Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-11-27
THE MORNING PAPER

Editor journal; Can you tell me what the Even
ing Citizen means by the Aftermath which it refers
TO so often in its editorial columns? Is it a Joker Ana
what does 1t mean?
"Answer-t refers to a weekly publication known
as the Advertiser, with which the other weakly pub
location on the corner of Paradise alley has been having
a dispute as TO which prints the news first. Yes, it is
a joke, and if you don't know what it means you are
no better of than the rest of the people"
The foregoing appeared in a recent issue of the
Albuquerque Aftermath, and no doubt, like the "spe-
cials" which that paper so laboriously spreads out upon
its snort pages-short on news and short in length
this fabrication was concocted in the Aftermath's own
Office, and is the evidently admired bantling of the
secondhand fddle's spasmodicaly aroused mentality
No one who reads The Citizen enough to know
that IL $50 often in its editorial columns refers to the
Aftermath-makes mention of the Aftermath had been
a more correct expression-would need ask what the
term means: and certainly NJ one who reads the morn
ing paper. though it re ever so casually, would for a
moment think Of asking that paper for the definition OF
aftermath, or of any other word not in the ordinary
vocabulary of the street. Nor would anyone with IN
telIigence enough to wonder at the meaning of a word
with which he was not familiar, take the trouble to
write to the morning paper for the definition OF a term
he could easily, quickly and correctly ascertain for
himself by a moments glance into an ordinary dictionary,
No doubt the second hand fiddle would gladly in
duce its readers to believe that the name Aftermath
is NOT applied to the morning paper but to the Weekly
Advertiser better paper, by the way, in the estima-
tion OF many, than the morning excuse. Failing in
this. il would persuade them that the use of the name
lis a joke; and as a last shred of comfort-a drowning
man catching at a straw-it is hugging to it's fainting
heart the absurd hope that because it is ignorant of
the meaning of a good English word Of not infrequent
use, il is no worse OFF than the rest of the people"
The Citizen has dubbed the morning paper the
Albuquerque Aftermath because of its afterness in
everything: Because it's news is a second crop from
the day before, which field The Citizen had already
moved, giving the news the day it happened; because
its picture service comes to it after publication in
other papers; because its specials are generally stolen
from other papers without credit; because even its
name is secondhand. Also its fiddle is second hand,
and about the entire paper there is nothing first class
but its boundlessly audacious ~claims-claims to purity,
Hpinn and nf all # which if lie QtOrlOug
destitute-and its Incompatible capacity for lying.
Conscious of its own inferiority and lacking the
ability to be better, it knows no means of rising but
by trying to pull others down. 1t has the well earn
ed contempt of the three leading dailies of the terri
tory, and in the weekly press it is rare to find the
morning rag either complimented or quoted.