Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-02-29
Death of Newspapers.

There is a fearful mortality among
periodicals. An epidemic has broken
out which has brought TO the last gasp
many of the dailies, weeklies and
monthlies. During the last few weeks
scores of these have died of cholera in
fantum. Only little while ago they
came forth with flaming prospectus and
long lists of eminent contributors but
the places that knew them once know
them no more.
Men succeeding in nothing else have
concluded it to be providentiAl indi-
cation that they should publish pa
per. Many hundreds of thousands of
dollars have been sunk, and every issue
of the majority of the temperance, Sun
day-school, religious and political pa
pers of the country is plunge into
debt from which they are hoping some
purchaser will lift them out. 1t is a
constant question in the community
where religious newspapers go to when
they die? We know where the basely
partisan go to without asking.
The mania is fearful. Many of our
literary friends are uneasy until they
have invested their last five thousand
dollars in printers ink. Nine-tenths
of them may whistle for their
money; but the dog will not come back,
having found some other master. Why
all this giving up of the ghost in news
papers?
Some of them died for lack of being
mathematical. Nothing ever succeeds
in this country without being we'll
cursed. If a man, or book. or periodi-
cal, go forth unassaulted, ruin is nigh.
There is nothing that so decidedly lifts
thing up before the public gaze as the
end of a bayonet. The neutral paper
almost always fails, because it clears the
scorn of parties and churches Kicks
and cuffs are an indispensable inheri-
lance The more valuable the quarry
the more frequent the blasting. You
cannot make wine without the crushing
of the clusters. The most successful
periodicals of the day are those that
have been most violently bounded.
Some of these papers die for lack of
brains. A man may plead law or preach
the gospel with less intellect than is
required for the conduct Of a paper.
The editor must understand something
Of everything. He wants more than a
pair of scissors and box Of mucilage
If he merely retails the ideas Of others,
the public will prefer to 60 up and get
the thing at the wholesale establish.
ment. He must be able with strong
and enterprising pen to discuss govern
ment religions, educational enterprises
social changes, books, amusements
men, institutions, everything. He
must have strength to take a though
on the end of his pen, and fling it
thousand miles, till it strikes within
an inch of the point at which h,
aimed at.
Lack of capital has thrown others
Ink, paper, press, type, printers, edito
rial salaries, contributors fees, posta
expenses, rent, .achinery, necessary re
pairs, are takin., down many large for
tunes The literary enterprise is otter
crushed under its own cylind rs,
drowned in its own ink, is chewl VI
with its own type, is shrouded in its Owl
paper, has its epitaph in its own col
umns. The wider the circulation of tn
lily managed newspaper the more Ger
tain the doom. He who attempts t,
publish a paper without pockets full o
ready cash publishes his own discom
future.
Call on the witness-stand the hun
dreds Of men who are now settling u
the bills for their extinct newspapers
Every mail brings to us the partin
bow of some retiring publishers, witt
pockets turned wrong side out, fror
which hungry creditors are trying t
milk out another shilling.-Neo Yor