The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1896-03-28

ton of a good newspaper. Under tne
impression that almost anybody can
make a newspaper, scores OF lneXperl-
cnced capitalists every year enter me
lists, and, consequently, duTint' the last
few years a newspaper has died Almost
every day. The disease is epiaeh'e'
The larger papers swallow the sma''er
ones. the whale taking down fifty MIN
nows at one swallow. With more imam
seven thousand dailicr and weeK'ies III
the United States and Canada, there are
but thirty-six half century old. News
papers do not average more than i've
years existence. The most or them dle
OF cholera infantum. 1t is hlgh tihe
that the people found out that the most
successful way to sink money ana Keep
It sunk is to start newspaper. mere
comes time when almost everyone IS
smittcn with the newspaper mania an"
starts one. or have stock in one ne must
or die.
! he course vi plDItuuiC l.?
A literary man has an agricultural or
scientific or political or rellglo"s iuea
which he wants to ventilate. he mas
no money Of his oWn-literary men SCI
dom have. But he talks OF MS IDEAS
among confidential friends llhul lhes
become infamed with the idea, anu
forthwith they buy type and press anu
rent composing room, and gather
corps of editors, and with a prospectus
that PROPOSES to cure everything the
fist copy is flung on the attention Oh aN
admiring world After while one OF
the plain stockholders finds that 10
great revolution has been effected oS
this daily or weekly publication; that
neither the sun nor moon stands stlii'
that the world goes on lying and chea'-
ing and stealing just as it dld before
the first issue. The aforesaid matter
of-fact stakeholder wants to sell OUT HIS
stock. but nobody wants to Du!. ana
other stockholders get infected ana SICK
of newspaperdom and an enormous pill
at the paper factory rolls into an ava
lanche, and the printers refuse TO WORK
until back wages are paid up, and the
compOsitor bows to the managing edl-
tor, and the managing editor bows 10
the editor-in-chief and the edltor-ln-
chief bows to the directors, and the d.
rectors bow to the world at large, ana
all the subscribers wonder why thelr
paper doesn't come. The world VIII
have to learn that a newspaper IS as
much of an institution as the Bank OF
England or Yale College, and is not an
enterprise If you have the aforesaid
agricultural, or scientific. are religious,
or political idea to ventiIate, you had
better charge upon the world through
the columns already established. 1t IS
folly for anyone to try newspaperdom.
II you cannot climb the hill back Of
your house it is folly to try the sides OF
the Matterhorn.
To publish newspaper requires the
skill, the precision. the boldness. the
vigilance, the strategy of a commander
in-chief. To edit newspaper requires
that one be statesman, an essaylst. a
geographer, statistician. and in acqul-
sition, encyclopaedia. To man. to gov
ern, to propel newspaper until 1t snail
be a fixed institution, national tact,
demand more qualities than any bust
ness on earth. If you feel like starting
any newspaper. secular or religious,
understand that you are being threat
cred with softening Of the brain or
lunacy and. throwing your pocketbook
into your wife's lap, start for some in
sane asylum before you do something
desperate. Meanwhile, as the dead
newspapers, week by week. are carried
out to the burial, all the living news
papers give respectful obituary, telling
when they were born and when they
died The best printers ink should
give at least one stickful Of eptaph. II
it was good paper. say, Peace to Its
ashes" If it was bad paper, sug-
gest the epitaph written FOR Francis
Chartreuse: Here continueth to 70:
the body of Francis Chartreuse, who,
with an inhexihle constanCy and uni
tormity OF life, persisted in the prac-
tice OF every human vice, excepting
prcdigality and hypocrisy; his lnsati-
able avarice exempted him from the
first. his matchless lmpudence from the
second" say this because want you
to know that a good, healthy, long
lived, entertaining newspaper Is not an
easy blessing, but enc that comes 10 US
through the fire.
tlrsl OF all. newspapers make kn0wl-
edge democratic and tor the multitude.
The public library Is hay-mUW SO hiSh
IN that few can reach it, while the
new paper throws down the forage 10
our feet. Public libraries are the reser-
yoirs where the great floods are stored
high up and away OFT. the newspaper
IS me tunnel that brings them down TO
the pitchers Of all the people. The
Chief use Oh great Libraries Is 10 make
newspapers out OF. Great Libraries
! make d lew men and women very wise.
| Newspapers hit whole nations Into the
sunlight. Better have fifty million PEG