Editing With The Scissors

A mistaken idea prevails that the use of seissors at the editor's desk is mere child's play, a sort of hit and miss venture, ï-equiring harrtly any brains and still less judgment ; that the promisíous and voluminous cllppings are sent in a batcüi to the foreman and witli that the editor's duty ends, and that of the foreman's beigiiis. Inst&ad of this, the work requires . much care and attention, with a keen comproliension of the fact that each paper has its own needs. The exdiange editor is a painstaking, conscientious, methodical man, shrewd In dissernment. He reads closely, culis careïully, omits and amends, diseards nnd digests, never gnoring the fact t'liat vnriety is a great eesential. There are sentjeinces to recase, words to soften, redundanciiee to pruno, erroi-s to correct, headings to Ik made, credits to le givcn, reasons to lie considered, affinities to bc preserved, con sisiencies to le repeated. He knows whether the matter is fresh or stale, Whether it is appropriate, and wliether he has used it before ; he remembers tihat he is catering ïor many I tastes ; hie makes raiids in cvery direstion ; hie laye the vhole newgpaper field under contriibution ; lie persistently "boils down," whiih with him is no í a procese oí re-writlng, but a happy ïaeulty of expungitig wltnout dK stroying .st'nse or uity. His gieallus is exhibited in the depavt, menta, tlvi' items oí whidi are simi lar and coheslve - in the suggestive I lK-ads and sub-heads, in the eparkle that is visible, in the sense of gratification, Avhith ,the reader derives. No paper can be exclusively original. It would die of ponderosity. Life Is too liort, and henee au embargo must be laid on tlie geniuvs of its rivals. A bright clipped article Is infinitely better than a stupid contributed article Tlie most snccessful paper is the paper tlvat is intelligent ly and consistently elited in all its dopurtments, wiiether by pen or scissors.