Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1890-11-20
To Correspondents.

With pride and gratitude we acknow-
ledge the fact that the AMERICANS success
is largely due to its alert and judicious
correspondents. Take them altogether no
paper in the State has better or more
trustworthy corps of contributors than we
have; and that We may all the better work
together and pull together, it may not be
amiss for the editor to throw out few
hints and suggestions as to how to make
up what he regards as a model local news
paper.
In the first place, then, no local paper
can really be a success unless it make the
fullness of its local columns a matter of
prime Importance. The AMERICAN en-
deavors as best it can to cover the whole
county and thus to become in very deed a
county newspaper; but the county is large,
and If we publish every week the local
news from every town in The county. ii
would take a sheet three times a. large, at
least, as ours. To obvlate this difficulty
pondents to forward news letters not Of
tener than once in two or three weeks
All local news is not, however. of equal
Importance; and the more important news,
such as fatal or serious accidents. deaths
and especially sudden deaths-trcs, dis
asters, business enterprises, etc. should
always be forwarded with the least posi-
Bile delay after such events occur. The
less important matters. such as furnish
food for society gossip, may be forwarded
TO suit the convenience of correspondents.
In fact, paper would not greatly suffer
If some of the society news should be left
out entirely. To be more explicit let us
say that if John Smith should meet death
by accidental drowning we should desire
our correspondent to forward the news ut
once no matter what time in the week ii
might happen but if Mrs. Brown is sim
ply visiting Mrs. Jones, there is no partc-
ular hurry about mentioning it and we can
await the due course of our correspondents
letter
Do not send anonymous letters; for We
do not publish them; but in spite Of the
fact that we keep a standing notice at the
head Of one of our columns, stating that
we do not publish such letters, we often
receive mi>sives which contain no clew to
ter last week which contained neither the
name Of the writer nor the town from
which the communication was sent Of
course we could make no use of it.
In writing of the sick, the needy the
weak minded, the insane. The unfortunate
of whatever name or class, we trust our
correspondents will always refer TO them
with the utmost deicacy and consideration
If great crime is committed, such a. muir
deror manslaughter. the facts should he
given to the world regardless Of whom they
criminal to withhold them; but some
events of minor Importance had, under
some circumstances. better never appear
in print Let US illustrate A correspond
ent writes that A, b. is i'll with q lingering
disease and the chances are very much
against his recovery. The item is printed
and The paper goes directly to \. b. who
reads it and perhaps receives discourage
ment that ha>tens his end. The item ought
never to have been published. G. d. writes
that f. F. is insane. That too IL publish
ed and the paper goes directly 10 the home
of f. F. who reads the fact and says he is
ruined-no one will ever have anything
to do with crazy man. In his peculiar
abnormal condition the poor man Keeps
the paper by him and reads that item Of ter
rihle import dozen times day. Such a
fact has recently come to our know
ledge and has panied Us more than We we
have words 10 express. We have thought
of il by day and dreamed of it by night
That item was legitimate news, but it had
better never have been printed We al
ways try to put oursclf in the other fel-
lows place and generally are able to do IL.
In such cases we invariably strike oUt of
matter sent for publication whatever would
needIessly wound the feelings Of any one ;
but sometimes in our hurry aud perplexity
We are not able TO 60 it. For reasons such
as these we would urge correspondents TO
exercise great care
Above all we would have our contribu-
tors severely let alone the disputes, quar-
rels or unpleasantness which concern indi-
yiduals, and not the public The AMEkI-
CAN wishes to make no mention Of person
al or neighborhood quarrels. unless there
be such facts connected with them as legit-
imately belong to our readers.
And finally We urge our correspondents
TO treat all christian organizations with
equal courtesy aud consideration. The
AMERICAN is the friend of all of them and
its invariable rule i to be alike kind to all
knowing no preferences or preiudlces.