Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-14
THE PRESS.
Catherine COLI" en- Newspapers and
Editors at the Louisiana Press
Association Convention.
The Man who Loves His Country, III
State or His Town Will Do AL
Tie Dan to Support Its Press.
New Orleans Picayune.

the recent Louisiana State Press Associa-
ton convention ct Opelousas, was par
ticulsrly well received, and is here pub
nshed by request Ct many members who
heard IL:
Mr.. President, Ladies' and Gentlemen:
A man who had been publishing a
weekly newspaper in Kentucky for some
yesrs said:
"An e"ttor works 3s5 days per yesr to
get tut hftl -.Ro lssu Of paper: that's
lsbor. O.c= in while somebody pays
him for yezr's subscription: that's cap
isl; snd ouce in while some SONS of
gun If cssdDeat takes the
paper for year or two and vsnishes
without paying for 1t: that's anarchy.
But later on justice will overtske the
last named cres.ure, for there is 8 place
wleve he Will get his deserts"
Tns Kentecky editor mentioned an i'm
pc its tough place where broken type is
thro"B, al which is in way familiar to
us I'll.
YIN who sre printers, es well as ed
ito-s, know where the man goes who
robs q poor editor.
The only irouole Is he does not go
soon euough. He stays around stealing
years subscriptions, and crop reports,
and editorials. A sneakthIef, whose
tools sre 8 pair of scissors, paste pot
and paste orusb, is one of the meanest
msn alive, snd none OF US are safe from
him.
Even the brightest and cleverest editors
do ROT slw4ys get credit for what they do.
The editor in fact, so far as l know, fire.
quently finds il extremely difficult TO get
credit anywhere.
The WISE man or woman will never at
tempt TO rob The publisher of q neWspa-
per. NJ one but the publisher can appre.
ciasi The crime Of taking a newspaper and
falling to pay for it. No one but an ed
itor can express what 8 despicable thing
1t is TO steal brains. The publisher and
the editor are constantly being robbed.
1t Is robbery to steal items from an ex-
changes news columns; it is robbery to
work the editor for free advertisements !;
II is worse thsn robbery to give him IT,
cent treat in expectation of $40 notice;
to move out OF town without paying the
Overdue gu scriptioD, or to read Dor
rowed paper simply because one is too
mean to buy paper for ones self.
A man who keeps up with the times by
reading borrowed li.erature-who sends
to-day 10 one neighbor for look at his
paper, and tomorrow to another-ls
quite mean enough to be the husband of
the womsn who borrows Mocha coffee
and pSys it back with pkrched beans snd
chicory.
I remember once writing o careful
article describing some possessions of 8
certain rich man in my city. It appeared
in the Sunday paper and was generally
read. The next morning the gentleman
csme to the Office and asked to look at the
Sunday paper. He read over the article,
seeRsd pleased with it, bought single
copy of the paper and had that charged to
his mother in-lsw. II communities were
composed of such men So this, editors
would starve and newspapers would cease
to be.
The man who loves his country, his
state or his town, will do all be can to
support its press. II ne fsvors education,
retirement, progress and the POI er that
comes with knowledge, he will stand by
his newspapers. They are his voice
they ere his mirrors-they show to the
world, to spectators, to would-be i'm
migrants, TO enterprisiug men everywhere
precisely wha. he ls, how he lives and
what he wants.
An editor may personally be good or 9
bad man, but Ia 6 large sense he does mo-
put himself into his psper. He cuts his
paper TO suit his community.
To day, il you will show me your par
ish newspaper, will tell you what sor,
of people live in your parish.
When I was a news editor there fire.
quent!y csme to my desks dead wood
from soma remote, hslt-civilized corners
Of the country, fsr from Louisiana, thin,
shabby, down in the mouth little weekly
and trl weekly gnewspspers, that sick
ened nay soul, filed me with sympathy
for the editors and indignation for bis
community.
You have often seen these gray, sad
looking little publications, without ever
sny!patent insides or lnsides of any kind
worth mentioning. You could say OF bJ
heart the little array OF vslueless items
how Mr.. Thomas Robinson has new red
wagon, and Mr.. Richard Brown has ia
vored the editor with the first young
onions of the season, and Mr.. Henry
jones' blacksmith sign fell down in the
night snd killed goose.
On, can see in my mind, and you car
see with me-, the sort of town from which
this struggling newspaper comes. The
long, ragged streets, decorated with
broken barrel-hoops and dented tomato
cans, Win QOS -Icnuel every WuSfc. LIZ
stores are bsrn-like and empty, with hers
and there clerk selling pink ribbon fol
the party or few nails and rivets to put
up that sign. Lszy men sit around chew
ing tobacco. whiting sticks and making
an urseemly litter on the sidewalks undel
the cool shade OF the male mulberry trees
and they have not even the ambition to
collect their pine WRITINGS and take
them home for kindlings.
csn see the dust In the road as the
DOCTORS buggy rattles past, the horse
clinking its four heels together in q
rhythmicsl way that recalls the black
smiths sign and anvil chorus IN "Tro
vators," and I can hear the lazy stick
whittlers betting money they haven't go'
that jim J xss' wife has had twins again
And then the editor comes along-.ht
editor of the down-in-the-mouth, unps
tronized psper-and il We were there
we who are his tellow-suferers, hli
brothers and sisters, his loyal, lasting
friends, IL We were there our hats and oul
bonnets would be of to him. Who but Z
fellow-scribe csn guess with what cour-