How to Write for a Newspaper.
As a general rule, short pieces are best liked. A gentleman in a bank once told us, when we asked him to subscribe for a certain "Quarterly Review," "Read a 'Review'! why, I never read anything longer than a telegraphic dispatch! But I will take it and send it to my brother, who is a minister in the country." The public like a short article when it is a condensation. This introduces a second idea. An article to be printed should absolutely have something in it. If professed argument, it should be conclusive; if pathetic, it should moisten the eyes; if an anecdote, it should have a sharp point; if philosophy, it should go to the primitive rock; if practical, it should go like an arrow to its work; if spiritual, it should awe the soul that reads it.