Year: 1877

Ihe COWicT-,/Ourndt, OF LOUISVILLE


Ky, received the following communica


tion from n young man in Tennessee


"I have been teaching school ever since


I quit school about year ago, but dc


not like it. tt is time I had chosen q


profession, and think would rather


be m editor than anything else, for


like ease and comfort and plenty OF


money, and do not like to work. To be IN


editor-to sit in nm elegant sanctum,


with nothing to do but write when I felt


like it; to have plenty of money and go


where and when I please, free of cost,


and lead the editors quiet life of ease,


without care or trouble of any SORTS


the height of my ambition. My friends


think ought to study law or medicine,


or to keep on teaching; but to be a lawyer


or doctor requires too much study and


too much brains to start with, and teach


ing is too hard work. Under these cir
cumstances would you not advise me to
become MI editor p


To this remarkable communication the


Courier-Journal sportively replied as
follows, and it is to be hoped to the
young editorial aspirant's entire satis-
faction: We certainly would; your ideas
of the life of an editor and his surround
ings and freedom from care and toll are
singularly accurate. An editor is the
happiest being on earth. He has little
or nothing to do and his pay is all that
his heart could wish. His sanctum, with
it's Persian rugs and Turkey carpets, its
costly rosewood furniture, it's magnifi-
cent mirrors, its beautiful pictures, its
complete library of splendidly bound
books, its buffet stocked with the finest
of wines, liquors and cigars, which cost
him but n puff or two; its silver bell to
summon an attendant whenever julep
or cocktail is wanted, and, in short, with
its everything that human ingenuity can
devise for his comfort and pleasure, is
perfect little paradise, where he sits or
lounges and reigns a young lord, with
the world of fashion and pleasure at his
feet. And then anybody can be an edi-
tor-no study, no preparation, no brains,
nothing but a little money to start with,
and once started the money pours in
upon you in steady stream, and the
chief labor of your life is to spend It.
AS for the labor of editing paper, that
is mere moonslline. A mere glance at the
columns of newspaper is enough to con-
vince you that it requires no labor to edit
it and less brains. Tt is certainly glori-
ous life, that of IN editor, life of luxu-
rious ease and elegant leisure-a life for
the gods. filled, like that of the young lover
in his first sweet dream of requited love,
with flutes and rose Leaves and moonbeams


While not wave of trouble rolls


Across his peaceful breast;


and that all men are not editors is one
of the strangest things beneath the stars.
True, there must be doctors and lawyers
and merchants and shoemakers and pea
nut dealers and the like, and all these
callings must be filled by somebody, but
there are thousands of men who are not
smart enough to fill them, and why they
don't become editors and lead tho life
Of opulent princes is thing that stag
gers us. But after all it may be that it
is mere matter of taste. It may be re-
pugnant to some natures to be clothed
in purple and fine linen and fare sumptu-
ously every day, and of course it would
never do for such a nature to become an
editor; the life of ease and elegance and
luxury, and exemption from all care and
joil and duns, would soon become bore
20 him, and he would spend his nights in
lreaming of plows and pitchforks and
'eaping machines, and squander his
lays in devising some plan of swapping
places with blacksmith's apprentice or
street car driver. Yes, we would ad-
rise our young Tennesseean friend to
become an editor by all means. Let him
ent twenty acres of good ground, ii he
las none of his own, and if it fails to
'ield him decent living it is because
le hasn't edited it as we'll as he ought to
AVE done.