The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-04-17
,ERMS $500 PER ANNUM In ADVANCE.
A "Leader" under Difficulties.
From the Atlanta Weekly.

Si0 was HOtnlnS else iOf lt-Wc untlst
write our leader. We weren't aware OF hay
ing any very definite views on any subject
. VIC cared particularly to express; and
NO.. I = 'eei Ike writing heavy articles any
| snr;, was such a day to be out OF doors.
~ "au come, heralded by robins and
-'',u organs, and for three yxoo,,s -. 80
nai peeh covered with leaves 90 -
u'uii 10 1t, however) Of pan.r Ne -oo'''
poetry on spring; varying in s,v,o
ton from the mild school cir, t.. "nu uic-
beauty and duty, youth and truth "uere
Win great ehect-to the Byroni; effusions ~
an Atlanta youth who parts his hair IN ,s.
middle, wears lavender kids in the sorenoo.' :
! and exhibits much poetic absence Of n,n5
which sometimes leads him TO exchange hat.
canes, etc.-and invariably to the detrino,,,
of the other party concerned. His poem an
Spring darkly insinuated that the seasonable
annual recurrence of vegetation did not IN.
crest him personally, that despair and dande-
ions have nothing in common aud that as
soon as possible he would like to have the
south wind breathe over his grave.
But this depression does not re-
late how we wrote our editorial. We
sharpened our pencil, took some manuscript
paper and assumed the editorial chair and an
inspired expression. Before we had decided
upon subject, there was knock at the
door, man entered, walked up to us with an
air OF stifened viciousness evidently meant
for dignity, and enquired what we ''meant by
stating in the columns of the Weekly, that at
the recent donation party for the Rev. Mr.,
he received three bushels of potatoes and
$3.50 in greenbacks, when it was turnips and
1925? And this'' he added bitterly sis in
dependent journalislnr' We told him we
didn't write the notice, had not seen it and
didn't know it had been written, but would
enquire about it and have the error corrected
We called the sub-editor, who said he hadn't
written it, was out of town that day, rather
thought the local reporter did it. SO we gave
mighty shout, which woke our errandboy,
who was sleeping just outside the door with
his head on pile Of exchanges, sent him
down to the corner of the street where our re-
porter usually is to be found, and had that in
teresting but erratic Bohemian before rs intwo
minutes time. He said be wrote the notice. z
sorry, unintentional; and finally went off arm
in arm with our visitor. We wrote the first
sentence of our leader.aud were interrupted
by citizen who insisted that our article on
the Credit Mobilier was an attempt TO get our
self elected member of the common council of
Atlanta, and when We denied it and stated
that the Weekly would uphold truth and in
IN yUI ~.l
be found, administered an excessively witty
poke in our side, INDUCED in facial contor-
tions to surprising extent, and assured us
we were no end clever, and knew how to put
ourself where we should do the most good.
We told him we proposed invariably to tell
the truth in all circumstances-that in order
to grind an axe we would never dull the edge
of our little hatchet, and that our best cop
per-toed type should ever proclaim Justice,
Equity, Right and all the other capital letters.
Our "epea pteroenta apparently bewildered
him little-he vaguely replied. 'You're
another 'and departed. And then it was
book agent, and next man with maps, and
another witha very ingenious Patent Self Act
Ing Rotary Apple-corer. 1t cut hole il. our ta-
BILE, took the skin offtwo of our knuckles, and
completed its work of devastation by falling
on the sub-editor's toes. Next it was the
coming for copy; theu lot of
books to be reviewed; after that, lady with
. subscription paper for the Society for sup
plying umbrellas to the natives of Ujiji; then
came two or three friends, who having spare
hour or two themselves, adopted the popular
theory that an editor is a leisurely person,
with nothing to do and large salary for
doing it. So they passed the rest of the fore
noon with US. We were glad to see them
but our leader was, meanwhile, at stand
still. The rest of the day was after the same
style; bores, politicians, a theatrical agent,
half dozen men with great, but wholly i'm.
aginary, griefs on account of some articles of
ours and threatening us with libel suits.
whereas we had not previously been aware
of their existence. So our Gay was lost-we
sat up all night fixing the telegraphic matter
and writing our leader. The compositor did
his best with the unintelligible scrawl; and
when our sentences failed to connect on ac-
count Of our extreme sleepiness, that excel
lent compositor supplied words and punctua-
ton; and We solemhly assert that the best
paragraph in that leader Is one that we do
not recolect to have written. G vsl
: How THE PLAIN PEOPLE WILL LOOK AT
IT.-Senator Oglesby of Illinois presents the
salary steal in the following imagined CONVEX
sation with constituent: --
'.Now, don't you think the pay ofthe MEM
bers Of Congress too much ?'' will probably
say, mo, perhaps not. 1t may not be:
confess it is considerable in these dull times.