Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-03

! author and playwright. After ten years
! in the rarefied atmosphere of dramatic
art as practiced today at 3 seat OF
| 81 on the sidewalk. L feel that L am pc
| culiarly qualified to discuss American
newspapers L can proceed with safety
because II | say anything uncomplimeii-
/ tary. ] have a scrap book TO prove that
they began it.
Everybody wants to help the editor.
Not as regards cheaper wood-pulp or
keeping down the pay roll, but with sug-
gestions for filing up the paper. Most
people stiu believe that every newspaper
must hustle every night to get enough
: copy to separate the advertisements. Be
ing a post-gra duate 1 know that YOU are
compelled to throw columns and col
u1nns of stu on the floor. Very often.
! in CHANGING over long tariff editorial
wonder what was thrown on the floor
however, I am not here to upset any
traditions-merely TO offer a few helpful
hints.
PAPER oFfTODAY TAME.
I'm the first place the city newspaper
of today as compared with the Indiana
newspaper of the '7Os is tame, inverte-
brate colorIess and apologize. The first
newspaper with which ] was associated
came out every Thursday from room
over the hardware store. The fires OF
civil war were still smoldering. lndi-
ana's chief occupation was politics. Near
" every man was voting as he shot, and
some of them A good deal Oftener. Our
office equipment consisted of Washing
ton hand press. a foot-power job press,
a perennial towel and few fonts of type
mostly i:a4ics All, but We had an ed
itor, Those were the palmy days of
journalism of which we hear so much at
present No faint of commercialism, no
subservience to the counting room tbe-
cause there wasn't any counting room.
no cog heels or card interestingly
majestic figurehead of an editor who was
animated by a high and patriotic resolve
10 promote msnslaughter as often as
possible When he opened up on man.
the mans only escape was to walk out
side of our circulation. which he could
do IN = bout ten minutes.
PLEADS FOR OLD DAYS.
IF You hear a man raving about the
golden age of American journalism when
each editor exercised an individual iniiT
ence and led the way through the dark
ness with flaming torch above his head
let il go al that. Don't take the trouble
TO examine the files of that wonderful
period, or you may lie discouraged over
your present efforts. / plead for re-
turn of those heroic days when every
editorial was a trumpet blast and ever
paragraph was a fire cracker. We used
10 go to press at o'clock, and by (
o'clock the whole population would be
on the streets waiting for the sounds of
assault ard battery. The old-time ed
itor. the one we all read about, who
stamped his individuality on every issue
of his paper and didn't bother about the
press work, do you remember what he
called a man if he didn't care much for
10 U1OltECO00le
or an insurgent or a malefactor or an
undesirable He said that the man was
a poltroon. a hell-hound, a pusilanimous
liar. an unmitigated horse thief, jackal,
a marplot. a caitiff, reptile, viper.
cur and whelp. Here are a lot OF val
liable ans expressive words that are
gradually being eliminated from our vo-
cabUlary because the editors of today,
STEPPED in commercialism, have aban'