People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1893 — EdlTlng A Newspaper. [ARTICLE]

EdlTlng A Newspaper.

Editing a newspaper Is a pleasant business—if you cau stand it. If it contains many advertismeats the subscribers complain that they take too much space. If their is a scarcity of advertising it is unpopular and the people wont have it. If we attend church regularly they say we go for effect. If we stay away from church they say we are monstrously heathenish. If we accept an invitation to a wedding they say we were invited to “write it up.” If we go to the opera house they say we go on free tickets. If we are seen on the streets too often they say we neglect our business. If we avoid going on the streets they say we don’t hustle around after the news. If we reject a long-winded communication its author becomes furiously enraged and discontinues his paper. If we publish lengthy communications our readers say we lack discretion and put in anything “to fill up.” If we neglect to decorate our office windows on Washington’s birthday, they say we lack enterprise, and that there isn’t a drop of patriotic blood flowing in our degraded carcases. If we swell out in a new suit of clothes and celebrate groundhog day, they say we got our clothes in payment for advertising, and that we are by far too foppish. If, in our frailty, we sometimes perpetrate a joke, or make a stagger at a poor little pun, they say we are exceedingly light and won’t do.

If we omit jokes, they say we are poor, miserable fossils. If we are single, they say we are too helpless to get married. If we are not single, they say it is a pity for our wives. If we publish a man who has brought disgrace upon his family, the friends of the family never forgive us. If we, out of goodness of heart, decline to say any thing on the subject, the man’s enemies are disappointed, and we are branded as white-livered cowards. We are able to stand these raps and many more, and are always ready to receive visitors whether accompanied by a dog or not. Of course we do not claim there is any work in running a newspaper; everyone knows it is a snap.—Weekly Journalist.