Middletown transcript., 1883-01-12


believe, it is because the publisher is
not receiving sufficient support to jus
tify him in printing all of his paper at
home, OF, we might say, in editing his
whole paper in fact as well as in name.
A patent outside paper can be printed
at about one-half the expense that one
can that is printed entirely at its own
Office of publication, but the publisher
of patent outside sheet is subjected to
so many annoyances and vexations on
account of not being able to control
his entire paper, that, in most cases, be
would very willingly discard the ready
print plan as soon as the support of his
paper would justify the expense Of
printing it all at home. We shall be
glad to see the ready-prints disappear
from the Peninsular journalistic field,
and we have no doubt but they will be
displaced by home-prints just as soon
as the towns in which they are pub
lished come to understand how much it
is to their advantage to give a willing
and liberal support to their local jour-
nal, or journals.
Wherever there is very poor paper
on the Peninsula, the fault is probably
more with the community that ought to
support it than with the publisher. No
man can afford to devote his whole
time and all his energy to newspaper
if it keeps him constantly on the rack
to scrape together money enough to pay
his printers and his paper bills. He
cannot put much enthusiasm in his
work if his mind is constantly buTdened
with the problem of meeting 500 in
obligations with a two dollar bill, and
nothing but hard work and enthusiasm,
with many adjuncts, will make good
newspaper.
A great many towns and villages dc
not estimate the value of a local news
paper as they should. Their residents
have moved along in the old ruts SC
many years, reading the tax notices and
sale announcements by posters in the
hotels, and gathering the local happen.
ings of interest at the post Office Oh
grocery, that they look upon the loca
no,,or xr,ba,o II oononc oc on innovation
upon settled customs that they have
no desire to shake off. They prefer tt
get their local news as their grand
fathers got theirs, and think that thu
dollar city weekly that their fathers
took before them is about all the read
ing they can get through with. Tht
city weekly, by the way, fsa most ex
cellent institution, but it does not fl
the place of the local weekly in tn
thousands Of progressive small town
in this news-reading country. Not b!
large majority. These people neye
consider the benefits a town derive
from a live local newspaper. Wha
does town amount to without news
paper? Who beyond its own limit
ever hears Of it \? Who beyond tn
sound of its church bells ever knows
Tor cares whether it is standing still o
going backwards? Whether its mer
chants are selling goods, or have close
up their stores and gone afshing? n
sagacious man of business would max
an investment in town of thousan,
or more inhabitants that, having ha,
the opportunity, would not support
local newspaper.
The value of the printing press is ia
more appreciated in the West than a
the East. In that land Of the spirit 0
goaheadativeness" a town hardly ha
local habitation and a name" befor
it has a newspaper to herald abroad it
advantages and progress. And the res
idents of Western towns and villages
with but few exceptions, give thei
newspaper press willing and generou
support, for which most excellent rea
son the Westsrn newspapers are th
brightest, biggest and best of any sec
tion of the country.
To go back to the Peninsular press
it is safe to say that it is not merel,
keeping up with the procession, but il
leading it. We know of but few week.,
journals between the bays that are not
in the matter of enterprise and pro
gressiveness, in advance of the towns
in which they are printed. The create,
number have discarded the old hanC
press for cylinder presses of improved
make, and are printed with much typo
graphic taste and neatness, whilst thu
original matter they give from week t
week bears the mark Of talent ant
hard work. And yet it is to be doubted
that there is one paper printed on tht
Peninsula that is receiving the supper
it is deserving of. Probably more thai
one half OF them are struggling tt
"make both ends meet" To begin a
the head Of the column, Wilmington il
lamentably deficient in her appreciation
Of her newspaper press, and it is a gen
orally known fact that the only one D
her daily journals that is making an,
money is the one that pays nothing TO
telegraphic news, and little for an,
other kind. We could name dozen O
more excellent weekly journals on th,
Peninsula that ought to have doubl
their present circulation, and woulc
have if the towns in which they ar
printed properly estimated the value 0
bright, newsy, enterprising and fear
less local journal.
HARPER's NEW MONTHLY MAGA
ZINE FOR 1663:-This Magazine ha
aptly been styled 1.-THE Giant of tn