Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-01-06

lew Genus n the boy EDITORS USED
to . exchange their publications
There was nc profit in this, but the
amateurs were not in the game for
profit anyway, and exch' nging pa
pers was of the most absorbing in
terests of t Q business. ;
Since money was scarce with the
boy editors they did not buy many
contributions. Generally an editor
could easily write enough copy, in
Guiding editorials, poems, local
items, serials, and jokes, to fill his
own sheet. But the amateur jour
nalists watched one another's pub
locations closely. and If a boy see IL
ed weak on his rhymes o his plots.
he was apt to receive numerous Of
rates by more versatile writers.
Twenty-Five or so cents was the
usual price for q contribution.
Josephus Daniels Offer
Most of the struggling editors
were more anxious to dispose of
their own surplus copy than to pLr-
chase material from their fellow
journalists. Thus, Mr.. Huss has in
a scrap-book a post card from Jo-
sephus Daniels offering to sell him
a story for 80 cents. Mr.. Huss ran
across this piece of unanswered cor
respondence not long ago and decid-
ed to write to Mr.. Daniels about 1t.
He wrote that he regretted his de-
lay in replying, but that he would
be glad to accept the story at the
price quoted by the author.
Mr.. Daniels replied in equal SER
i%ousness that he believed, according
to the statute of limitations, he could
no longer be held to his offer and
that he would be obliged to with
draw it.
Mr.. Daniels Is one Of the few anna
teur journalists who have become
professionals. One of the Fossils esti-
mates that about one-third of the
boys who were sc eager for literary
fame are now connected with liter
airy work of some sort, but not many
of them r journalists.
Twice a year the Fossils publish q
Fossil magazine for their own en-
joyment, and they gather for occa-
sional meetings and for the annual
banquet.
One of the topics of conversation
when Fossils get together is as to
why the amateur Journalist has be-
COllIS SAJ4IlCL lIiS CIidIS0 IL pOSL
office ruling which prevented the
papers being mailed In large lots
cheaply was a fatal blow to the
amateur publications. Yet other
less obvious causes have had some
thing to do with the decline of anna
teurdom.
The chief explanation offered is
that the boy of today has more
money, more pleasures, and more in
terests than the boy of the seventies,
or e of the nineties. If a boy has
literary leanings he writes for lis
school paper.
The high school or college paper
is not the same type Of publication
as the old amateur sheets, the Fos-
sils say. The school paper is gov
erned strictly by school policies and
it contains chiefly school news. The
amateur papers, on the other hand,
were written entirely according to
| the taste of the editor or group OF
editors. Some of the boy journalists
were IL .ressed by the fact that the
press has a serious ;rission. They
printed weighty editorials and called
| their papers by such impressive
names as the Censor, the Oracle,
and the Reformer. Other editors
whose minds ran more to the popu-
lar and humorous called their sheets
; names such as the Imp or the Young
Joker.
At the height of the amateur
journalistic period almost every
town possessed at least one PROUD
boy editor and some places Lad hall
q dozen. Then, after the nineties this
new generations of boys had new
interests.
The Fossils say that the old STYLE
of amateur journalism cannot re
turn, and that the Fossils will di'
out gradually. They limit theil
membership to the editors anC
printers of the real amateur Jour
nalistic period and they are salts
fled to see their membership dimin
ish rather than increase.
They are q cheerful, chucklins
group. Even when they think o
the far future they look forwart
philosophically to what n OF then
calls "a sad but beautiful time wLel
the last Of the tribe will sit in soil
tary silence at a Fossil dinner, AM
drain a glass OF old win (vintag
Of 1920 to those who in the cours
Of nature no longer live except il
the happy memory OF that sinsl
guryiyoEr !