"SNYDERS" ADVICE TO A YOUNG EDITOR.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 769, 19 May 1877, Page 2

"SNYDERS" ADVICE TO A YOUNG EDITOR.

Ay YdUNG but highly intelligent editor^ of a newspaper, in a small ' town in one of the*prdvince3 of this Island, writes for my. advice in the following little difficulty ;*' He says, it is quite a common thing here when an occurrence is recorded in my paper, for some person tp walk into the office and peremptorily requesi me to tell him where I got iny information from. The same demand is as frequently made as to who is the writer of ; a letter which I may have thought proper to insert. ... No^-if I give up the name of one who informed of the occurrence narrated~it is highly probable that it will be the last bit of information I am likely to get from the same -quarter/while, if I disclose the name of the writer of the letter I feel that I should be committing a breach of faith. Then the young but highly intelligent Editor asks, * how should I act under the circumstances V What happens to my young friend is quite common in Gisborue. — At least, so I am told. Of course I don't know of my own knowledge. .Now, I was once doing the editorial running of a newspaper, in a „ settlement down South, when a man J§ in a very excited state rushed inter my office. Fire issued from his eyes in lightning flashes. In one hand he held a newspaper of that day's issue. In the other a species of shillaleigh of the very highest order of merit, that is from a shillaleigh point of view. Dropping the instrument on to a, part of the paper, he shrieked out-^-Who was the man that wrote that iletter ? Claim your agitation my friend, I said. You shall know all. It was a man named Smith, John Smith, if you particularly wish to know more . particularly the kind* of Smith it was. Sir, replied the man, there are a million John Smiths, Describe the villian. . : ■• > My friend, I will divulge toyou^i all J" know. The Smith referred to, weais a magenta colored swallow tailed coat, yellow vest, scarlet kneebreeches, dancing pumps ; aud a cocked hat, with a lilly white feather sticking out of the top on the left hand side. The only thing I don't know is his address. I forgot to ask him, or you should have it ! with^ pleasure. And you want me to believe this, . Sir, ; do you ? . .1 said that as a gentleman -"he Wouldn't doubt the truthfulness of a statement made by another^ gentleman. Then did the man's ire subside. The novelty of being called a gentleman, I, think ib was, had completely crushed his spirit. He went out of the office calm as ajainb, saying he , was going to look up for the first John Smith that came in his way, when he would prepare his body for six months in a hospital. In another case where a man veanted to know and would know you know, with no evasion or ..equivocation whatever, who wrote a c ce.rj<aii} article which stood towards him in the same distant relation as ; fifty-second cousins to. one another, I mentioned" the name of a man who I solemnly assured him was the author. That man was an amateur heavy-weight prize-fighter, who a month before had beaten his opponent in 48 rounds in 59 minutes, and a few odd seconds. The enquirer thanked me and he also went his way. - My. young friend, the editor, if he adopts these simple -methods will find people cease to ask him questions, which, be it understood, no one has any right to ask. To refuse to afford information would probably be to lose subscribers ; and this in these depressed times is not to be thought of. Let my young friend always bear in mind that an evasive 'answer will assuage anger. It is a plan I have always adopted with eminent success.