Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1880 — “Sponging" on Newspaper [ARTICLE]

“Sponging" on Newspaper

Every man thinks a newspaper a fair game. If a society or any body of men cet up a' concert or bell, or any other form of entertainment, the object of which is to put money in their own pockets, or, if the proceeds are to be devoted to charitable purposes, to add to their -ex? glorification, they become very indignant if the proprietors of newspapers do not assist them with a series of gratuitous advertising for several weeks before the event taxes place. These men, says an exchange, should remember that literary men, in this practical age, work for money as well as for fame —principally tbe former, however—and the business manager of a newspaper, if he wishes to keep on the safe aide of the ledger, conducts his charge on the same principle aa ths bead of any other business establishment. People who are getting ufi a ball would feel chary of asking a present of a pair of gloves from a mdrehant on that account, yet asking and expecting to receive a gratuitous advertisement is a similar demand. The editor of the Marlboro (Maas.) Journal stated the case very plainly when he informed bl i-cadere that, “We long ago adopted the plan of charging our regular reading notice price for all editorial announcements of entertainments to which an admission fee is fixed. We make no exceptions to this rale. In the way of new topics, we frewly and gladly insert sketches of all entertainments after they Irave become matters of history. It is only the preliminaiy work, looking to the drawing out of increased patronage from the public for which we expect compensation.” It costs money to conduct a paper, and printing offices must have support, the same as churches or charitable institutions

—The Marysville *'*t speaking of the college of its loyhood days, says: If you stumbled on an' institution called a college, the first thing thev would put you in would be Latin. From four to six years they would grind you through the l<atin ami Greek languages, with a little bolting through what they called mathematics, geometry ami tngotioinetry. All of which, when well mastered, is about as valuable to the great .iihss of American citizehsin all (he journey of life as Cherokee Indian, st the songs snug while tbe Mexican inouud buildeis were throwing their mounds np. Of ail the grana advances the American mind has made dun ng the last fifty years, none is greater than timt of educating the masses, and directing that education in such a way as to liear favorably on the common practicabilities of life. This is tbe Immediate province of our commen school system. Every branch of literature conducive to this end should lie introduced and taught and none others. If tl>ere is airocote sional youth, meteoric in his thirst for knowledge, let him, comet-like, wander into other and distant systems, and explore to his liking. But our own sun should light u;> his own planets only. —To some pungent remarks of a pro leesional brother, a western lawyer begun his reply as follows: “May It please ilda court; Resting upon the couch oi republican equality as I do, covered with the blanket of constitutional panoply as I am, and protected by the iegis of American liberty as I feel myself to be, 1 <lespise the bussing of the professional insect who has just aat down, and defy his fntile attempts to penetrate, with his pnny sting, the interstices of my impervious covering.” A Cincinnatian who recently visited K*ntaAy to see the Blue Gram region returned diMupointod, and dejected. He traveled 200 miles and never saw a blade of blue grass. AU the grtaa to be seen was green—just the wbere° Id g ”* n ir * W - « ver y-