The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-08-17
EDITORIAL TRIALS.
A High School Graduates Idea OF
Journalists Worries.
The Manifold Duties and the Varied Re.
quirements of the Man Who Runs
Paper = The Struggle
for Glory.

tor
At an English high school gradua-
tion exercises in Boston the other day, |
the following essay was read by Will
liam Ii. Blatt, aged seventeen:
"The Trials of Journalist pre-
surnptuous title this, | know, but
have two arguments to offer in my de-
fense. In the first place, a connection
for several months with a paper of suf-
ficient circulation to maintain life
gives me authority to speak, and sec
ondly, l am a living illustration of my
subject, for in me you behold the su-
preme trial of all journalists--the indi-
vidual who thinks he knows it all, and
is willing to impart his information at
the slightest provocation- Not that his
counsels are valueless. With the
proper conditions any one of them
would lead a paper to success, but
those conditions are an editor with
twenty-five million dollars and a pa
tient and enthusiastic public. Having
noticed one of the qualities needed by
an editor to endure his trials, let me
consider few other requirements of
the man whom the general public pic
! lures as person whose chief duties
are to WELD the scissors and the paste
. brush, wear out an office chair behind
door inscribed: This is my busy
day." and hurl paper weights and
curses at the printers devil. while his
only trial is to listen TO the perpetra-
/ tions of spring poets. In brief, the ed
itor of a struggling paper (for that in
dividual being the martyr of journal
ism | shall take him as it's representa-
tive) must be printer, proof reader,
author, critic, politician, diplomat,
! business man, hustler, scholar, ency-
clopedia and-but this will do for 4
suggestion. Don't believe it? Let me
particularize.
''As a printer he must be able to ex-
anime the proofs and see if the willy
typesetter has not double loaded the
matter or measured the type with toe
generous rule, and he must see that
the paper is produced in an artistic
form; as a writer he turns out those
jewels of eloquence and intellect
known as editorials; as diplomat he
must devise measures to lift his paper
into popularity and keep it propped
up: and of course he must be careful
critic, separating the grain from the
chaf of literary work. He under
stands the art of craftsmanship. for
the people expect him to unite the
gordian knot of politics for them: and
he must have an enormous bump of
agressiveness, for who but he must
champion the peoples cause? AS a
proof reader he reviews his paper, con-
tanning from thirty-fve thousand to
one hundred and sixty thou
sand words, from beginning to
end, looking for the smallest
errors, and proof reading as those
who have tried it know, requires more
endurance than the geometry tests
from which we are about to escape.
"But pause here, for this list has al
ready assumed soporifc proportions,
To sum up, the editor must have
money, experience, influence and
brains, the meelIness of Moses, the pa
tience of Job and the energy of dy.
namo, and when he has done his best
he must bear the blame for the false
reports and bad English of his report
ers. The mere mention of these quail
ties is bad enough. But in order to
appreciate them fully it is necessary
for us to see them in action in the ed.
itor's sanctum, not the private office of
journalistic magnate, who can avail
) himself of the equivalency of time and
money but that of the editor of a pa.
per with patent insides and a circula-
tion of about fifty copies week,
counting exchanges.
'The life of such an unfortunate is
long and exquisite torture of bills
!, complaints, refusals, book agents
spring poems, indignant citizens and
accidents, resulting in a perpetua,
headache, a rebellious digestion and
an intimate ACC uaintance with the
demon of insomnia. And the product
of all the pain and trouble is only q
: newspapers worthless thing tina,
: lives for a day, like May fly, and ther
l is lost and forgotten, leaving to it's au
thor no fame, no reward but the price il
. sells for; and what sum of money, how
=, ever large, is a just recompense for art
l Poor unappreciated thing! Who wher
Z he reads it will think of the trials thai
were necessary to bring it out? Here!
the news of great fire. Who stops tc
: think that the man who wrote thai
article braved danger and death tc
serve the public? Here's an article by
the funny man. Would you laugh st
I, ! loudly if you knew that the man whC
: wrote that article was given a littl,
more space this week so that h,
might earn more money to pay doc
! tors bills? Here's an account of al
embezzler captured. You never knew
the pangs that the editor felt as h,
read the words that ruined the nam,
and family of his best friends.
! Lets see what sort of an editoria
: menu has been served up to-day. All
: Very spicy, that. But the man wht
wrote it hadn't slept night for
week and felt more like composing hi
will. This is the cost of our American