The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-03-01
Death OF Newspapers.

There is 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
them no more.
Men succeeding in nothing else have
concluded it to be a 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 a 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 90 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 well
cursed. If a man, or book, or periodi-
cal, 60 forth unassaulted, ruin is nigh.
There is nothing that so decidedly lifts
a thing up before the public gaze Us 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 someth ing
of everything. He wants more than a
pair of scissors and O box of mucilage
If he merely retails the ideas of others,
the public will prefer to go 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 thought
on the end of ms pen, and fling it a
thousand miles, till it strikes within
an inch of the point at which he
aimed at.
Lack of capital has thrown others.
Ink, paper, press, type, printers, edito-
rial salaries, contributors fees, postal
expenses, rent, machinery, necessary re-
pairs, are taking down many large for
tunes. The literary enterprise is often
crushed under its own cylinders, is
drowned in its own ink, is chewed up
with It's own type, is shrouded in its own
paper, has its epitaph in its own col.
umns. The wider the circulation of the
lily managed newspaper the more GER
tam the doom. He who attempts to
publish paper without pockets full of
ready cash publishes his own discom-
future.
Call on the witness.stand the hun
dreds Of men who are now settling up
the bills for their extinct newspapers.
Every mail brings to us the parting
bow of some retiring publishers, with
pockets turned wrong side out, from
which hungry creditors are trying to
milk out another shilling.-Nt,s York
Errbonos