News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-04-05
NEWSPAPER LIFE OUT WEST.
starting "A Paper in a Little Town andIIav-
ing Fun out of Ii.


Peck, of the Milwaukee Sun, says:
There is no other business that mortal
man ever engaged in, that embraces
such a continued round of pleasure and
| glad surprises as attends the establish
| ing and conducting of a country news
paper in a small town out West.
| There is always in every city, he says,
some young man who thinls hie stock
of divine aiflatUs is too large, more than
he can possibly hold another minute
without blowing off or exploding and
| killing some one and it is often such Il
young man who wants to get into the
newspaper business. He goes to some
out of the way country town, and whee-
| dies few of the leading business men
into the idea that they need a paper to
boom the place, and four or five hundred
dollars is subscribed and the fun COM
mences. For n few weeks, or perhaps
months, until the novelty of having a
paper in the new town wears off. busi-
ness is very good, and the man thinks
he has struck it rich, and he refuses to
sell out, at a fabulous price. But before
long a reaction sets III. His stock of
energy commences to play ont, the
people don't worry much whether the
paper comes out or not, subscribers re-
fuse to pay or take the paper, advertis-
ing gets low, the office hands are obliged
to steal wood, and stand the corner gro
Gerry off for soap for the office.
The proprietor finds his bills at the
the stores accumulating, and getting
bigger than the advertising accounts
will pay. The business men of the
place send away to other towns for Job
work, and the editor is laid up on a sick
bed from the effects of a mauling he
gets from some esteemed citizen, on ac-
count of an article that appeared in the
paper. A draft from the paper house
lies in the bank unpaid, and to save it
from protest, the editor hustles around
and borrows money that he don't know
as he will ever be able to pay. In his
walks by day he is constantly harrassed
by his creditors and his dreams by night
are full of all manners of terrors. He
wonders from week to week what he
will have for the next weeks issue, or
how he will pay the butcher for the last
liver he had for dinner. He makes a
vigorous effort to he appointed post
master of the town to give him some
ready cash. but fails through lack of
political influence runs for County
Clerk, but is beaten by one of the old
settlers out mt the corners, whose wife Is
sick, and the people want to do some
thing to help him out.
After a few years of trials and hard
ships of this kind, the poor man gives up
in despair and sells out to some other
man who never had any newspaper ex-
perience, and don't know how much fun
there is in the business. And so it goes.
The above picture may be overdrawn in
some particulars, but in others it falls
far below the average But some one
has got to print papers III country towns,
and so we suppose there will always be
men who can tell of the hardships and
discouraging incidents attending the
publication Of a paper, in a town that
cannot support 1t.
But after all is said, any man who
ever started a newspaper in small town,
will swear that so long as he could keep
| out of the poor house he had more fun
than you could shake a stick at