Telegrammatic by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1866

Telegrammatic.

By Editor

WEBSTER'S dictionary contains no such word. The latest edition has the word telegramatic, designated as rarely used, but which has the import we want; but why telegramatic? From epigram we have epigrammatic; from monogram, monogrammatic, etc.; but never otherwise; and so from telegram we should have telegrammatic, which defines, "In the nature of a telegram, hence laconic, concise, brief, succinct." When a man is preparing a dispatch, he counts every word, because it costs; he re-writes and corrects till all is brief as consistent with complete perspicacity. In our office, the other day, a good writer penned a dispatch, which at first contained fifteen words, but by a little correction it was reduced to nine, and was better than at first. Correction had made it telegrammatic. Do all writers know that every word in a newspaper costs? It costs type, and paper, and press-work and it costs time, too, to read it—and time is money. If all who write for us would correct as carefully as if it were to pass over the wires, more of our sheet would

be universally read, and might contain much more than now that is interesting.

Be telegrammatic, especially where the matter is not of universal interest. Our obituaries, since the reduction of their size, have greatly improved in character, so much so that other journals have called attention to the fact, and they were never so generally read. All notices of schools, of committees, of public occasion, ect., should be thus carefully prepared. We have many contributors who deserve all praise in this respect; with some there is room for improvement. Let it be always noted that a subject should be of most unusual interest to occupy more than a column or a column and a half, while in most cases half a column would be best of all.—Christian Advocate.