The record-union., 1892-05-24
THE PONY PRESS. /"
R. Beers Loos Of Siskiyou Regales
His Brother Editors
With Loose and Disjointed Remarks
on the Ups and Downs of Coun-
cry Newspaper Life.

cry Newspaper Life.
At the meeting of the California Press
Association in San Francisco last evening.
the following address was delivered by
X. Beers Loos, editor, publisher, busi-
ness manager and general all-round boss
OF the Sisson Mascot:
THE PONY PRESS.
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
AS preliminary TO the twelve-pound
manuscript which / am about to offer,
would say that now is the time for the
Executive Committee to make its es-
cape alive The gentlemen of that COM
mittee are responsible for my appearance
here this evening, if not for the wads of
wisdom embodied in the weighty docu-
Inent which paid excess baggage on to
have transported to this city. In right
ing a wrong or resenting an injurysit is
well to strike at the root, and those COM
mitteemen had better get ready to dodge.
Had / known precisely how l would
feel in facing such large and intelligent
an audience | should certainly have had
this paper read by the man who wrote it.
j am experiencing that ''all-gone, tired
feeling which we read about IN the six
inch electroplate ads. top of column,
next to pure reading, twelve dollars a
year, payable quarterly in tonic. Be-
fore / am through L think you will find
that it is contagious. Some of you Will
be tired and many of you gone. If L live
through this l shall return to my noun
tain home and become hermit just as
soon as / can find cave large enough to
hold a bag of soda crackers and mani
cure set. / don't believe L could live
through it but for the prospect of pleas
ant excursion on the bay tomorrow. l
L. kl,, NTr.r- ,A-x4
on that trip. Many OF them will look
upon the water for the first time. In all
probability they will hold side-rail
caucus and discard their patent insides.
j shall endeavor to contain myself, but
even if am seasick, shall feel so much
better than / do now that l shall actually
enjoy it.
Mr.. Lennon, Chairman of the Execu-
tive Committee, wrote me a few days ago
TO send him the subject of my paper by
first return mail. / hastily selected 1.-The
Pony Press as my topic, and can't tell
even now why | did It, Neither my
amanuensis nor the man who does my
thinking were able to manufacture any
thing to fit the title. | have a remem-
brance of wishing to offer few valuable
hints on how to conduct d country paper
successfully; but happening to remember
that it is generally known that l have
sacrificed, on an average, one good office
a year for the past fifteen years in expert
menting, thought that perhaps my sug-
gestions might be regarded as premature.
j also recollect that / had desire to pay
a glowing tribute to the grand army OF
country publishers who edit the hand
press with one strong arm and keep the
wolf and the Sheriff away from the door
with the other. / do not wish to convey
the idea that want and poverty prevail
among the bread and butter workers OF
journalism, but still l am forced TO adj
init that there are times when some OF
them could not raise hundred thousand
dollarS-even with derrick. A country
editor seldom receives an income COM
mensurate with his labors, yet he tolls
tirelessly on, doing an immeasurable
amount Of good, for which he never re-
ceives credit. If he receives his reward
in the next world he will be running q
big daily with brigade of reporters and
large staff of wood-cut assassins.
There is a decided uncertainty about
slstibly fascinating. The editor never
knows whether he or the Sheriff will put
the next issue to press. There are Toe
many Sheritfs mounting the tripod now
a-days, and that is what is disc0lorine
the optic of the country press. There is
not one Sheriff in ten that can read coarse
wood type. A Sheriff may be a success
at Handwriting felons, or the ears OF a
small boy, but it requires dash and a per-
feet command of the English language to
express clearly and concisely that "John
Smith, the well-to-do rancher of Goslin
Slough, was in town yesterday and paid
us a pleasant visit. Call again, John.'
Considering journalism as a whole, it
is not great financial success. 1t is true
that Dana, Pulitzer, Reid, Mclean, Wat
terson, Childs, DeGoung, Hearst aud q
few others of us manage to Law away
several thousands year for moist day :
but, generally speaking, there is more
money in being President than there is III
running newspaper-but the nonors are
not so great. Still, it is not all profit
with "we' great publishers. In running
of our large editions III a hurry we fre-
quently break the horizontal stem on
the hand press, paralyZe the main per-
penskute, or rupture the electric belt
which conveys the forms beneath the cast
iron image of b. Franklin, Esq. All
OF these accidents happened in the New
\ ork World office last year, as we'll as in
my own, and the amount expended in
repairs would buy lottery ticket that
would never occasion the company sell
ing 1t any financial distress.
Mr.. Dana is perhaps the most unfortu-
nate OF any OF we prominent editors.
Only last fall subscriber residing at
Harlem stopped his paper. Along about
society with Happy New Year.
printed across his thumb nail. lie has
been unable to do any job work since.
Mr.. Dana is a pleasant man, and il is a
grand sight TO see him rushing around
The office IN his shirt sleeves with one
suspender trailing in his wake, and ever
and anon plucking nonpariel quad from
his beard. When he hears the noisy
footsteps of the bacteria rs they chase
each other up and down the Office towel,
he takes a shooting-stick In his unerrlng
hand ana goes down and kills OFT the
leaders. MIR. Dana is one of those men
who are not dependent on hired help to
get out their papers. He is an active
worker himself; he gets up bright and
early, sweeps out the office, renovates tile
sawdust cuspidor, buries the declined
poetry, and Jumps on the back of tile
mustang mailer and rides it TO water be-
fore breakfast. His is busy life and it
is only sample, OF what we ali have to
do to keep great paper moving.
There are Eastern editors here this even
ing. ! like Eastern editors. They are
bright and enterprising. They have to be
TO make success in the newspaper busi-
ness in a crowded field, such as they have
TO labor in. l am an Eastern man my
self, hailing from the State that turns out
Presidents. Even the President OF the
National Association is an Ohio man.
always abhorred public life, so left the
Buckeye State in charge of some other
prominent men and came TO California,
where / have prospered and fattened
within sound of the merry chirp of the
gaunt coyote, and became connoisseur oi
plug tobacco and xxx embalming fluid
Some years ago / ran paper in New
comerstown, Ohio. 1t was called Tht