(Editor’s Note: This was from the newspaper more than 50 years ago. Our press days have changed since the computer age has made our lives easier, but the contents of our papers haven’t. We still rely on subscribers, advertisers, and our communities to fill these papers with social news, advertisements, and features. Thank you for your continued support and interest. We couldn’t do it without you.)

Every once in a while some cheerful individual remarks to us, “well now that the paper is out I suppose you can take it easy for three or four days.” Yes, how delightful it is that a country editor has practically nothing to do between press days.

Business runs along automatically. When paper bills come due money drops off the trees with which to pay them.

Subscribers vie with each other to see who can pay the farthest in advance.

Advertisers beg for additional space.

And the way the news hunts up the editor is also pleasant to contemplate.

There is something really strange about the way news items act. When the paper is out, the editor simply goes to his (or her) desk and leans back in his easy chair and looks wise and waits for next week’s press day.

The day before press day, the people line up in front of the office door and then they file past his desk and tell him all the news of the week. He writes it up in 15 or 20 minutes, takes it back and hangs it on the hook. The compositors take the copy, shakes it over the type cases, say a few mystic words, the type flies in place, and after a few passes by the foreman, the forms are ready for the press again.

And the editor goes down and deposits some more money in the bank.

It is the greatest snap in the catalogue. Now if the editor could only do away with press day, his joy would be complete.