The Country Editor.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1869, 6 February 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Country Editor.

The country editor lind*, in all communr ties Shr.t the meanest men are turss who boiiovc they are rich enough to snub a man who admits that ho 13 poor, und who works hard for a living, bus invariably the tables ara turned, aud the printer gets there, while tho ni2an whdp almost alwajs busts up in busintss. Tne editor could gloat over the fall of I those who are not good to him when ho is struggling, but ho is nover much of a gloater. and me oftcner does some great kindness to those who get in trouole, no matter how mean they may havo been to him and hia ! wife when they started out with nothing but! a couple of pair of hands. Io is safe to say that there was not an editor I in all the crowd' that attended the editorial I convention but could tell of similar experiences. Citizens of a village tbat want a paper \ (Started usually hold out great inducements j to a young printer, and tney mean to do aa [ they agree, but tho men be;t able to patro- ! ni&e a paper are usually those parse-proud I merchants who kick against paying out a 1 aopptr, ana'ofteu others take the cue from I them, and it is up-hill work for the editor. The first few years 0! the business life of & young editor in a country town has little recreation. He gets about all hid pleasure with a dog and gun, and often when the merchant thinks the editor is fooling aw&y hia time huntirjg he is getting ideas whioh will cause him to write better and make bis paper better, and he gets exercise which enables him to kick I a job press night and day and letl happy all I the time. Chasing a spike tailed dog through wooda and fi.lus his sa-ed many aoountry editor from overwork, insomnia and preinatuie old age. The great event of the year for the typioal country editor is atttrdnig the editorial convention aad gjiug on tne annual excursion. He lOOK 3 forward to it, and gets an outfit in the way of clothes and money enough to pay legitimate expenses. It is money he has earned, and he does not owe it to any man. If his friend, the merchant, takes £20 out of his safe to go off ou a vacation tbe cuanoeu are that the money belongs to a oredicor, and it ought to be paid. The merchant will put ou more style, and will seem to own more of the earth than the editor does, but he is not half as independent. The country editor is ready to pay for anything he wants on his annual outing, but the paople where he goes are willing and anxious to entertain him with dinners and rides, and he takes them in. He nover misses a note and sees all there is to see, and is prepared to write intelligently on any subjeot that comes before him. He U an observer from Observer&ville. He is a thinker and thinks a think or two, and does not worry about next week's paper. Some day, on one of these tripß, be is oalled upon for a speech, end he blußhingly gete on his feet to apologise 10 tnose who have called him out, for being unable to make a speeoh, and then something will oeour to him thas ne would like to talk about, if he knew how, and before he knows it he has made a splendid .ff-hand ej.e d 0U > aQ d sat down amidst the ■viidesi; applause, and he feels of himself to see if it is actually /u>u, and hia good wife, who has taken in every word, and been quite astonished to learn that her husband oan j^ieak ia meeting, looks proud, and takes him oy the hand, aria both are happy, and when tuey go home they find tho daily papers uuve mentioned the speech of the youßg orator from Poduiik, and published some of v, and Che neighbors seem 10 have read it, for they are very kind, aud even the distinguished uerchant wuo has refused to advertise tells •lie young editor that was a mighty good .mag he got off at the convention. This is a critical time with the young bditor. If he looks upon his speech as an accident and realises that his mouth went off when ho didn't know it was loaded, and he gooa about his business a3 though nothing had happened, and keeps his sleeves rolled up and works, he is all right, but if ha &cts the b;g head and thinks he is a born orator, and begins to wear a Prince Albert uoat, buttoned up at the middle, and begins to Bet up pins to go to the L-^ialature, tha uhances are that he is lost. Tne minute he ue gins to try to trot in too fast a class he is distanced. Thai is the time when the good wife comes in handy. She will at that critical time, niuo times in ten, ateer the editor right, and he will keep pegging away in his printing office. She will tell iiiai it is too early to begin to ba a BCucoimai), and teil him to wait ten years until he has made some money, and let the oratorical vinegar iv him work, and when he is older if his fellow citizens want him they will know wheie to fiad mm. So he goes rigbt a.oag makicg money, and when tae jhnir begins to Ret mm on top of hiahead, and laid &t jinaou fids outaoalMace Albert coat will ntt look Odd on him, to mo day he has a call to enter the political fuid, and it does noi spoil him, because he haa learned sense, whtroas, if ho uad gone into politics when he made his firtt tpetch, ha vvou.d have loa tins business, and would alwayu be setting type for tooie one else, End regretting that he made a fool of himself. The l.fe of a country editor has many pleasant features, but one has to look out for breakers.