The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-04-06
Mark Twain as Editor-in-Chief.

Mark Twain, in his new volume,
Roughing It," gives his experience
as local editor of the Virginia City
(Nevada) DAILY Enterprise, and Incl
dentally credits the " leading writer"
of daily journal in a manner as rare
as it usually is deserved. In the case
mentioned Mark had tiredof his labor
as local editor. He says
| wanted variety of some kind. It
came. Mr.. Goodman went away for
week and left me the post of chief
editor. 1t destroyed me. The first
day wrote my leader in the forenoon.
The second day | had no subject, and
put it off till evening, and then copied
an elaborate editotial ont of the
American Cyclopedia, that steadfast
friend of the editor all over the land.
The fourth day | fooled around" till
midnight, and then fell back on the
Cyclopedia again. The fifth day |
cudgeled my brain till midnight, and
then kept the press waiting while |
penned some bitter personalities on
six different people. The sixth day
l labored till far into the night and
brought forth-nothing. The paper
went to press without an editorial.
The seventh day resigned. On the
eight Mr.. Goodman returned and
found six duels on his hands-my per-
sonalities had borne fruit.
Nobody, except he has tried it,
knows what it is to be an editor. 1t
is easy to scribble local rubbish, with
the facts all before you it is easy to
clip selections from Others; it is easy
to string out correspondence from
any locality; but it is an unspeakable
hardship to write editorials. Subjects
are the troubles-the dreary lack of
them, mean. Every day it is a drag,
drag, drag-think and worry and suf-,
fer-al1 the world is dull blank, and
yet the editorial column must be filled.
Only give the editor subject, and
his work is done-it is no trouble to
write it up; but fancy how you would
feel if you had to pump your brains
dry every day in the week, fifty-tWo
weeks in the year. 1t makes one low
spirited simply to think of it. The
matter that each editor of a daily pa
per in America writes in the course of
year wonld fill from four to eight bull
ky volumes like this book. Fancy
what a library an editors work would
make after twenty or thirty years
service. Yet people often wonder
that Dickens, Scott, Bulwer, Dumas,
etc., have been able to produce so
many books. If these authors had
wrought as voluminously as news
paper editor do, the result would be
something to marvel at indeed.
How editors can continue this
tremendous labor, this exhaust
ing consumption of brain-fibre
flor their work is creative, and not
a mele mechanical laying up of
facts like reporting), day after day
and year after year, is incompre-
hensible. Preachers take two months
holiday in midsummer, for they find
that to produce two sermons a week
is wearing in the long run. In truth
it must be so and it is so, and there
fore how an editor can take from ten
to twenty texts and build upon them
from ten to twenty pains-taking edi-
torials week, and keep it up all the
year round, is further beyond COM
prehension than ever. Ever since |
have survived my week as editor /
have found at least one pleasure in
any newspaper that comes to my
hand it is in admiring the long col
umns of editorials, and wondering to
myself how in the mischief he did
it.