Belmont Chronicle

The Newspaper.

Every man who reads a newspaper, and we pity the man who does not, imagines that if he was but the editor of a paper he would show the world what a newspaper should be.
Every one will acknowledge that the boot maker is the only man who is capable of making a presentable covering for the foot--that any one but a regular hatter would furnish a "shocking bad hat," and that a house carpenter of all others is the only man to be trusted with the construction of a house, yet at the same time they think "anybody can edit a newspaper." As a test we will vacate our chair for a week, gladly, if anybody wishes to try it, if they agree to be responsible for the damages resulting from their incapacity, or negligence.
It is the duty of an editor to "show the very age and body of the time in which we live its form and pressure." In doing this he is not to work alone. Every subscriber to a newspaper, and every citizen in a community has an interest in keeping up his paper, and to this end he should exert himself to send to the editor all items of news coming under his observation which could be of any possible interest to any number of persons. The state of the crops, the health of a neighborhood, deaths, and marriages are ever welcome to the columns of a newspaper, and they are eagerly looked for by the readers.
The nature of an editor's business is such as to keep him almost constantly at home, and it is therefore utterly impossible for him to collect, personally, local information from all parts of a county or state: much as he may desire to do so. If every one would take the interest in this matter they should do a newspaper would then be more like what it should be, a newspaper. With plenty of local items, and a sufficiency of "material aid" an editor's life would be a pleasant one.