The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1872-03-13

IF the Medium desires to come to the
ordeal of All examination OF books, we
will cheerfully acquiesce.
III. Will the Medium deny what We
charged in our article, that it had de-
clined to accede to our proposition to
share the County advertising, even
from its first establishment; whilst we
left it to the public to decide, whether in
this particular it had exhibited the Ilb'
erality which would best commend 1t to
the public favor. We might have shown
further that in so doing. it too had dis
regarded precedent which had prevail
ed for fifteen years, between the County
papers, of Abbeville. Let the public
decide whether in thus acting, it was
properly recognizing the claims OF a
contemporary, or showing a proper re-
card for the interests of the people.
But the Medium is disposed to boast
of the rapid increase of its circulation,
and to be somewhat jubilant in its pre-.
dictions. Inasmuch rs the Press ana
Banner it says, has only reached cir
culation of one thousand copies In nine
teen wears, whilst the Medium has at
tanned circulation of seven hundred,
in three months, it leaves it to the pub
lie to Judge as to the vitality of the two
papers. Admit the statement for argu-
ment's sake. We suppose the Medium
has read something about
"Jonah's Gourd,"
and we might as we'll accept the scrip
ture statement of its rapid growth, as
proof of its vigor and endurance. But
the Good Book tells US,
ut sprang up in night and perished
in night,"
and even should the Medium belong to a
genus of nobler plants, it may congrat-
EIate itself. should it survive its ad0les-
cence, and in attaining be able to retain
the yicorof manhood. Papers, like ev-
erything else have their law of develope-
ment, and few County journals are able to
boast of maintaining for twenty years a
of one thousand subscribers.
1t would be more prudent at least for the
Medium, to Withhold its boasting, until
time had set upon it the seal of success,
and it had made good its claims to the
confidence of its friends.
With all of our high conceptions OF
The true mission of the journalist, we
cannot hope to emulate the generous
much less attain the high
,im, proposed by the conductors of the
Medium in the publication of their pa
oer-to wit "the edification of our peo-
Die and the building up of the State.'
We propose to ourselves something
more modest In its scope, and diseiatm
my Quixotic excess of generosity In our
business. We propose to make an hon
,st livelihood in the proper discharge of
our duties to the public, and claim only
| proper recompense for our labor. In
publishing the County advertising with
,ut compensation, we make no preten-
,ions to generosity, as the Medium char
res, but are only attempting to discharge
1ur duty to our readers; and in doing 80
claim an equal right with the Medium
10 recompense for our services.
But whilst making no claim to gen.
erosity, we Indignantly repel as 1t de-
serves, any imputation that we have
made exorbitant charges for advertising.
Dur charges here are much lower than
in the cities-and lower than what pre-
vail in many of the counties. What If
our advertisements are displayed Pin
this we fl ilow the custom of the day,
and the request Of our patrons, who
have right to control in the matter,
and who pay according to the space
which their advertisements occupy. If
such be their pleasure-this is certainly
''no body's business but their own"
We drew no inviduous distinctions of
race in our article, as the Medium would
intimate. We claimed an equal If not
larger circulation among the blacks, and
to be at least as fair an exponent Of the
feelings and interests of the whites. We
made no imputations upon the charac-
ter of the Medium to call forth it's ear
nest protestations of devotion to the
right and hatred of the wrong. Why
boast of beinSa friend to the poor as
we'll as the rich. Does it claim a mo-
nopoly of this sentiment of brother
hood, or does it find 1t necessary to make
good it's title to any portion of it.
The Medium processes to be "indepen-
dent in politics, religion and morals. ~
independence "in religion and morals"
presents to our minds very vague idea,
in which rationalism, free-loveism, and
other isms, seem to be prominent ele-
ments, aud until better advised we must
decline to contest the claims Of the paper
to a monopoly Of the article. Independ-
ence "in politics" does present to Us some
thing tangible; but our contemporary
does not seem to have formed very
clear idea between independence" and
'neutrality"-popularly known as
RIDING ON THE FENCE.
Whilst adverting to this subject, we
would be pleased to learn from the Me-
dim,