The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1872-05-30

the attempted impeachment of AM
drew Johnson. Such topics have no
interest to readers of a weekly pubii-
cation. Select living issues, events of
the day, happenings of the hour for
your pen and write with spirit, with
thought, with force, with candor, with
brevity. In short, put life and snap
into every paragraph of your article.
Select attractive headings for your ed
iforial; often the best books are not
read because their titles are dull and
unpleasing. 1t may be so with your
most meritorieus productions. az
Furnish column ofitemized events
of the week; such paragraphs epito-
mise the history of the past seven
days, and are always read with inter-
est. .aaaJ2sssS 8h a9Esszs-z-sIsss 3zi
Be careful in your selections. Let
| your brain, rather than your hand
guide and operate your scissors. The
real test of Journalistic success. con-
sists not so much in what an editor
puts into his paper, as what he keeps
out. If most managers of local sheets
would select more new, instructive,
high toned, entertaining articles, from
the best authors, for. their columns,
and write less themselves, they would
probably make more reputation and
more readers. They should remeIn-
ber that real, genuine journalism: as
Coleridge fercibly expressed it, @is
the universal Parliament; q written
Babel of thought; a confusion of
tongues; the cauldron of discussion
whence comes the armed heads of
popular will, the extempore eloquence
Of the world, the daily pulpit OF prac-
tical religion" In the newspaper col
umns, every subject of art, science,
literature, politics, or what net, that
presents itself TO the human mind is
considered. The attention of the pee
pie and ofpublic men is attracted to
the needs of the country, and to- cor
ruption, ,peculation,a and the working of
all kinds of law. Therefore. no one
mind can make newspaper. The
scissors judiciously used, is, and must
be the great and legitimate aid.
mo ATTEND TO YOUR LOCALS.
/ But the chief, prime feature of a
country weekly is the Local depart
ment. That is the original Hamlet in
the play Without such feature, the
weekly paper must be failure. In
pointed, ,tersely written reliable "lo-
calls" consists your only defiance to
city competitors. You must take firm
hold of the advantage, and make your
columns complete record of all local
occurrence proper to be published.
Keep your eyes and ears open. and
your memory keen. Do not be salts
fed with items that come to you
alone, but search for them. When
the people understand
"a chiefs amang them taking notes,
An faith he'll print 'em,'
they will readily assist him in his
| work.
If q man sells or buys house
tears down an old, or builds new
one-changes his place of business,
forms or disselves copartnersliip-
leg broken, finger cut of, runaways,
elopements, fires, floods, tornadoes,
crops. large cattle, match horses, sheep
killed by dogs, ard such like, mention
them. These apparently small things
in the aggregate make up much of the
| local happenings of neighborhood,
and constitute that portion of your
weeks labor that will not be Alto
gether lost. 5s s33'la99
Give local court items when the
cases are of public interest, but don't
pollute your columns with every trial
that comes before police magistrate.
Look after County and Independent
| fairs, make comments on what you
see and know about them. Give
churches and civic organizations due
consideration, encourage every de-
serving home institution, and by all
honest eudeavor aid in building up
the town in which you reside. Dill
gence and perseverance are positive
requisites to good 1ocalizer. He
must possess the watchfulness of q
hawk, the persistence of bull dog,
the industry of beaver, ever remem-
bering that the price of success in this
department of journalism, like that of
Liberty, is eternal vigilance.
| Avoid personalities. AS general
rule, If you cannot say anything good
of man, do not localize him at all,
give him a severe letting alone, and
he will feel the neglect more keenly
than structures or abuse. Do not fight
other peoples battles. Let no vicious,
cowardly sneak make you cats paw
to rake Goals of fire on the head of
some one he dislikes. When such
(and they are sure to do SOY offer you
one oftheir malicious articles in which
they roundly abuse their neighbor,
and request you to print it as editO-
rial, tell them it can only go into the
paper as communication, over their
oaon signature. They will then inva-
riably think of some correction or
change they desire to make in the
copy-put the libel back into their
pocket, take it away, and never pro-
duce it again. They would like to
SANDER and defame their enemy or
oks 1,rf in, A0s
so hide behind the editor and seek to
make him responsible for their viii
lainy.
SECURE LOCAL COMMUNICATIONS.
Local correspondence is invaluable.
If possible have reporter in every
town in the county. While it will
add greatly to the interests of the pa
per. the people will also be benefited
in having their village, its business
and its local occurrences, written up
every week or fortnight. Select q
wide-awake correspondent. l do not
mean college professor or a college
graduate, or man who has nothing
else to do; but rather a busy. observ-
ing person, who sees what is going on
around him. If he never saw an Eng
lish grammar, no difference, and If he
never studies Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary, all the better. He will
give you facts, and facts are what you
want. In this day, for every kind Of
information, eagerly the people
'Turn to the Press-its teeming sheets survey
Big with the wonders of e ach passing day;
Births, deaths and weddings, lights, fires and,
wrecks, t.flt l .
Harangues andhail storms, brawls and broken
necks;
Where half-hedged bards on feeble pinions seek
An Immortality of near week;
Where cruel eulogists the dead restore
In maudfin praise to martyr them once more"
GIVE GOOD MARKET REPORTS.
Few local papers devote enough
space to market reports. No one
thing more engrosses the thoughts of
the community than the prices to be
obtained for produce, or paid for
goods. If a half page each week
were filed by clear, well-written
review of this topic, every line would
be carefully and eagerly read by the
farmer and merchant alike. A mere