Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-04-25
THE
How He appears from the Stand
point Of the Oppressed
Reporter.
v. L. Ormsby. Jr., at n. Z. press olub DIM


When the iudefatigable reporter
has escaped the vengeance of the iratt
victims whose door bells he hal
wrenched when he has bounced out
of bed the last martyr to be inter.
| viewed when he has faced the PERIL
of the horse-car, the tenement house
the docks, the suburbs and the police
when with conscious pride he returns
pregnant with news, and has rounded
his last period, and handed in his
precious manuscript, yet another ter
ror awaits him, in the p%itiless assaults
of the blue pencil fend
What is the blue pencil iend?
He is the implacable foe of the
reporter, the devil of the editorial
room, the Internal being who grasses,
alters and occasionally corrects manu-
script. Why is his pencil blue? Be-
cause he makes the reporter feel blue,
and because that color represents the
fame in which his satanic majesty
works. How does a page of copy look
when the blue pencil fend gets
through? 1t looks as if he had been
building rail fences on it. Words,
sentences, paragraphs and pages are
struck out with swell swoop, each
word a tear, each sentence a regret,
each paragraph a moan, and each
page a lost dollar for the unfortunate
reporter, who, if ne be a parens, sits
by with breaking heart and sees the
bread of his children drop into the
Waste BASKET. Sometimes he gets
compensation by SEEING bis worst CON.
position printed. On what principle
doesth blue pencil fend make correc-
tions? They move 10 a mysterious
way, their wonders to perform. Take
four of these fends and give them
Grant famous DISPATCH propose to
fight it out on this line lift takes all
summer, how would they edit it
One would make it read: II propose
to take all the fghu out of this line
all summer" Another would make
it read: II propose to take ali the
fight out OF this summer if it takes all
the line" Another would make it:
IL propose to fight it out all the sum
mer if it tlkes on this line" The
would have it: Il propose to
have all summer to fight it out on this
If there were more fends,
there would be more ways of changing
it or some of them might throw It
away altogether, as a prediction that
or might not be verified. But
the fiend must make some change and
whenever he takes up a piece of COPY
be takes his blue pencil as a matter oil
course. How can | do justice to such
fend in five minutes2 Possibly the
chairman asked me to reply because
my copy has never been changed.
Friends often tell me they recognize
my style in poetry, editorials, reports
md communications. The reason
Thymy writings are recognized is be-
cause the blue pencil fend never
,ouches them. No mans style could
De recognized after his work has been
blue penciled. There is, in fact, but
me department Of a newspaper that {
s now secure from the tends devas. I
alton. He may eliminate the edito- {
ials, paralyze the poetry, cut and !
arve the correspondence, torture the '
estimony Of witnesses, quarrel with
.uotations, shatter Shakespeare or ]
jingle the Bible, but from his attacks !
he advertisements are safe-aye, l
acred. 7
Although | am but giving heresay e
sstimony, l could tell you narrowing Q
ales Of m~utilations and cancellations il
hat have blighted the hopes and sad '
ened the hearts of my associates; of t
.rticles beheaded and castrated of
denuded of every essential =
Oin., and left wretched skeletons of t
cts; Of events distorted and sup b
ressed so that the reporter would b
lush to face the sources of his infor- a
alton Of outrage on etymology, syn s.
x and prosody that would make the g
ritter frantic; Of jokes sacrificed with y
lthless hands Of sentiment rudely t
Itinguished Of poetic fancy or his v
Iric illusions mauled by barbaric r
lnds Of matter put in agate type. 7
Iat dreadful exhauster of COPY; Of !;
le n~ever-ending obstacles that stand 81
the way Of publication. l have
sard the iniuriated scribes dsscaut
BON the woeful condition of society o
at thus ever keeps genius battling p
,ainst adverse fortune; that made p
1hn Milton sell Paradise Lost for I.
that left Goldsmith at the point of Il
rest for debt, with the manuscript p
the Vicar Of Wakefield" ursold p
at made Fielding fail to get eos for
S novel, "Tom Jones" that paid isl
10000. Then l call to
ind what John SWinLOn asked Carl
ARK, What is it?" and Carl Marx
piled, Struggle" Struggle o. We q
.byro Millions, Fieldings and Gold
liths. Tackle the blue pencil fend e
his lair. Compel him to give his y
asons. When they ask you to drink N
5 health, say it is like giving the d
Of Samuel J. Tilden and call Il
pom John Kelly TO respond tell Ell
ZEN our conflict with the fiend il An Of