But he ought to be able to write and must be a judge of writing.

The newspaper office is a little kingdom.

The great editor needs to know and does know every range of it between the editorial room, the composing room and the pressroom.
He must hold well in hand everybody and every function, having risen, as it were, step-by-step from the ground floor to the roof.

He should be level-headed, yet impressionable; sympathetic, yet self-possessed; able quickly to sift, detect and discriminate; of various knowledge, experience and interest; the cackle of the adjacent barnyard the noise of the world to his eager mind and pliant ear.

Nothing too small for him to tackle, nothing too great, he should keep to the middle of the road and well in rear of the moving columns; loving his art--for such it is--for art's sake; getting his sufficiency, along with its independence, in the public approval and patronage, seeking never anything further for himself.