New-York tribune., 1875-05-11

As q rule, we have no violent passion for
ddactic verse, in which small moral does
duty as chorus. We don't care to be told that
we must Learn to labor and to watt or Try
"Agdin" or that :" 1t will never do to give 1t
cup so, Mr. Brown" We prefer our proverbs
without stanza sauce, and like noble sentiments
best in their native simplicity. But bit OF
metrical wisdom which we have encountered in
the newspapers has hit ia in a soft spot. We
quote: "Whcn writing an article for the press
"Whcther prose or verse, Just try To utter your
thoughts in the fcwcst words, And let
"them be crisp and dry; And when it is
" finished. and you suppose 1t is done cx-
"actly brown, Just look it over again and
"thcn Boil IT DOwNw This is the
lcveliest " original" poetry which we have read
for many a long day; nor do We remember in
Campbell, in Whateey, in Blair, in tho
Rhet0ricn of anybody a nOber truth moro
neatly expressed. TIE TRIBUNE is no chicken !;
il has been living and steadily growing for a
great many years and to tell the honest TRUTH
it never found itself SO incOnveniently small
before. Seventy-twO columns would seem TO
afford ample verge and yet every day we are
forced to leave out much more than We pub
lish. We live in a chrOnically crowded cOndi-
ton. We bend every evening under On en-
barrassment of material; while sometimes it
seems to us that every day and every hour Of
the day we are doing nothing but Boil Down !!
Still there is mass Of matter which the
public DESIRES and very properly, to have in
full measure and in all the vastness of
it's original bulk. In the case of q
great trial, for instance. readers, forming
as they do jury and, in fact, "a tribunal of last
resort, demand the evidence and all the argu-
ments unabridged; and to such demand we have
been and still arc responding at great expense
not merely of money, but OF many other things,
and especially of space which is invaluable.
When any event has fairly occupied the gene
raj attention. no details can be too minute and
none too profuse. 1t is this fact which to our
mind seems conclusive; it is that which may
determine another. The general variety of the
whole sheet must bo reproduced in particular
articles, and rs to special topics. Thus it
happens that u single subject will sometimes
bc the predominant feature of newspaper until
it has been disposed of but no well conducted
newspaper will permit it altogether TO exclude
news 10 which the purchaser is entitled.
A correspondent who has something impOr-
tant to communicate cannot always bo brief !;
but whenever brevity is possible it is the surcst
to secure hospitabc reception. The great
fault Of unpIactccd writers is too much writ
ing. and this arises partly from earncstness
without method, partly from want OF skill in
the arrangement OF material, and frequently
from ignorance of the space which Ms. put
into type will Occupy. There are certain points
upon which any one meaning to address a
newspaper should inform himself. This article,
for instance, written in an ordinarily large
hand, covers seven half-sheets of commercial
note paper; it would tako up somewhat less
room il printed in a smaller type, and still less
if, upon revision, We bad Boiled it Down.