Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1903-06-03


dens and beside babbing brooks.
But there is another kind of country editor. 1t
may be he did not go into the printing Office when
a boy and serve his term an imp Of darkness.
Instead, he was sent 10 college, and upon the wall
Of his sanctum hangs a handsome scroll with gilt
seal and blue ribbon on the corner Of it. He may
be graduate in law and medicine, but the com.
munty is healthiul and peaceable. He finally con-
cludes that his town needs a bright newspaper
know my friend RetOn, of the American Type
Foundry, and my friend McCallum, Of KellOggs
great patent house, will excuse me, for would not
iniure them nor reflect upon their sagacity. They
are both towering giants in their roles
NY college friend writes RetOn, and man is sent
to his town to supply his wants. BE has little
money, and the American will take his notes for the
balance and fit him out right By the time he gets
ready to make his first Issue he Ia paying interest
on more than he Is worth. Nor is he content to
print small paper, though it be larger than bis
community will support. Ny friend McCalum has
been to see him and shown him how he can issue an
eight page paper so cheaply and probably only have
to be bothered with the printing Of two Of the pages
on the $1,000 CranstOu press Brother RetOn has sold
him.
A finely equipped Office, big paper requiring
very little labor, an educated editor, and every
thing is lovely. The community comes in and ad
mires the plant. The paper appears aud is praised
The first month is an ovation.
Then steady business begins. The groceryman,
who has been anxious to supply the home, calls
with his bill. Kellogg makes sight draft iOI the
patents furnished. Brother RetOn writes one Of his
characteristic, pretty, pOetica letters suggesting
that the 6rst note on the new outfit is due. The
editor is looking over his books to see how much
he has earned that is cOllectable. BE discovers
there is a shortage. The bank will help him over
this bridge, and it does Then another month rolls
round. The same condition is confronted, with the
banks note falling due in addition. The grocer is
told he must watt for If he doesn't pay the Ameri
can the mortgage will take his fine press, and his
patents must be paid for or they will come @. o. d.
In six months q tramp printer blows into the
shop, and the educated' editor is ready to sell out
to him ii he will only try and protect the Outstand
ing notes he has given.
Another matter "with" the country press is
found in the fact that too many publishers, and
some of them who know better, fail to properly
estimate the value Of their space. There are stan
dard advertisers enough in this day, anxious to get
country, to create revenue sufficient to render any
local paper independent Of the home abuses which
too often come forward. The country publisher
who spends his time trying to make his paper just
little better with each succeeding issue will never
find it difficult to fill all his space at fair price, If
he will but contend for it, and turn it down if that
return is not realized Too many contracts are &C.
cepted hurredIy because a smooth agent is pushing
it one side, and careless, busy editor is on the
other. contract for six inches Of space in pa
per for year is a matter of sufficient Importance
to warrant publisher to sit down and read over
the contract offered, and if Objectionable refuse to
sign it. The fact is that medicine or other adver-
tisng house, who knows to 3 cent what the service
he seeks is worth before he enters an Office thinks
far more Of the publisher who lets him leave town
without contract than Of one who signs everything
knows that the man who hesitates and knows what
he signs, realizes that service is to follow the act
and wants to provide for its remuneration. could
lecture my brethren Of the Mississippi press for
two hours the foreign advertising subject and
still accomplish nothing. They are in a rut, and
in the rut with them, and al stuck there.
I trust our neighbors over in Louisiana have been
wise enough to bring business into the proceedings
Of their Press Association meetings, and have ex-
tricated themselves from such a rut
There is another thing especially the matter with
the country press in my section Of Mississippi,
which seems to me might and must sooner or later
be rectifed especially BY those papers which are in
the hands OF men who realize the Importance q