The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-01-10
Writing for the Press.
burlington Hawk-Eye.l

Prof Matthews, in his delightful book
Hours With Men and Books" devote
chapter, and very instructive chap
ter, too, to advising and directinc geo
pie who are determined to write for the
press, what to write and how to say it
But even in that special chapter Prof
Matthews has overlooked quith mum.
Der of important points which we, in
our experience with occasional news.
paper contributors, have come to look
upon as absolutely essential to good cor
respondence. We have had, even in the
usually infallible Haaok-Eye, some COM
plant, once in while, from occasional
correspondents about mistakes which
have appeared in their articles when
they come out in print. We are aware
that in many cases the fault was our
own, but we are confident all such
trouble could be remedied if our cores
pondents would pay little more atten-
tion to the preparation of their manu-
script. Printers are not always infalli-
BILE, and proof-readers do sometimes
make mistakes, but we have prepared a
few practical hints and instructions, and
if people who write occasionally for the
papers will only observe the following
simple and practical rules, which are
much easier to observe than Prof. Mat
thews's, they may be assured that their
articles will always command the high
est market price, which is seldom less
than two cents pound:
Never write with pen and ink. 1t is
altogether too plain, and doesn't hold
the mind of the editor and printers
closely enough to their work.
If you are compelled to use ink never
use that vulgarity known as the blot
ting pad. If you drop blot of ink on
the paper, lick it off. The intelligent
compositor loves nothing so dearly as
to read through the smear this will
make across twenty or thirty words.
We have seen him hang over such a
piece of copy half an hour, swearing
like a pirate all the time, he felt that
good.
Don't punctuato. Editors and pub
fishers prefer to punctuate all manu-
script sent to them. And don't use
capitals. Then the editor can punctu-
ate and capitalize to suit himself, and
your article, when you see it in print,
will astonish, even if it does not please
you.
Don't try to write too plainly. 1t is a
sign of plebeian origin and public-school
breeding. Poor writing is an indication
of genius. 1t is about the only indica-
ton of genius that great many men
possess. Scrawl your article with your
eyes shut, and make every word as
illegible as you can. We get the same
price for it from the rag-man, as though
the paper were covered with copperplate
sentences.
Avoid all painstaking with proper
names. All editors know the full name
of every man, woman, and child in the
United States, and the merest hint at
the name is sufficient. For instance,
if you write character something like
drunken figure "s," and then draw a
wavy line, and then write the letter M
and another wavy line, the editor will
know at once that you mean Samuel
Morrison, even Though you may think
you mean "Lemuel Messenger" 1t is
great mistake to think that proper
names should be written plainly.
Always write on both sides of the pa
per, and when you have filled both sides
of every page trail a line up and down
every margin, and back to the top of the
first page, closing you article by writing
the signature just above the date. How
editors do love to get hold of articles
written in this style. And how they
would like to get hold of the man who
sends them. Just for ten minutes.
Alone. In the woods, with gun.
Lay your paper on the ground when
you write; the rougher the ground the
better. A dry-goods box or the side Of
house will do if the ground is toe
damp. Anything rather than table OF
desk.
Coarse brown wrapping paper is the
best for writing your articles on. II
you can tear down an old circus poster
and write ON the pasty side of it with 8
pine stick, it will do still better.
When your article is completed
crunch the paper in your pocket and
carry it two or three days before sending
it in. This rubs off the superfuouI
pencil marks and makes it lighter te
handle.
If you can think of it, lose one page
out Of the middle of your article. The
editor can easily supply what is missing
and he loves to do it. He has nothing
else to do.
If correspondents will observe these
directions, editors, in most instances
will hold themselves personally respon
sible for every error that appears il
their article, and will pay full claim
for damages when complaint is made
We shall not forget the last man WHIT
complained at the Ha,0k-Eye Office unde
this rule. We can never, although w
should live thousand years, forget tn,
appealing look he turned upon us whil
we were pulling his lungs out of his ca
with the nail-grab. Our heart seemed
to turn to ice under the influence o
that dumb, beseeching look, while W
tore him to pieces. We have never tor
man to pieces since without feeling
the hot tears spring to our eyes as W
think of that man. We have beel
tempted, time and again, to break our
selves of this habit of tearing men t,
pieces for trivial causes. But we digres
We were merely saying We are Away
happy to receive complaints and correc
any errors for which we are responsible