The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-11-01


door, and person wearing a severe
countenance and a shawl came in and
took the vacant chair
81 am very sorry" he said, IN meas
ured tones, and with a fixed, critical
stare at the end of the EDITORS nose, II
am very sorry to notice that You are
giving in your columns so little atten-
ton to the cause of Prohibition-the no
bic cause of Prohibition. You must
rouse Yourself upon this great question,
and give your readers a page of it
weekly. | am not subscriber of your
paper, but / borrow it every week of
my neighbor, and loan him the Banner
of Light in exchanges; so YOU will OBJ
serve that | have been one of your
faithful readers, and | know Just where
you fall short of good newspaper
l will leave you few tracts from which
you should make liberal extracts from
time to time. You will notice that this
one, entitled Dash the Cup Away is
written by myself. You are at liberty
to print it in full. And when l come
across anything particularly good in
the columns of the Banner of LtqJst, I'LL
cut it out and send it round to you
You have grand opportunity to make
your paper grow in circulation and in
tluence, and | hope you will come
boldly to the front on the right course,
and no longer continue to devote your
valuable space to trivial matters. BY
the way; have you a few exchanges
that you are done with? All, that will
do; good day"
In the door the man in the shawl
passed person with a merry twinkle
in his eyes.
81 like your paper-it is first rate"
he said, as he dropped into the vacant
chair, except that it does not contain
humor enough. Why don't you fill her
full of jokes and bright things by the
funny fellows, and make your readers
laugh? Nobody cares a cent for those
political editorials and those scientific
articles, and that stuff about the tariff
you print. That puts me to sleep.
Give us plenty of jokes to shake
mans liver up and let the tariff take
care of itself That's all. Be in to see
you again when I've more time; ia, ia"
Inc next person who took the vacant
chair had q cOuntenance as solemn as a
secondhand hearse. He didn't look as
if he had smiled more than once in
forty years, and the village editor took
him for an undertaken who wanted to
advertise patent embalming process
and pay in trade.
ISL" sad the solemn man, after a
silence that became very painful to the
village editor, 81 am grieved to notice
the tone of levity that has recently per-
vaded the columns Of your paper, and
| am compelled TO ask you on that ac-
count to take my name off your book
You seem to forget that this is world
OF calamity and woe, and that spirit
of levity in the press is unseemly, and
tends to draw attention from the solemn
realities of life and the near proximity
of death. Last week you declined to
print my article entitled Reflections
on the grave, alleging that you did not
have room for it, and then gave up
nearly column of your paper to frivo-
lous jokes. do not intend to read any
thing light this year. That is all | have
to say; good afternoon"
The door closed behind the solemn
man and softly opened again to admit
a dreamy-eyed man with poetic brow
and general expression that seemed
to indicate that he wanted something
he had never had and never expected
to have.
81 merely came to remark" he be-
gan, as he took the vacant chair, "that
you are sadly neglecting the literary
department of your paper. not only
have noticed it myself, but several of
my friends have called my attention to
it. You should by all means runa con
tinued story and have two or three good
short stories in each issue. Good sto-
ries is the thing that is wanted to make
village paper popular. Everybody
you ask will tell you that. A little
news and some local matter and the
marriages and deaths should be printed
of course; but you shouldn't let any,
thing crowd out the stories. | don't
take your paper, but my brother-in-la
does. and | borrow it of him. | have
intended for some time to mention this
matter to you, but could never think of
it before when | was in town. If YOU
think these suggestions are of any value
to you, you may send me your paper
gratuitous for year. Allow me to bid
you good day, sir"
The dreamy-eyed man went out as
softly as a sixty days note falls due,
and moment later another style of
person dropped into the vacant chair,
and spoke thusly, in tones that were
sharp and quick.
~ don't think | want this paper an
other year. You are not making as
good a paper as you should with your
opportunities. You are not giving your
readers enough local matter. Local
matter should be the chief feature of
village paper. Everything else should
be made to give way to local matter.
A story now and then when you have
plenty of room, and bit of poetry to
please the young folks who are in love,
and little news, are all well enough,
but if you want TO make village paper
a success, you've got to let yourself out
on local matter. Give the news of your
own community, and let the big dailies
take care of the rest of the world And,
by the way; if you are little short on
local matter this week, you might say
that L have invented and patented the
most commOn-sense churn that has ever
been introduced to the people of this
State. I'll be in again in the course of
few weeks, and | will then pay you
my subscription forl last year; good day"