The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-12-28
mcvEY's VENTURE.


A SUCCESSFUL COUNTRY EDITOR TRANS
PLANTED INTO NEW YORK.
The following truthful contrast between
the easy life and liberal income Of the edito
of q successful village weekly and the slavisl
drudgery and beggarly stipendiary of reward
often doled out to the attaches of great cit,
dai,es, and perhaps. utterly regardless
merit, is from the New York Tribune:
II is q year ago this November since Nc
Vey gave up the editorship Of the larry
town Ne,os. f'He says it doesn't pay" sale
Squire Brice at Potts's drug.shop that night
"Why, he took up that paper when he left
college, and he's brought up four children ant
bought house and lot on it. Doesn't pay
indeed" al think Mac would have like(
US to run him into Congress-" said Potts
spreading pitch-plaster. He'll take
leading part In politics in New York, you'll
see." Well, Mac III make his mark, there!
no doubt of that" said the Squire. Blu
Tarrytown was out of temper with McVey
Everybody had subscribed for the Neaos
and boosted of it out Of their own county
ssIt was none of your tuppenDy village sheets,
as the Squire said tonight. "The seria
stories and poems on the first page were OIL
A No. order, and as for the leaders, you
might look over the New York dailies
Ions time before you found political mat
tiers dealt with as vigorously. Mac handles
the other party without gloves, in way
which makes the articles of those city fel.
lows confoundedly tame. Or where Will
YOU find the apt quotations from Horace or
the sly illusions to the doings Of the ancient
gods and soddesses. Macs classical educa.
ton tells there! Tat magnificent piece Of
his. now, on the Credit-Mobiier business,
that ended with sQuis custodiel lpsos Gus.
todes!' That was neat, sir; neat. Pm not
surprised New York has got hint sWal-
lows up the brain of the country, sir"
McVey, sitting in his dismantled office (he
was to leave in the midnight train), felt it
was time that his brain found its true work
in New York. He was quite assured OF the
vigor Of his logic, the delicacy of bis taste,
the breadth of bis culture. "Men," he told
his wife, "with half my ability have coined
fortunes in New York and Philadelphia.
The kings of Journalism began without shoes
to their feet. Here am /, grown gray-headed
with doing out ideas to these village folks
and what hasit paid? The house cost ST. 800,
and that, with the $4,000 in bank, is the
sum total Of my life's work. owe have
lived very comfortably" ventured Mary.
"The children have always been we'll fed
and clothed, and now the boys are
through college and ready to 60 into bust
ness. Could you have done better in
New York;" "You shall see, you shall
see I" smiling. "I settled the house and
bank.stock on you to-day, Molly. It's but a
drop in the bucket compared to what we
meant to leave his wife and children behind
for the first year of bis venture. BY that
time the golden flood would have begu9.
New York would have discovered the
equality Of man who had come to 1t at this
late day. He looked about his Office now
large, airy room, opening at the back into
a garden, where he had raised vegetables :
Dcky, the local editor. and the three printers
going out to weed with him when slack of
work. In the closet still lay some mammoth
pumpkins, two or three sacks of flour,
and barrels Of potatoes, which old Du5oroW
has brought in TO pay tor his advertisement.
"a miserably pretty way doing business y
be thought. He took up copy of the NeooS !;
there were the funeral verse, kept in type to
serve for every death; there were the glar-
ing headlines, Burning Of Major Shank's
barn! Incendiarism stalks rampant in our
midst ~ the report of Miss Prices school
examination, and the soul-stirr!ng pathos Of
the .yaledictory; the jokes about our gallant
friend Joe buttons visits to Crow creek
and certain young lady there. How small
it wss-stale, provincial! No wonder bis
brain had contracted in such Jail bounds
"No, God knows, it hasn't paid !" cried
Money, tragicalIy, thinking Of the ten tai
ents buried in this napkin.
McVey did not come to this city as do the
majority of adventures, with but the chance
of good luck or work. Wood (who left
Tarrytown twenty years ago, and who was
reputed to have acquired princely fortune
here) had obtained position for him on the
Clarion, a new paper just started, with an
immense capital to back it," be wrote, "and
party influence" Wood met him at the
ferry. "Come up. Well give you shake
down. he said. sour girls are at boarding
school, so we can afford to keep houR in
town" The " house" turned out to be two
rooms in the third story OF overlooking
building, furnished with sofas that turned
into beds, and tables that were wardrobes,
and bookcase that resolved itself into gas
stove and canned soups, rancid butter and
meats, with which Mrs. Wood cooked their
supper, washing up the dishes, and then
seating herself in full dress. What would
Mary, with her great cellars and pantries full
Of stores for winter use think OF this sham
show, this tidbit, hand-to.mouth way Of life?
/" We hayesto economize," said Wood !;
" nv income doesn't run over $4,000, and
what with the girls schooling and rents"
&c. McVey's salary had never been one
tenth that sum but compared to this bis
home had been luxurious as that of an Irish
king. Wood banded him little newspaper.
. Is that the Cla,9on9" cried McVey, in dis
may" "There is no room there for man
to show ability" "You've no idea OF the
money required to carry on paper of even
this size. 1t is to be terse, brilliant, epigram.
matte" McVey, in the dusty, sitting office
of the Clarion, found himself showed
about as the New Zealander in London. He
had been wont to lubricate for days over his
weekly .leaders"; here the manager
thrust dispatch at him at midnight
and called for copy in an hour. His
rounded periods were dOeked, his wit
voted heavy, his gods and goddesses
laughed at by these clever touch-and. go lads
noolder than bis sous. He was asked TO resign
at last. Since last May he haunted the
HV6oPapci ouises olkusSiuS 10 set III rs
news editor, dramatic critic, reporter, earn
ing five dollars now and then by an odd let
ter or book notice. He has been 10 lack Of a
meal sometimes; III and friendiess. even
with che salary of the Clarion's chief he
wrote to Mary, / could not support you
here"
A fortnight ago a committee from larry
townsoffered him the Neps again, and be
went back gaunt, haggard !, but happy map.
he took square meal Of Mary's turkeys,
pies, and innumerable preserves, surrounded
BY his rosy girls and boys, and went down