DEFENCE OF THE SCISSORS EDITOR.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 135, 5 November 1874, Page 3

DEFENCE OF THE SCISSORS EDITOR.

(From, the Exchange.) The scissors editor of a newspaper is commonly the butt for many jokes, but a contemporary comes boldly to the rescue of these undervalued students of literature. It says :—Some people estimate the ability of the newspaper and the talent of the editor by the quantity of original matter. It is comparatively an easy matter for a frothy writer to pour out daily a column of words—words upon any and all subjects. His ideas may flow in one weak, washy, everlasting flood, and the command of his language may enable him to string them together like bunches of onions, and yet his paper may be a meagre and poor concern. Indeed, the mere writing part of editing a paper is but a small portion of the work. The care, the time employed in selecting, is far more important, and the tact of a good editor is better shown by his selections than anything else ; and that, we know, is half the battle. But, as we have said' an editor ought to be estimated, and his labour understood and appreciated, by the general conduct of his paper, its tone, its uniform, consistent course, its aims, its management, its dignity, and propriety. To preserve these as they should be preserved is enough to occupy fully the time and attention of any man. If to this be added the general supervision of the newspaper establishment, which most editors have to encounter, the wonder is how they find time to write at all.