Year: 1879

THE IDEAL AND REAL EDITOR.


The majority Of people imagine that it is


the simplest thing in the world to edit


newspaper A man may have grave doubts


about his talcNt for public speaking NAV


freely admit that he cannot turn a tune or
recognize one when turned by any ybody else;


may confess that he is no poet, not much OF
a scholar, and nothing of an artist; but
there is no creature so poor-spiritcd as to
avow his incapacity to edit ncwspapcr.-
On the contrary, this is work to which
every man seems to have a manifest call
No matter what his actual business in life
may be-preachcr, lawyer, physician, baker
or candle-stick maker--he hps secret fam
-hc only had n .chanre hes ooata,
make newspaper little BIT spicier ai,ds
livelicr than anything in the shape of
public journal that has ever come in his
way This is one of the most amusing and
universal weaknesses of modern times
The number of people who arc infected by
it is known only to publishers, just as tho
extent to which opium eating is practiccd
is realized only by druggists and physicians.
The drawers and waste baskets of cycry
leading newspaper Office in the country
overflow with evidences of the ambition and
harmless vanity of the vast public who
scr'bhlc by stealth and patiently toll over
rcams of composition which nobody can be
induced to print


1t must be admitted that there is some.
thing cnticing and cnviablc in editorial life,
as it appears to the outside world. The de.
light OF getting into print for the first time
20 u, 0"1 OF tho kcnnest cnioymcnts. Whnt.
therefore, both men ana women reason to
themselves, must bo the pleasure of that
happy man who daily feeds the public with
his wisdom, and whose smallest scribbling
finds its way into type without criticism or
delay? But this reasoning is altogether
unsound. The editor docs not look at
things exactly in the same roscn:c Light
The bright colors seen by Other eyes have
become to his little cloudsd. The fresh
ness, the exquisite charm of seeing his re-
Elections in print, has bng since vanished.
lie writes sometimes painfully and under
pressure, often hamsscd by q thousand petty
vcxations, and not unfrcqucntly with aching
head and wea,y hand. His work is, of ali
work the rost wearing, the most akin to
treadmill drudgcry, and the most exhaust
ing, botl to body and brain. The call for
lie musi wTilo: He H4 must t1 also ttf,dafsa aed6c
most contemplate and continual criticisms
must bear patiently ITO be esteemed dull
when he cannot be witty, and to be applau-
dcd for wit when he knows that he has been
dull" Every blockhcad who buys his pa
per feels that he has purchas I'd right to
dictate the manner in which it shall lie con-
Quoted, to criticise sharply everything that
appears in it, and to elevate its tone" with
his own carping lucubrations, fairly written
out and enclosed in note for immediate
publication, signed "a Subscriber" can
Old Patron" or can Earnest Wcllwisher."
IF you were to ask this modest friend to
cut you coat, or measure you for pair of
boots nc would Indignantly reply that that
was not his trade, that he knew nothing
about it and would not attempt it. But the
diitidcnce which shrnks from the shears
and coyly draws back from the awl and lap
stone, boldly grasps the pen and undertakes
to illuminate and instruct the world
Breeches and shoes require art, experience,
reflection in their making-political essays
flow spontaneously from the most added
pate, or can be pumped out of it by sheer
hand labor, without the vulgar appliances
of study, thought an1 knowledge. Such
is life !-Bahimore Gazette.