The Republican journal., 1883-07-12
In Defence of the Country Editor.

When the funnyman of city daily has cX-
hausted all other veins of humor, and has not
whercwithal to satisfy the demands for copy,
he rcsurrects the stale wtticisms concerning
the country editor with which newspaper read
ers have been RECALLED for half q century or
more. The big gooseberry or pumpkin; the
mammoth egg ''laid on the editors table," the
thrifty crops of farmer Smith; the big barn of
farmer Jones; the arrival of the city cousins,
ana the departure of zone of our most estinl-
able young men to seek his fortune in the West"
these are the items in the country weekly
which the city writer finds so overwhelmingly
funny and ridicules 50 numerically. 1t does
not seen to have occurred to the country editor
to retaliatc. Perhaps he has not the time to
spare; or perhaps he does not care in the least
what his esteemed contemporary" saws of his
humble efforts to entertain his readers - all of
whom, let Us hope, have paid their subscrip-
IONS ~ advance. But, really, if he would care
lulIy scan The columns of almost any one of the
dtlles published in the larger cities he would
find ample material with which TO .carrv the
war into Africa" As to the items he sets be-
for" his readers, they need no defence lie has
good journalistic precedent for chronicng the
sayings and doings of his neighborhood If bv
noticing one bddy's production of an extra
ordinary egg he cXcites other bddics to emula-
tion. ms labors are not in vain; and Il friendly
rivalry among his farmer readers can only be
productive Of good to them and to the commun-
ity.
The city editor, on the other hand, rakes the
cutters and the ,Iums for material; devotes
column 70 4 drunken quarrel in tenement
house, or the prank> of the gamins of the
streets tells Us in detail what the Jersey Lily
eats, drink, and wears, with full particulars
concerning her adOrcr, ''Frcddie. ;" and portravs
the dude with microscopic fidelity Run your
eye down the columns of the city journal, SAYS
Charles Dudley Warner in his essay on The
American Newspaper: "Thcrc was & drunken
>quabhlc last night in New York GROCERY
there !, petty but carefully elaborated village
scandal about foolish girl; a woman accident
aly dropped her baby out of fourth-story
window in Maine; in Connecticut, wife. by
mistake, got into the same railway train with
another woman, husband: child fell into Il
well in New Jersey: there is a column about Il
pcripatctic horse race, which exhibits like u
circus. from city to city, laborcr in Il remote
town in Pcnnsy vana had sunstroke; there is
the cdifyng dying speech of murderer, the
lovc-Irtcr Of Il suicide, the ,ct-to Of couple of
Congressman and there are columns about the
gigantic war of half dozen politicians over the
appointment of a sugar gaugcr." In other
words. TO again quote Mr.. Warner: '.Our
(daillJ newspapers every day are loaded with
accidents, casualties and crimes concerning
people Of whom we never heard before and
never shall hear again, the reading of which is
no earthly use to any human being"
We quote what Mr.. Warner says not to en-
dorsr his views wholly. but to show how easy
il would be for the country editor to retaliate.
if he felt so inclined. But in fact as all expert
cnccd journalists know, the newspaper /, main
" the creation of the public. In other words,
i supplies what that portion Of the public it
addresses demands. If it does not do this it
fails to receive patronage and passes to that
bourne from which no newspaper returns. If
there We're not people who want to read the
police court proceedings, reports of crimes and
the doings of criminals the city newspapers
would find other matters with which to fiji
their columns; and 50 it is with the country
editor, who caters to his constituency to the
pest Of his ability, and in a manner certain, :
less objectionable, morally, than that Of his
brethren of the city UrrSs