous labor, this exhaustlnS con-
sumption of brain-tlbre flor their work
is creative, and not q mere mechanical
laying up OF facts like reportingh day
after day and year after year, is incom'
~prehensible. Preachers take two
months holiday in midsummer, fol-
they find that to produce two sermons
a week Is wearing In the long run. In
truth 1t must be so and it Is so and
therefore how an editor can take from
ten to twenty texts and build upon
them from ten to twenty p~ains-taking
editorials a week, and keep 1t up all
the year round, Is further beyond com,
p~rehension than ever. Ever since ]
have survived my week rs editor |
have found at least n pleasure IN
any newspaper that comes to my hand
It Il in admlrinG the long columns OF
editorials, and wondering to myself
how I'm the mischief he did Ii.