Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1877 — A NEW DEPARTURE. [ARTICLE]

A NEW DEPARTURE.

With the number of Thu Union s»f August 24, |6<7, (next week), R mew leaf will he turned. The paper will be relieved in Bi«e, and appear a* a seven-column folio sheet. Thia notion is tnade imperative by the stringency of monetary affairs and thepniversai stagnation of business »-.4jy the hat'd and contracting times. A paper of the present size of Thk Vnlon cannot live in Jasper county business as it is at present. Certain neighbors of Democratic faith predict and industriously circulate their prophecy* that Thk Union pannot* shall not live here at all—that it shall surely die. With this reduction of site, more than a cor* responding redaction of price will be made. Patrons are now. receiving forty-eight columns of printed matter lor two dollais a year | hereafter they will receive twenty-eight longer columns (thirty and twothirds columns of equal length) for one dollar a year. With this reduction of price more than seventy per cent., it is necessary to modify conditions. Although the proprietors have endeavored, heretofore, to encourage tlip system of prepayment of subscription, they never made it an inflexible rule; the result is that they have outstanding in small sums difficult to collect a great deal of money for the amount of business done, which they sadly need at the present time, and which they Cannot afford to lose. Another lesson has been learned m the course of ten years’ experience With the credit system applied to the newspaper business—it is that the most implacable enemies and the unfairest critics that the rural editor has to contend with are his delinquent ■subscribers. From and after the

day of August, 1877, Tue Union Mrrttt 3 BfWiit<‘rea»F'iCT delinqu wtiist. Front that date all subscriptions must be {raid in cash, in advance. Ntrt a copy of the paper will leave the Ofree wilhuat prepayment. Not a subscription will be traded tor the promise of wood, corn, potatoes, huckleberries, rat-skins, scrap-iron, paper-rags or any article other thaw tire legal tender recognized by the acts of congress. Another matter we will also make allusion to here. Some two years ago a rule was adopted in this office not to advertise gratuitously any show, festival, ball or other public entertainment where money was charged participants or spectators; a rule was also adopted to charge ten cents per line for all obituary notices other ' than the briefest mortuary announcements, which legitnately come in the classification of uews» —this rule applies to the resolutions •ot respect and condolence that secret or benevolent societies often parade -with ostentation when they may sponge its publication, and those long funeral sermons that

-clergymen sometimes attach to the •death notice of a worthy brother or sister or beloved child. These sermons, poetical contributions and Tributes of respect, are often very 9 eat, Very eloquent, very pathetic, and entirely appropriate; but our hire worked so admirably that it isrt’epeated. The publishers of this paper cannot bear all the expense.of others' grief. But to return to the subject of subscription. An Indianapolis paper announces that it does not want the patronage of fools; we do. We yould not, refuse to place the name pf its editor on our subscription book; and all whom he rejects may receive the worth of their money »l this office. VTe want for patrons Democratic fools who wont vote for a Republican for office when he is belter qualified than the man their party has nominated; we want Republican fools who think that ail Democrats are villains and traitors; we want Greenback tbylsj who think that a promise is better than its fulfillment; we upnt Democratic and Republican and Greenback fools, demagogues who prefer their personal interests to the public welfare, and think llpty deceive every «ae f'ith their sophisms. We wans tool qabseriber* to teach something better than they know and| to direct theta on the road to good citizenship. We want wise men for patroire in -order that pomeboiy

may appreciate our missionary labors in the direction before indicat* ed. We want the patronage of all who desire to keep posted on events that occur in Jasper county, and are of interest to the inhabitants thereof. The new price places the paper within the reach of each ablebodied man or womgn in thecounty, and it certainly will benefit or intereat them to the value of its cost. ' One copy will be sent to any address one year (post-paid) for only one dollar, or six months for fifty cents, or three months (thirteen numbers) for twenty-live cents; but the money must always be paid in advance. Single copies will be sold for three cents, two copies lor five cents, more than two copies at the rate of two cents per copy. No credit at all to anybody in the matter of subscriptions. This is what we understand—by business conducted on the cash system, and are confident that it will prove more satisfactory than any other arrangement as well to patrons as to the publishers.