Editorially Speaking
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Title
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Editorially Speaking
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Date
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December 1938
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volume
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3
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issue
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9
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page start
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2
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page end
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2
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content
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en
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING
Just as you dig the coal from your Christmas stocking and face the long cold winter, we announce a new Editor. The Law has taken our former Editor Jose de Capriles away from us. We don't know how long his term will be, but whenever he is released again we hope to be fired and returned to the quiet life of a penniless gentleman.
The new Editor has always held too many opinions about things that did not concern him. His opinions about The Riposte were offered at regular intervals and once too often. When Mr. de Capriles found that his studies at Law School and his position as Magazine Editor no longer mixed, that he was confusing prime parries with torts and contracts, he wrapped his magazine in a fencing bag and left it on its present doorstep. If that is our future lawyer’s idea of Justice, I’ll avoid his counsel like mad.
Seriously though, you have a new Editor. He is faced with the problem of taking a Magazine that has survived three winters, that has grown from a little fortnightly mimeographed newsette to a monthly printed publication of some importance throughout the American fencing world. It has proved to be one successful trial out of many that have fallen by the wayside. This was accomplished only through the courage, patience, and persistence of its founder, Jose de Capriles. We hope that we may hold the gains he made and that we may hold the friends he acquired for The Riposte. We bring many friends too to The Riposte, countable on either hand, but unfortunately, they are mostly relatives and not interested in any sport that can't be caught on a hook.
Your present Editor realizes a serious problem. He believes that this magazine has served and has the means of serving a valuable duty to fencers throughout the United States. He knows that fencers are loyal to their sport. He knows that once the fencing bug has bitten you, you remain bitten throughout your lifetime. What he cannot understand is that out of a nation containing perhaps five to ten thousand devotees, a specialized sports magazine of this kind should continue to have no more than 300 individual supporters.
We are barely breaking even. If you want this magazine to backtrack to a mimeographed issue, count us out. We want a bigger magazine with more coverage, with pictures in every issue, with a small surplus to cover emergencies. We have about 300 subscribers. We need another 300 subscribers and badly. This can be accomplished if everyone who reads our publication were willing to subscribe. We appeal to those of you who read this and have not subscribed to dig down and give the magazine just that much additional support.
THE EDITOR.
