The Mystery of Editing.
By Henry Ward Beecher
THE world at large do not understand the mystery of a newspaper; and as in a watch, the hands that are seen are but the passive instruments of the spring which is never seen; so in a newspaper, the most worthy cause of its prospering is often least observed and known. Who suspects the benefit which a paper derives from the enterprise, vigilance and watchful care, of the publishers? Who pauses to think how much of the pleasure of reading is derived from the care and skill of the printer? We feel the blemishes of printing, if they exist, but seldom observe the excellencies. We eat a hearty dinner, but do not think of the farmer who raises the materials thereof, or the cook that prepares them with infinite pains and skill. But a cook of vegetables, meats, pastries, and bones, has a paradisiacal office in comparison with the editor! Before him passes in review all their exchange newspapers. He is to know all their contents—to mark for others the matter that requires attention. His scissors are to be alert, and clip with incessant industry all the little items that together form so large an interest in the news department. He passes in review each week every section of his country through the newspaper lens; he looks across the ocean and sees strange lands; and following the sun, he searches over all the world for material. It will require but one moment's time for the readers to take in what two hours produce. By him are read the manuscripts that swarm the office like flies in July. It is his frown that dooms them; his hand that condenses a whole page into a line. It is his discreet sternness that resists sentimental obituaries, and gives our young poets a twig on which to sit and sing their first lays. The power behind the throne, in newspapers, as in higher places, is sometimes as important as the throne. Correspondents, occasional and regular, stand in awe at that silent power which has the last chance at an article, and who sends it forth in glory, or condemns it to oblivion. In short, as the body depends upon good digestion, so the health of a paper depends upon the vigorous digestion which goes on by means of the editor.—Henry Ward Beecher.