The Yale expositor., 1896-03-27

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perations, the anxieties. the wear and
tear of hearts involved in the produce
tion OF good newspaper. Under the
impression that almost anybody can
make newspaper, scores OF 'nexperi-
enced capitalists every year enter the
lists, and. consequently. durina the last
few years newspaper has died almost
every day. The disease is epidemic.
The larger papers swallow the smaller
ones, the whale taking down fifty min
nows at one swallow. With more than
seven thousand dailie~ and weeklies In
the United States and Canada. there are
but thirty-six a half century old. News
papers do not average more than nVe
years. existence The most OF them Ole
Of cholera infantum 1t Is high time
that the people found out that the most
successful way to sink money and Keep
It sunk is to start newspaper. There
comes time when almost everyone Is
smittcn with the newspaper mania and
starts one, or have stock in one he must
or die.
The course of procedure is about this
A literary man has an agricultural or
scientific or political or religious idea
which he wants to ventilate. He has
no money of his own--literary men sell
dom have. But he talks Of his ideas
among confidential friends until they
become infiamed with the idea, and
forthwith they buy type and press and
rent a composing room, and gather
corps of editors, and with prospectus
that proposes to cure everything the
first copy is flung on the attention OF an
admiring world. After while one OF
the plain stockholders finds that 70
| great revolution has been effected by
this daily or weekly publication; that
neither the sun nor moon stands still;
that the world goes on lying and cheat
ing and stealing just as it did before
the first issue. The aforesaid matter
of-fact stakeholder wants to sell out his
stock, but nobody wants to buy. and
other stockholders get infected and sick
of newspaperdom, and an enormous bill
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 edi-
tor, and the managing editor bows to
the editor-in-chief. and the editor-in-
chief bows to the directors, and the di-
rectors bow to the world at large, and
all the subscribers wonder why their
paper doesn't come. The world Will
have to learn that 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 ventilate, you had
better charge upon the world through
the columns already established. 1t Is
folly for anyone to try newspaperdom.
If you cannot climb the hill back Of
your house it is folly to try the sides of
the Matterhorn.
To publish a newspaper requires the
skill, the precision. the boldness, the
vigilance. the strategy of commander
in-chief. To edit newspaper requires
,, that one be statesman. an essayist. a
geographer. statistician. and in acqui-
sition, encyclopaedia. To man. to gov.
ern. to propel newspaper until it shall
be fixed institution. national fact.
demand more qualities than any busi-
ness on earth. If you feel like starting
any newspaper, secular or religious.
understand that you are being threat
ered with softeninS 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 sticl:ful Of cpitaph. If
1t was a good paper. say. Peace to its
ashes" II it was bad paper, | sug-
gest the epitaph written for Francis
Chartreuse: Here continueth to rot
the body Of Francis Chartreuse, who,
with an iniexible constancy and uni
iormity OF life persisted in the prac-
tice Of every human vice, excepting
prodigality and hypocrisy; his insati-
able avarice exempted him from the
first, his matchless impudence from the
SeCOuu. SOY ILLS DCCduse WANT you
to know that good, healthy, long
liYed, entertaining newspaper Is not an
easy blessing, but enc that comes TO US
through the fire.
First oil ali, newspapers make knowl-
edge democratic and for the multitude.
The public library Is a hay-mow SO hIgn
up that few can reach 1t. while the
newspaper throws down the forage 10
our leet. Public Libraries are the reser-
yoirs where the great hoods are stored
nlgh up and away Off. The newspaper
Is The tunnel that brings them down 10 |
the 'pltcners OF all the people. The
chiet use Oh great libraries is TO make |
newspapers out OF. Great libraries |
make lew men and women very Wise.
newspapers lift whole nations into TIE |
sunlight. Better have fifty million peo-
pic moderately intelligent than one |
nundred thousand solons. y false I'M |
preston Is abroad that newspaper |
knowledge is epnenleral because PERIOD