The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1908-09-08
THE RAMBLER.

ukO--u uus VI tWo utei 'uc "'l'Ss
ance OF my first letter. You rcmcm
Der that In that communication
told YOU that | always had the idea
that | could write as well, II moi
better. than the fellow who published
the paper" Well. In was that re-
mark. or statement, that got me int,
trouble. was sitting In one OF tn,
hotels that evening and had Just Nm.
ished reading the article sent you
merely for the purpose OF seeing II
you cut any OF II out. When ! saw
that Il was Just rs ] had written II
I felt pretty good-so good In fac,
that I turned to man who was sit
ting next to me and suggested that
that article was pretty well written
and to the point. He read II and |
felt fattered on account OF the close
attention he seemed to give II. When
he had read II to the last word, he
laid down the paper and remarked.
The fellow who wrote that is Il
d--n fool" That put sort OF a crimp
In my enthusiasm. l asked why, and
he went on to say:
Il am an old newspaper man my
self. Been In the business nearly
forty years and served from printers
devil to editor.in-chief on several pa
pers. I therefore feel that ! have a
right to call that chap a fool. He Is
Just like the vast horde OF newspa-
per readers and critics-they do not
know what constitutes n newspaper
man nor have any idea Of his trou-
blcs. Now. take for instance the
writer Of this article. Tonight he
feels that this paper is the best In
the state: the publisher Is a gentle
man and a scholar. a splendid Judge
of literature and a writer of unques-
toned ability: he gets out the best
paper he ever saw and wonders why
he should house up his abilities In u
small town. Thus runs his thoughts.
But supposing his letter did not APP
pear. He weuld wonder wha, In
thunder such contemplate sheet
was published for: II never had any
news: the publisher was n numb
skull and ought to be put out with
a pick and shovel instead of trying
10 run q newspaper; he would go
right down and stop his paper and
then feel disappointed the next day
when he found that his doing so did
not result In the suspension OF the
publication. That In a nutshell Is
the way the average person looks at
n newspaper. II Is simply the med
ium for the promulgation OF their
ideas. and II II does not promulgate.
then II IL Aot worth a--weil II IL no
good.
When ] first went into the busi-
ness these things used to hurt. !
blamed myself and thought that l
was not doing my best and would let
myself out another notch. | kept
this up for while, but finally woke
up to the fact that ! was making Il
fool OF myself. After that l really
felt sorry for the fellow who came In
and stopped his paper because | dis
agreed with him. He stopped his pa
per and II stayed stopped or he got
II In someone else's name. found
out that ! was better rid OF such
narrow-minded people. A man who
gets sore because you do not agree
with him Is pretty small individual.
Another phase OF the business that
touches q sore spot In the hide of a
newspaper man. IL tho effort .Of ey-
eryone to graft him. He Is consfd-
cred legitimate prey for everyone
that comes along. In comes Ger.
tain individual who represents q CON-
mittss that Is getting up home tai
ent AFFAIR. the proceeds to 60 half to
the mission fund. or some other fund
and the other half to the person who
has gotten It up. 1T u 4, worthy
cause. this saving OF souls In the be-
nighted countries and incidentally
the making OF an easy living for the
promoter OF the entertainment.
Would you not kindly help US ont BY
publishing this In your paper? You
have always been SO kind and con.
siderate and We appreciate IT so
much. Well. they hand that In and
then some more and yet some more,
until the publisher has paid out two
or three dollars In actual money for
the time consumed IN setting up the
stuf. Thsy come around and hand