The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-14
NEWSPAPER READERS AND WRITERS.
People who Think the Editor writes Every.
thing-Troublesome Intellects.

People Who Think the Editor Writes Every
thing-Troublesome Intellects.
Gertrude Garrison in New York Graphic.
The readers who read newspaper with the in
tensest interest and skip no part of 1T, are the
country readers, where one journal a week fur
nishes the news aliment of the family. No mat
ter what its name. it is knewn only as the pa
per" No other paper is recognized. The pa
per" covers the entire field for them. There may
be other ewspapers-indeed they have heard
such a rumor-but they are no more disturbed
by the knowledge than they are agitated over
other worlds in the sky depths. They read
everything within the column rules of 1.-THE pa
per-" from the fashions to the weather probable
tiles, and what is more, they believe what they
read. They have as much faith in 1.-THE paper"
as in the minister" or the doctor" They are
blssfully ignorant of the fability of the sources
OF editorial information, the peculiar vlciousnesS
of types the stealthy nature of errors whose
fayorite recreation is to creep" into newspapers
and all the unhallowed ways by which depravity
manifests itself i'll print They belong to the
nearly extinct class of people who more think
of questioning the infallibility of what is en-
balmed in the Typography of newspapers than of
the Ten Commandments.
The number of readers who believe the editor
writes every thing in his paper, from the sheriff's
sales to the London gossip, is beyond estimate.
They never learn the significance of credits nor
the difference between original and selected art-
cles. Loaded BREWER is no more to them than
solid nonpareil. Indeed if they have an opinion
preference in the belief that the good things are
put in the very smallest space to emphasize their
preciousness. To cheese uninquiring persons
everything In paper is ''plece." They couldnt t
tell the difference between local paragraph and
dispatch, if they were to be killed for their ig-
norance and they don't know an idea from an
item.
Some always read the funny column first. The
Car might be murdered. the Irish III arms and
the President of the United States dead of diph-
liberia, and they would never know it though
they held a newspaper under their eyes, unless
they heard some one talking about it. Not only
does their reading begin at the funny column.
but it ends there. They turn to its glittering
glories with an avidity that is envlable. They
laugh delighte6ly over the Irish bulls precocious
children, feeble minded lovers and unsophisti-
| Gated old women who inhabit this column They
give the editor credit for constructing every an
ecdote anu quote him sharp fellow" They
think of him as putting in a great part of his
time in getting them up" and they marvel
much at his versatility.
The employees of newspapers often have the
serious fault of not reading their own journals
Each one reads his own matter of course; but
it is part of his business to also read what the
| others have prepared If he doesn't ne will be
wanting to shove in something that has been
printed; ne is usually several years in journal
ism before he properly performs that part of mis-
duty.
The Courer,Journal of Louisville once had
something to say about this popularity of fedg
JOuFudllSUS. LII ulVIueu til0 stan lntO TWO
divisions. The edtor-ln chief represented the
supreme intellect" All below him were
mighty intellects" 1t is asserted that the
''mghty intellects' make all the trouble by not
reading their own paper
Lecturers, artists, preachers, singers-all men
and women who career" conspicuously- esti-
mate papers excellence by its puffery Of their
performances If they are favorably mentioned
the paper is ''splendid;"i if not it is no good.
The production everybody reads and pro-
nounces specially good is sure to be something
the writer thereof regards with distrust. He has
written it hurriedly; has had no heart in it, per-
haps and sends it in feeling that he shall blush
for it when he sees it in ungenial type. If he
intended it to be pathetic he has humiliating
sense of its approximating the maudlin; if he de-
signed it to be rolicking and spirited, he knows
in his heart that is is merely impudent if satire
and sarcasm were aimed at, he sees clearly that
he has only succeeded in being offensive.
When he glances over the paper the hateful
article seems to be always staring at him. So
conscious is he of the irritating effect it will have
him if he should read it that he affects not to
see it, though it occupy larger space in his
mind than the entire paper.
Strangely enough, this is the thing that every
body is sure to read. The astonshed author
soon finds that out His friends hasten to con-
graduate him on it. They declare he has 'sur
passed himself" 1t is written in his 'happiest
vein;" it is perfection in its way" At first he
can't get over the belief that they are sensible
of the weakness Of the article and are chatting
him about it, but they are not: they are serious.
Then for the seventy and seventh time he as
founded at his inaccurate gauge of public taste.
He may edit paper half century and this
phenomenon will often occur and always amaze
him.
Finally. every writer is sure Of two faithful
readers-himself and the proof-reader.