The Arkansas Advocate

The Steam-boat Industry, Capt. Johnson, returned to this place on Thursday evening last, from Fort Smith, and departed early on the following morning, for the Mississippi.

By the following communication, addressed to the Editor of this paper, it will be seen, that ere we have scarcely reached the sixth No. of our paper, we have been sadly complained of, not by a subscriber, but by one who is called a "smart man." The complaint alluded to, is an unpardonable neglect on our part, to serve up in our columns, a suitable quantity of anecdotes, Robinson Crusoe tales, &c. for the edification and amusement of this "smart man," who reads at the expense of others. As a proof of his "smartness," he says, our paper is "filled with dry matter, such as foreign news, Congressional debates," &c. This, we are constrained at once to admit, is an incontrovertible evidence of his superior "smartness" and intellect.— Sure enough, why should such dry and useless matter be admitted into the columns of a newspaper?—It is enough to crush it at once, in the estimation of every "smart man." What! a paper to be filled with such dry stuff, as Congressional debates, and foreign news! It is ridiculous! What does a "smart man" care to know about what is going on, or doing in Europe, or even in the National Legislature of our own country? Not a fig!

But to be serious—When we entered on the discharge of the duties incumbent upon us as the Editor of the Advocate, we did not anticipate so soon to be complained of, nor were we so vain as to believe, that we possessed the happy talent to please every body—a talent which no Editor has ever yet had the good fortune to possess. When we entered upon our duties as Editor, we promised, that all our time, and whatever of talents we possessed, should be devoted to make the columns of the Advocate, useful and interesting, and so far as it has been in our power, we have strictly complied with that pledge.

Perhaps it would not be amiss to mention at this time, for the information of this "smart man," that we have never figured in the Colleges of the East—on the contrary, we have been nurtured in the forests of ARKANSAS, and raised among her commoners; and what little of talent we may possess, has been acquired by our own individual exertions, or in other words, we are self-taught altogether. Therefore should we be remiss in our duties, or should not such judicious selections be made, as would pass the criticising eye of a "smart man," he must attribute it to our want of capacity.

It should be remembered that a new paper labors under many disadvantages. It requires a considerable length of time (especially in so remote a part of the United States as Arkansas,) to receive papers in exchange, from almost every section of the Union, from which to make selections. It is therefore, not to be expected, that a paper, for the first ten or twelve numbers, will contain as great a variety of matter, as one which has been established for years.

With these remarks we leave the subject.