The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1885-1888, 1885-10-12
WASHINGTON, D. G, OCT. 1?, 1856
SIX MONTHS.

SIX MONTHS.
1t Is six months to-day since THE
Critic came into the hands of its
present management, and considering
the amount of stirring history crowded
into that comparatively short period,
we may be pardoncd for indulging
upon this, or first semi-anniyer>ary,in
both a retrospect and a look ahcad-in
thanks for past mcrcics and hopes for
better luck in the future.
We doubt If in all the annals of
journalism, newspaper can he found
TO have experienced like series of al
verse vicissitudes in the same number
of months. Beginning with the change
of location from Ninth street and the
usual Inconvenience accompanying
such move, we had hardly got well
settled in the ID street office before a
confagration swept us out Of house
and home, making havoc of the
whole establishment Then followed
weeks of subiection to the thrcc-fold
disability of setting up" the paper in
one place, printing it in another and
selling it In still another, at an eXtraor-
dinary cost and infinite trouble.
Burned with fire, drenched with re-
peated floods, crowded into close AMI
comfortless quarters, surrounded for
the past six weeks above and below
and on every side, with carpenters,
plastorers, brickiaycrs, hodcarriers
and all the clatter and confusion, dust
and dirt, incident to the reconstruction
of the building in which THE Critic
is now located, we have found it
matter of great labor and difficulty to
put in a presentable appearance from
day to day. We have even been com
PEELED to depend upon the vigorous leg
power of our editors and reporters for
our telephone and telegraphic facilities
about the city.
But through all these trials and trib.
ulations, supplemented byan annoying,
but ill-advised and unsuccessful at
tempt to enjoin us at law from doing
business at all, we have always come
upsmiling as it were, maintained clear
conscience and never missed single
issue.
Judging, moreover, by the large and
rapidly increasing circulation and lib
eral advertising patronage which THE
Critic has gained in the meantime, the
new management have the satisfaction
of feeling that in the estimation of an
appreciative public at least, the prom
Uses with which they started out to give
The people of Washington a clean,
wholesome, enterprising and public
spirited paper, have been more than
fulfilled.
If we have been able to do all this in
season of unprecedented dullness and
under most unfavorable conditions,
what may we not do in the near future
with all our appointments complete, n
now press that shall print. fold, cut and
do everything but deliver the paper to
subscribers, the avenues of trade again
alive with animation and the field of
effort enlarged by the accession of thou
sands more to the present population of
the National Capital?
THE CRITIC is here to stay. 1t has an
abiding faith in itself and in the people.
1t has earned the smiles of fortune by
the pluck with which it has taken its
hard knocks. IT is to be much better
paper than it already is. 1t is to ac-
quire a national as well as local status.
1t is in the lists to compete with the
best and biggest of its contemporaries,
and will ask odds of none of them.
Confident that the intelligent citizens
of Washington are in full sympathy
with just such newspaper-bright,
breezy, Independent, unstited and un-
hampered in its expression of opinion
AS THE CRITIC proposes to continue,
we entertain no fears as to its success
and cheerfully look back upon the
hardships of the last six months as
blessings in disguise that will bear
generous fruitage before the next six
months elapse.