Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1885 — He Wrote Too Rapidly. [ARTICLE]

He Wrote Too Rapidly.

“Colonel,” said the new “local” of a small daily paper, looking up from his desk and addressing the editor, “the great trouble with American writers is hurry. We dash off a thing which should receive hours of study. It is a comparatively easy matter to talk well, for our hearers do not expect us to deliver polished sentences; but in writing it is different. When I decided to take up journalism as the profession to which my life should be devoted, I resolved never to turn off a bad piece of writing. Some of our greatest writers have forked for days upon sentences which afterwards proved to be simple. Now, I have been at work for some time on a sentence here, and have at last reduced it to a smoothness that pleases me.” The editor approached the young man’s desk, took up a sheet, bf paper and read the following: “See the advertisement of a cook wanted in another column.” “This is certainly a fine sentence,” said tlie editor. " man was pleased. He could not conceal his satisfaction. “Yes,” continued the editor, “this is a remarkably fine sentence. Wrote it over and over, time and again, didn’t you ?” “Yes, sir, but at last I got it to suit me.” “Uh, huh. “Advertisement of a cook wanted in another column.’ Certainly very fine, but say, we don’t want a cook in another column. None of our columns have cooks in them.’’ “Oh, no, of course not,” replied the young man. “But by the way you have expressed yourself, people are led to infer that this column —the one in which the notice appears—hasa cook and that another cook is wanted in another column. lam sorry to see that in this, your first attempt as a journalist, you have fallen into the pernicious habit of writing too rapidly. You must not dash it off in this way. It is dangerous to your future success. Go away on the hillside somewhere and think. Write the sentence on the broad page of your mind until it is entirely covered with characters. Then turn your mind over and write on the other side. Alter you have completed the work, sit down on a rock and wait until I call you. ajod morning, sir. Yes, the sun is ining beatifuily to-day. Good morning.”— Arkansaw Traveler.