TRICKS UPON EDITORS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 167, 24 November 1883, Page 3

TRICKS UPON EDITORS.

In last week's issue we administered a mild castigation to some shallow youth who had tried to foist upon us five different paragraphs bearing as many different signatures and addresses, but all obviously in the same handwriting . Immediately { after the publication of the Obsebveb we received 1 a visit from the sons of two prominent citizerisy one of whose names had been forged, while the \ other was referred to in inuendoes , contained' in one of the paragraphs. The two paragraphs' were placed in their hands with a view to their* tracing out the author. This they promptly sue- ' ceeded in accomplishing. The handwriting was*' identified as that of the son of a respectable resident iv Ponsonby, who has since called upon the editor and humbly apologised for his^ conduct. Out of consideration for bis parents he' was let off with a severe lecture, and.it is to be hoped that the warning will have a salutary effect upon his future behaviour.

Correspondents and contributors must bear ip. mind that their genuine signatures and addresses are indispensable. Anonymous letters are invariably consigned to the waste-paper basket, and where an attempt is detected to impose upon U3 with a fictitious or forged signature, we shall expose the offender, or hand his letter over to the person whose name has been forged,.so;that!a criminal prosecution may be instituted. But for the youth of the delinquent in the case under, notice, and the respectability of his parents, this mode of punishment would have been used. , TJie ( genuine names of correspondents and contributors are always treated as strictly confidential, and are not divulged under any ch'curnstances, unless ' it be found- that the information forwarded s is wilfully false and malicious. A correspondent . who deliberately invents a falsehood to injure his rival or enemy deserves no consideration. Under ordinary circumstances, however, the names of writers arc known only to the editor.