which must be picked up by that most
industrious individual, the "local" editor, or as he is
called in other places, "reporter." If the paper
is going to press, and there is a dearth of
"items" under the column "local," there is
nothing for it but to extemporise some, or resort
to that unfailing remedy of a newsless editor,
write letters on local grievances to himself, and
answer them in the next issue. In many years'
wanderings about the less settled portions of
the slopes of the Rocky Mountains I have had
much intercourse—pleasant, on the whole—
with the western editor. Scattered through
my note-books are various memoranda
illustrative of these rough " spurtings" of literary
effort in a roughly organised state of society.
The editor works to please the public, and
from the paper can generally be drawn a
tolerably fair picture of the community for
which it is produced, tinctured, of course, with
more or less of the individual peculiarities of
the presiding spirit. I must, in honesty, explain
that no one need expect in a few glances over
a single file of western newspapers to find so
many strongly marked characteristics as occur,
within narrow limits, in a gathering like mine;
for that contains picked specimens culled at
wide intervals. On the other hand, I can assert
that as they were not gathered with any special
object in view, they are fairly representative,
and in no case is there the slightest
exaggeration.

The editor himself has generally been brought
up as a printer, and not unfrequently in case of
accident will " set up" and " work off" his own
leader. Not unfrequently " he puts in his time
at case;" and if he be of a speculative turn of
mind, drives the stage coach, or " runs" the
hotel; but oftener, he is a local attorney, filling
up his spare time with politics, and possibly sits
in the territorial legislature. There is not, I
believe, a politician of any eminence in this wise,
who at one time or other has not been a
printer or a lawyer: the former generally
graduating into the latter, as the world deals
more kindly with him or ambition pricks him on.
He very seldom sticks to the editorial desk,
but gravitates with western versatility into
some other more lucrative line of business. If
he be sufficiently talkative, he takes to politics,
and " runs" for the local legislature or the
district judgeship; or, if muscularly inclined, you
will find him working in a mining claim, or
engaged in fulfilling a contract to " blaze" a
trail.

The first thing which attracts attention in the
little dirty-looking, ill-printed sheet, is its
astounding personality; that personality being
generally not so much directed against the
other party, or even against the rival paper as
representing the other party, as against the
editor of it in his private capacity. Every
western editor's name is prominently printed at
the head of his paper, and instead of talking as
he of the Eatanswill Gazette might, of our
"contemptible contemporary the Journal," the
Western paper talks of " that low-lived hound,
Cephas E. Slocum, who edits the miserable two-
bit thing* over the way."

The editor of a San Jose paper quarrels with
another editor. Listen to his description of his
friend's character: " He is a professional loafer,
and may generally be seen round drinking
saloons, not only at election times, but for years
after. He makes a game of politics, and plays
as he would a game of short cards or cut throat
monte to win. He wears his hair short—a style
known as the ' fighting cut'—that he may be
always ready for a scrimmage, and that his adversary
may take no undue advantage. The preponderance
of his brains is located between his ears.
His countenance is concave, and one or both of
his eyes are usually in 'mourning' from the
effects of his last fight. He is 'powerful' in
' primaries' where he votes early and often for
his favourite candidates, succeeds and calls the
nomination regular. In the matter of piety,
long prayers, &c., that is entirely out of his line.
Cursing is more especially his forte. He can
tell the difference between a whisky straight and
a gin cocktail with his eyes shut, and can snuff
a treat two blocks off. He spends his money
with———, and makes it a point of honour never
to pay an honest debt. He accepts office for
the sake of the stealings, and is loyal because it
pays best!"

There is no joke here; the man is perfectly
in earnest, as none who knew the pair of worthies
would for a moment doubt. Nothing can more
thoroughly express this personality, as well as
the absolute dearth of local news in a mountain
newspaper in Nevada, than the following from
the Virginia Enterprize: " We observe that
Brier, local† of the News, has on a new coat.
If we remember right, there was a dry goods
store burnt out a short time ago, and that a
number of coats which were put on the street
for safe keeping, after having been saved from
the fire, were missing. Of course we don't
intend to cast any reflection, or to say that Brier
nipped any of them. Oh no!" Another
indignantly states that it " would take the auger
of common sense longer to pierce into a certain
editor's brain than it would take for a boiled
carrot to bore through the Alps." After this
elegant burst of eloquence, we may be prepared
to learn that William T. Dowdall, an Illinois
editor, having "read" Brick Pomeroy out of the
democratic party; the latter replies by calling
Dowdall an "idiotic swill-headed chunk;"
whereupon Dowdall calls Brick a " Pandemoniac
paste-pot cut-throat." The editor of the
Oakland News offers a handsome apology to the
editor of his San Leandro contemporary for a
typographical error in calling him a "monkey;" he
meant a " donkey!" Sometimes these personal

* One bit (fivepence to sevenpence), and two bits
(one shilling), being about the ordinary price of a
single newspaper to the west of the Rocky
Mountains: the former is the lowest coin in general
circulation. However, if taken by the week, the usual
subscription for a daily paper is only one shilling,
delivered.

† i.e., local editor, or reporter.