Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-01-14
NEWSPAPERS ANDNEwsPAPRR MEN

seems to rs that every editor who daily
or weekly sends Us the coinage of his
brain had made resolve in IS to issue
q better paper than he did in '82. The
several exchanges tossed on our desk
every evening bear us out in the as
sumption. With two or three excep-
tons, where the managers mistake their
vocation as smut-mill superiutendents,
the papers arc good, clear, honest ex-
pOnents of the localities in which they
are printed. 1t was Horace Greeley
who said there's nothing easier in this
world than to run blackguard news
paper" and if the present alone were
looked at it would seem as though few
things were moro successful pecuniari-
iy: but in the long run tho paper that
preserves purity of tone and goes on the
principle that its patrons are decent
people will have abiding prosperity.
Scattered throughout this State and
our sister Territory are some sixty or
seventy different little newspapers. Pub
lished in thinly settled communities,
and countless disadvantages, and oft
times poorly supported, the wonder is
that they are 50 good as they are. The
publishers are generally sanRuine of
ultimate success, but it is too often that
"hope deferred" which ''maketh the
heart sick" These papers do more
good than they ale credited for. They
attract the attention of capital, they
proclaim the points of inducement that
that particular locality presents, and
bring more money and population to
the country than any other one human
institution.
The metropolitan newspapers have
different life from their less protentious
country brethren; about the time that
the editor of city daily is in full blast,
the rural promulQator of weekly news is
slumbering peacefully, in the knowledge
that though his journalistic city brother
has in many respects the advantage
supposed to flow from the seductive
midnight champagne, yet he in his
bucOlic retirement has good many en-
ioyments from which his metropolitan
confrere is debarred.
As for instance, what Joy irradlates
the soul of the country journalist, when
ono of his subseribersbring in q bunch of
the fascinating though abnormal carrot,
the rotund and inflated squash, the un-
usual potato, or that aggregation of
watery excresoenoe usually known as
the beet" Should the subscribers ad-
miration for the genius of the editor in
question assume the substantial form of
a pair of chickens, how mutually pleas
ant for the donor and donee 70 write up
the race and pedigree of said fowls with
additional eulOgistic mention Of their
superior laying qualities, and the high
price attainable for fresh specimens Of
their ovarious skill.
Now, if Mr.. Scott of the Oregonidn, or
Mr.. Noltner of the Standard, or even
Col. F. j. Parker, editor-in-chief and
business manager OF the Wdlia Wdlla
Daily Statesman, were proffered turkey
or brace of plump ducks, tho pre-
sumption is that either of these gentle
men, hedged around by all the dignity,
and sitting meath the fierce light that
irradiates the editorial tripod, could in
self defense, do no moro than call upon
the servant in waiting to remove the
birds, foregoing any newspaper COM
ment thereon; while, in all probability,
we're such gift rendered to some poor,
deserving evangelist, who is but the
voice of one crying in the wilderness"
he would straddle through the streets in
an ecstasy of CLEO, and announce to an
expectant though limited circle, its re-
ceipt.
1t is cfeditabls to the people of this
coast that SO many newspapers find
reason for existance; true, the iAvari-
able laws of supply and demand are
sometimes 3 little strained, and one
will occasionally find the newspaper
business overdone; but as general
thing q newspaper is, because there is
il in which to exercise legitimate func-
~ n
the newspaper must soon cease its sickly
being.
Amusing are the instances wherein q
ignoring all evidences of sicklinoes on
the part of his bantling. Years ago,
travelling through ono Of the valleys of
to visit an old-time newspaper CON-
frere, who had in days Of yore howled
chow much a. 70 got, SKIP ct ~ many .
weary night. He set the type himself,
ran the slender s'ad'' case, was his own
editor, comp, foreman, and all the rest
of it, and whom night came ON, drew out
. huge pile Of papers from under the
imposing stone, wrapped q blanket
around him and slept luxurioualy. His
kitchen was in his editorial Office, %
that he could keep an eye on the po-
tatoes and go that they didn't boil over
while he wrote . crushing editorial on
Nihilism, that would have made the
monarch Of all the kussias tremble had
he seen il. This ID not overdraWn; and
il is with pleasure We add that be 'sstuck
il through" and made it win eventually.
It would perhaps surprise some of our
readers to figure mp the great amount of
vvnattnr in n lapuA ,f1ailv For iDGHanon