The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1883-11-03
JOURNALISTIC supERsIIIlaNs.

JOURNALISTIC SUPERSTITl0NS.
care editors as superstitious as
theatre actors, and sailors, and rail-
road men?" asked the old subscriber,
sitting down in Queen Anne chair,
and putting his feet timidly under a
centre table inlaid with Mexican
onyx. " Yes" said the solemn
editor, "they are. Ever since news
papers were invented Ivy Cadmus
journalists in every department have
had superstitious beliefs and ideas
peculiar, to their profession. Now
there's the managing editor. If the
first man who comes into the private
office Monday morning is man who
wants to go to Congress, and has an
editorial article, three columns long,
written by himself, showing how the
country is lost unless he is nominat-
ed in minute, the manager is
gloomy all day, because he doesn't
, believe that article is going in the
paper. No reason for it, you know,
only he is just superstitious enough
to believe that the manuscript will
be lost in the waste basket ten feet
deep before the author is half way
downstairs. Then there's the leader
writer, too. If he found his pen
sticking in the paste, he'd suspect
Dan down in the Office in minute.
When he finds his desk opened and
his pencils gone, he suspects the
proof-reader; and when the paper
comes out dated February - he
suspects the 'maker-up.' And an
other thing: if he picks up pen by
the wrong end he will turn it around
and say something before he willwrite
with it. I've talked with him about
it, but he won't give any reaon for
it. As for the news editor, do you
see that mountain of exchanges on.
his table? Well, before you get
clown stairs that young man will lean
out of the window to watch your
appearance at the counting-room
door, and he will say, 'Pll bet a
dollar that old cuss stole the
Boston Transcript and the
"Denver Tribune" He, is super
stitious about everything that hap
pens, and every man that comes in.
He believes it as bad luck to drop
the scissors down the elevator well.
Did it once, and they straddled
right into both eyes of regular
advance-paying subscriber, who was
locking up to see the elevator come
down. He believes in Mascottes.
Gets five letters week from some
body, and the boys believe he has
one. He won't work on Sunday or
the Fourth of July. Says when a
man works on Sunday it is a sign
he's lonesome. If he wants to get
anything out of the library when he
is sitting at his desk he crosses the
room before he takes down the book.
Crosses it again before he sits down.
If we run out of paper, the press
man believes it is sign that the
paper won't be out. If a printer asks
for money before payday it is
sign .he hasn't been on the paper
quite a week. 1t is also sign that
he'll never do it again. If the press
man asks a printer for a dollar it is
a sure sign that the printer hasn't a
cent. When the foreman finds a
handful of pye in with his quoins,
and picks up a sidestick and starts
down the room making loud remarks,
it is a sign he is going to (and for)
the devil. Oh, a newspaper office
is the most superstitious place you
can come to-" "And YOURSELF"
said the old subscriber. Snow, do
you believe in any of these things?"
opp said the solemn editor. ooh,
believe it's about time The
old subscriber nodded thrice, put
on his hat, rose to his feet, and the
old one and the solemn one passed
slowly, but not too slowly, down the
winding stairs. Robert Burdette in
the Hawkeye.