Editorials
Dublin Core
Title
Editorials
Creator
[Unknown]
Source
http://addison.vt.edu/record=b1775388~S1
Publisher
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Date
July 1875
Contributor
Michelle Seref, Kelly Holler
Rights
Permission to publish images from The Gray Jacket must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Type
editorial
Identifier
LD5655.V8 L4, ser.1, v.1, no.1 (July 1875), p.3
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Nearly all who read editorials, if they have the patience to read to the end, feel like exclaiming, "extremely boring!" They often contain an impoing array of facts, dressed in "big words," as stiff and stately as an old time courtier in his stocks and ruffs. Though this is a fault, we imagine, more common among young writers, yet it is often found among those who have had more experience. They all seem to think that they are called upon to say something grand on every subject on which they write. Hence we often find a multitude of high sounding words to express a few small thoughts. When we say, that we think, an editorial ought to be lively and eminently entertaining, we do not claim that we shall make ours so. We expect to fall short in many respects; but in saying this we don't mean to say "don't view us with a critics eye." We want criticism. It drives the cowardly and unworthy from the contest, while, on the other hand, it serves to incite the worthy to renewed effort.
We know that "there is no excellence without great labor," and we will not be discouraged by one or two failures. The poor editor who passes a quiet life in a sanctum, against which no shaft of criticism is hurled, is to be pitied.
We do not publish this paper to teach the world new features in journalism, or new ideas in newspaper management, nor do we write to display our cunning in wielding the pen; but that we may develop those powers, which in other ages and in other hands, have moved and do now move the world.
We publish this paper to show our friends that we are not lying "supinely on our backs," waiting for Dame Fortune to come unbidden and place her treasures at our feet. Honors and wealth do not come to the undeserving, the slothful. They are the brave, the strong, the persevering workers, who reap the golden harvest.
Gentlemen of the Lee and Maury Societies, do not let this opportunity go by unimproved. Time spent here, will be seed sown in good ground, which will yield a hundred fold.
Come up nobly and squarely to the work, and while we work our own improvement, we shall do good work for our Alma Mater, and shall roll an important wheel in her advancement. It is to us that this College must look, in a great measure for her reputation with the rising generation.
The mark we make will be the measure of the power of our "Alma Mater" to make men. Let us then be heroes in the strife, and do some honor to the illustrious names which our societies bear.
We know that "there is no excellence without great labor," and we will not be discouraged by one or two failures. The poor editor who passes a quiet life in a sanctum, against which no shaft of criticism is hurled, is to be pitied.
We do not publish this paper to teach the world new features in journalism, or new ideas in newspaper management, nor do we write to display our cunning in wielding the pen; but that we may develop those powers, which in other ages and in other hands, have moved and do now move the world.
We publish this paper to show our friends that we are not lying "supinely on our backs," waiting for Dame Fortune to come unbidden and place her treasures at our feet. Honors and wealth do not come to the undeserving, the slothful. They are the brave, the strong, the persevering workers, who reap the golden harvest.
Gentlemen of the Lee and Maury Societies, do not let this opportunity go by unimproved. Time spent here, will be seed sown in good ground, which will yield a hundred fold.
Come up nobly and squarely to the work, and while we work our own improvement, we shall do good work for our Alma Mater, and shall roll an important wheel in her advancement. It is to us that this College must look, in a great measure for her reputation with the rising generation.
The mark we make will be the measure of the power of our "Alma Mater" to make men. Let us then be heroes in the strife, and do some honor to the illustrious names which our societies bear.