Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1902-10-01
EDITORS OF TODAY
EVOLUTION OF THE RESPONSE.
BILE NEWSPAPER MAN.
Position Is Little More Than Gen.
fury old-Franels Jeffrey, of the
Edinburgh Review, the First Of
Now Numerous Class.

The editor as he is now best known
the responsible conductor of news
paper or periodicals. a comparative
ly recent production of civilization.
He is, indeed, but little more than a
century old. The word is much older,
for it has been in use for nearly 300
years; but it originally meant, like
the French "editeur"-publisher And
an editor of that kind was sometimes
even called an "editioner"-a particu-
larly ugly word. This use of the term,
however, soon became obsolete, and
from the beginning of the eighteenth
century the world of readers has been
familiar with the editor of the second
kind-that is, one who prepares or re-
vises and annotates and arranges the
work of another, or of others, for pub
LEGATION.
A learned editor of the modern va
riety has lately laid it down that "a
good writer will be bad editor, and
a good editor bad stylist'; and his
own use of the odious word "stylist"
may be held to go some way to prove
the truth Of his diction. But the
statement is too sweeping to be &C
cepted as 1t stands. 1t contains, Of
course, a measure of truth, for the
qualities required for effective textual
criticism, for the patient collation. of
texts and authorities, and for the va
rious other kinds of detailed work re-
garded by modern scholarship as edi-
torially important, are very different
from those needed for original compo-
sition.
Then there is the third kind Of edi-
tor-the responsible conductor of jour
nal or periodical-who is hardly trace
able much beyond the beginning of
the nineteenth century. 1t is curious
to recall now the primitive nature of
the editorial arrangements which
were made when the Edinburgh Re-
view was started. The small band of
northern scholars who cultivated lit
erature on little oatmeal seem to
have thought that a review could be
satisfactorily conducted by commit
tee of nearly dozen. But this was
soon found to be an impracticable ar
rangement, and the responsible au-
thority was lodged in the Reviews
first real editor, Francis jeffrey.
Somewhat similar attempts have been
made occasionally in later days to
biHcs the editorial authority more or
less In commission, SO to speak,
though not with such a naive ignoring
of possibilities as characterized the
start of the Edinburgh Review, but
such experiments have not usually
been very successful
Francis Jeffrey, in charge of the
Edinburg Review, was the real father
of all who have since occupied the
editorial chair of paper or periodical.
1t may be objected that magazine edi-
tors existed before Jeffrey's day, but
1t would be hard to show that any So
called editor exercised functions real
ly corresponding to those of his pres
emit day successor.
Goldsmith was for while the chief
writer in the review, the Monthly. He
did hack work of every kind-work
which in later and more prosperous
days he never cared to claim as his
own, for 1t was written under hard
and degrading conditions; but the
T6dl VI Tic nlOhthiy Wdo ITO
proprietor, Grifiths, the bookseller,
whom Smollett dubbed "illiterate,"
and whose power was shared by his
wife. Goldsmith complained that all
he wrote was tempered with by these
worthless, who jointly filled the edi-
torial chair. Cave, the bookseller,
again, who founded the Gentlemans
Magazine, was also its responsible
conductor.
And in those cases where a maya
zine or other periodical publication
was identified, not with bookseller
or publisher, but with a weli-known
writer's name, the writer was not an
editor In the modern sense, for his
business was to write. for the most
part, his own paper. not to accept or
reject, sift and arrange and correct
the contributions of others. 1t was in
this way that Defoe conducted his Re-
view, Steele and Addison the Taller,
Spectator and Guardian, Fielding the
Convent Garden Journal and Johnson
the Rambler and Idler Occasional
numbers of one or other of these pa
peHs, or Of the many other periodical
publications-the Connoisseur, World,
Adventurer and the Mcknight be
written by casual contributor, but in
the main they were written, in each
case, by the one or two men who
started, and if the expression may be
allowed, ran" them.
johnson did much to abolish the
days and traditions sf Grub street and
to enhance the dignity of the profess
sion of letters. Francis jeffrey hrst
invested the editorial chair with an
authority which commanded respect.