EDITING A PAPER.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 103, 23 May 1885, Page 7

EDITING A PAPER.

Editing a paper is a very nice business, and those who know nothing about it consider it a very easy one. If we publish jokes people say we are rattleiualed, and if we omit jokes we are told we are an old fossil. If we publish original matter they blame us for not giving selections, and if we publis'i selections folks say that we are lazy for no« writing something they had not read in some other paper. Ijnorant of what editing is, people imagine the getting up of selected matter to be the a<iest thing in the world to do, whereas it is really the nicest work on a paper. If they find the editor with a scissors in hand, they're sure to say "Eh ! that's the way you get up original matter, eh?" accompanying their new and witty questions with an idiotic wink or smile. The facts are that the interest, the morality, the variety and usefulness of a paper depend in no small degree upon its selected matter, and few men ar= capable of ,ttye position who would not be -abV themselves to write many of the nrticles theyg select. A sensible editor desires considerable selected matter, because he knows that one mind cannot make as good a paper as Hve or six. If we give a man a complimentary notice we are censuled for being partial, and if we fail to give complimentary notices we are informed that we are a hog. If we insert articles that please the ladies the men are jealous, and if we do not cater to the wishes of the ladies, the paper in the dear ones* opinion is not fit to make a bustle of. If we remain in our office and attend to our business, folks eny we are too proud to mingle with our fellows ; but if we go out, they say we never attend to our business. If we wear old clothes it is insinuated that business is bad, and if we wear good ones they say we are uxtravagant. A newspaper and a newspaper editor that people dent talk about and semetimes abuse are rather poor concerns. The men and business that an editor sometimes feels it a duty to defend at ■he risk of making enemies of another Jars, are often the first to show ingfati tude. The editor who expects to receive much charity or gratitude will soon fin-1 >ut his mistake ; but he should go ahead and say and do what he conscientiously thinks right without regard to frowns or smileu. — Anon.

- Och, what a recreation it in to be dying of love I It *etn the heart aching «<o doliciously there'n no taking a wink of >>leep for the pleasure of the pain/ 5 The Londor Daily TVlftfrnph nets itb owners £50,000 a year-, and runs ten Hoc prchflw. Of the four original proprietors the sole Kiirvivor is tin owner ot « country weekly, aful anoth«r ditul in a poorlioiiKe.