Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-01-17
Helena, Montana, Thursday, January II, 1889.

6OTuu u p an OVerpluS Oh tne week composing
bill. l worried and fretted SO that by Satur
day night had no clear idea at all or judg
ment in the matter, and let things take theh
own course.
But the hardest task Of all was dealing with
the mourners-I mean the manuscript bear
ers. l found myself suddenly inside Of the
place, where had so often stood outside l
was the man in the editorial chair, the ar
bitter of manuscript destiny, the despot who
could accept or reject the writer's article.
But was very uncomfortable. l hated to re-
ject anybody's writings, | felt so keenly for
them. l had so many times been there my
self, wished | could take and pay for every
bodys manuscript. But l could not The
requirements of the paper stood like wall
'twixt my duty and my sympathy. The COM
mands from the management allowed only =
certain amount to be expended weekly for
original articles. felt like fiend-an un-
willing one-as said ''No" time after time
and sent men and women away with heavy
hearts In cases tried even to get from the
rejected little sympathy for myself. | told
them how hard it was for me to say "No;' -
l tried to convince them that mine was .
much harder lot than theirs, and that mine
was by far the greater misery.
And how many times after / had suffered
and rejected the MSS did try to answer in
manner satisfactory to them this question:
ibid know Of any newspaper or magazine
that would be likely to accept their matterr'
How l tried to say that l did not in cheer
full, consoling and encouraging manner, in a
manner which would convey to them and fill
them with the idea that the town was full Of
places yawning and gaping for their articles,
until they were outside Of my Office them
selves, when was willing that the cold un-
welcome truth should freeze them.
Then received letters asking for the re-
turn of manuscript On entering on my
duties found the shelves piled with them
legacies left me by various predecessors
whether read, accepted or rejected, could
not find out. But there they lay roll on roll
silent, dust covered 1t seemed a literary
receiving vault, full Of corpses.
1t was a suggestive and solemn spectacle
for young writer to look upon. Those many
pounds of manuscript which might
make a sensation if printed-truths, maybe,
which had not yet dawned on the world-an
lying unread, dead, cold and unpublished.
Lone, lorn ladies came to me with the chill
dren of their brains | referred them at
times to the editor Of the daily up stairs. He
referred them to me back again. Sometimes
this shuttlecock process was reversed. The
daily editor fired the applicant down at me.
| fired him up again The trouble in all
these cases lay in the inability of these people
torecognize rejection when it was mildly and
sympathetically applied. 1t was necessary in
some cases for us to fire these people up and
down ct each other a dozen times before their
weary legs gave them hint of the true state
of the case.
saw more than once the man who thought
to clinch an acceptance Of his matter by CIV
ing me long explanation of his article. and
its value to this or that interest | had the
traveller from distant lands, who wanted to
tell in print over again what he had seen. |
received copies Of verses, accompanied by
modest notes from the senders that they
might find place sin some corner" of the
paper | was beset by delusionist who had
a theory for doing away with death and who
left me, as he said to prefer death" and die
in my sins, because told him I had really
no desire to obtain information on the sub
ject.
Then l had the "space grabbern to deal
with-the poor fellow who writes to live at
SO much per column, who tries to write as
many columns as possible, and half Of whose
mind while writing is working moro to fill
up his columns with words rather than ideas
But our modern system of elephantine jour
naism is in a measure responsible for the
space grabbing" tendency since our daily
and weekly Journalistic mammoths and
megatheriums cape ever for more and more
matter. There is SO much space which must
be filed, and if not filed stuffed. Every de-
mand brings some sort of supply, and as the
paper must be stuffed, the ''space grabber" is
developed to stuff it.
I had also to cope and meet with the lit
erary rehasher. The rehasher is another
journalistic brother who writes the same
story, experience, description, etc., over and
over again in different ways He wrote It
years ago. 1t proved success. He has been
writing it ever since. He serves it up roast,
baked, boiled, broiled, fried, stewed.
These processes may endure for several
years. Then he shoves it on your table, COW
cred with thin disguise-a gravy, SO to
speak-of his more recent opinion or expert
ence But it is about the same dish. The older
and more experienced journalistic nose detects
it by the same old smell Finally it comes up
as hash, plain hash, dry hash, wet hash,
baked hash, but after all the same old hash.
Our papers and magazines even today |
abound with the work Of the rehasher. It |
il just as good for the young readers Every |
ten years generation comes along for whom |
the rehash Is quite new, They do not know
that it is the same old hash written and read |
years and years ago by people dead and gone. |
The pretentious magazines dish up more or |
less Of this hash. It Is served up in style,
garnished with sprigs Of fine language and
sentiment and has often . dressing" Of ele-
CANT illustrations poured over it. But it's tho |
same old hash for all that. If you look over
the magazines for q period say Of twenty
years. you will find these rehashes-articlesd de-
scriptive Of Rome, Egypt, London, the Bay
eaux tapestry, travels in countries worn foot
sore by travellers for generations, the essay on
Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe As for the
frontier romance and "Wild Injun" story,
that has been ground and reground into hash
50 fine that it has become "spoon victuals,"
and is eaten only by the young and callous Of
the reading brood.
A literary colleague, friend and fend of
mine, who commands an editorial chair, says
that he allows his rehashers to serve him the
same article four times, providing the gar
nishing and dressing of the dish shows artistic
This is not only charitable on his part but
pOSSlDiy Rred1 Ueueu5 W tno reudSuer, 1or
e he is allowed to go on unchecked, the
mental rehashing process viii become auto
matte, the result Of which will be the uncon-
.cious rehashing of the same article through
al eternity.
This experience gave me, in certain respects,
IN entire change Of heart will never think
hard again Of an editor though he does not
return my manuscript even If send
Itamps l will still continue to think kindly
AZ him fhnn oh ha .tdaclnas with thanks y