The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-01-25

The LIFE OF A LoCAL--Is Trials and
PIeasures--FfH Your Pipes.--The local
editor of a daily newspaper, to be sue
cess, must possess most peculiar qualifica-
tions. He must have such varied charac-
teristics and talents as fit him to preach the
gospel or play second fiddle to the devil /;
he must be saint and sinner, hot and cold,
fish and flesh; he must be able to put on
long face at church, ,and be ''blood" when
in the tents of the wicked. He must be
entirely unselfish, always striving to do
good for others and nothing for himself; he
must have memory so retentive as that he
will never forget to say Bill Jones is the
purest and best man in the world, provided
Bill requests it and agrees to pay nothing
for it. He must take no interest
in any matter affecting the party
to which he belongs, unless he is on
the right side. If there are two factions,
he must belong to each one and have no
fixed idea of which is right he must never
let member of his party speak without
hearing it. and telling the public id
lie. lie must never speak well of politi-
cal opponent, for that will make members
of his own party dislike him I; he must never
oppose anybody that wants to go to Con-
gress, no matter how many; and if any Of
his friends want to 90 to the Legislature,
he must swear they are better than any
body else; he must never make mistake !;
he must never do wrong; he must never
set up late, for somebody will be ready to
swear he was in bad company, and is I'M
moral he must never retire early, for then
he would be lazy; he must never refuse to
take a drink when invited, and if he waits
for that, he will be temperance cadet.
He must be able to see any question from
any number Of standpoints, and be sure he
don't miss one of them. He must be a
dog and bark every time some squirt twists
his tail he must be the slave of politicians,
and the tool of designing, selfish men, OF
else be satisfied to be told every day in the
week, he ought to be digging post-holes.
After all we have a pretty good time ;
we have some privileges Others are deprived
of; we go to the theatre, stay there ten
minutes, and then run home and write an
accurate description of a play we never saw, /,
and tell all about the different actors. If a
great man gets sick we are allowed to
ring the door bell and inquire concerning
his health, and, if not i'll, we are allowed
to say he is tolerably well. We have free
passes on some OF the railroads, whose
managers are smart enough to know we
can't use them, because we must be at
work every day. We can occasionally
have a frolic, but its pleasures are marred
with the remembrance, that headache or nc
headache, we must be at our post on time.
We are frequently invited to balls and
parties. We get cigars, by paying .fo1
them, Just like other people, and if we get
more free tickets than we want, we never
have any difficulty in getting rid of them.
We close with word of advice to all
young men who venture to visit this g vale
of tears"-the biggest thing you'll ever gel
during your professional career, will be the
"devil," from those who are fools enough
to imagine it possible for journalist te
please every crack-brained, numb-skul
political hummer there is in the country
Put this in the pipe Of some of our friends
and let 'em take a puff during their leisure
moments, when smiling to think what :
soft thing they enjoy.