The Portland daily press., 1879-07-05
THE PRESS.
Trials and TribulatiOns of a
Young Editor.


prietor, was a rather imposing building.
The first number of the paper had not |
made it's appearance; but it all went well. |
1t would soon burst upon the world with |
meteor-ike brilliancy and more than verify |
the expectations of the public, which We're
very high can assure you
Simon Slope had projected the paper; ST. |
mon Slope had formed the company that
was to publish it; Simon Slope had built the
office; Simon Slope had been chiefly instru- |
mental in securing the type and paper; and
Simon Slope had written the most brilliant
of the editorials and the most pungent of the
paragraphs; and yet you will be surprised to
learn, my reader, that Simon Slope was only
fourteen years of age
The Snaptown Tommyhawk grew out Of a
dublic need. The boys of Snaptown had
been for years groaning under parental
oppression and the systematic tyran-
ny of their elders, and they needed
an organ, They needed a mouthpiece
through which they might lift up their
months vacation had been taken away from
them, because they had merely driven a cow
into the village school-house and put cayenne
pepper on the Westinghouse stove, they felt
that their time had come when they should
make their wrongs known to the public and
appeal to that sense of justice that is sup
posed to slumber in the heart of every COM
munity.
One day the Snaptown Courant had pub
lished paragraph rejecting unkindly upon
the boys OF the place, and Simon Slope had
read it. He could hardly contain himself
with indignation as the words sank into his
heart; as soon as his father had turned his
back, he rolled the scurrilous sheet into
ball and, thrusting it into his trousers pocket,
rushed out of the house to warm corner by
the Westinghouse horse-sheds, where the
boys were wont to assemble for the twilight
loafing
'Look here he shouted. II say this is
too bad. Nobody is going to stand this sort
of thing" And he pulled the rumpled pa
perfrom among the tops, jack-knives, fishing
tackle, and chewing-gum in his pocket.
''Now, you fellows, just listen, an I'll read
you something thatll make your hair fairly
stand on end. Here it's" And he read "a
loud the following paragraph:
'sMIscmrEvoUs BOYS. When we consider
the doings of the boys of this town we feel
such sense of indignation that we feel that
we should like to exchange our editorial pen
for a good thick birch rod and give them a
thrashing all round. We have heard good
many complaints of their behavior, but we
did not fully realize the prevailing spirit of
mischief until it came home to our own
door. We did not mind their playing ball
before our office till Pandemonium would be
quiet in comparison to the street. We did not
heed, Or at least pretended not to heed the
hieroglyphcs with which our garden fence
had been decorated. We should have felt
quite lost if an occasional pane had not been
broken in our office windows. And we
looked upon the hanging of dead cat at our
front door as harmless pleasantly. But
when it comes to stretching wire across the
sidewalk at such heights that we alternately
abrade our shins and cut our Threats as we
go home at night; when it comes to putting
loaded sticks into our wood-pile lone OF
which blew up our Office stove a few weeks
ago., we feel that patience ceases to be a vir-
tue, and honest citizens have some rights
that boys are bound to respect. We hope
this hint will be taken in the proper quarters
and that sundry parents in this town will
heed Solomon's wise admonition. We shall
be happy to furnish rods"
''Therel'' exclaimed Simon, when he had
finished reading. "What do you think of
that?''
Nobody amt wilin to let us have little
fun" said Tom Stokes, Simon's bosom
friend, and the very boy who had bored the
hole and put the powder into stick of the
EDITORS wood.
Something ought to be done about it,"
exclaimed red-headed urchin whose special
recreation was the drawing of caricature ON
doors and fences 'Pll make picture of
him hanging to gallows. Paint it in red
ON his front door,
81 might lick his little boy,'' said a pugna-
cious urchin; ''butP I've done it so often al
ready that he wouldn't know what twas
for, an Pm afraid twouldn't do no good"
1--WE might serenade him with tin horns
and tin pans," said another boy. ''But he's
so used to it now that he sleeps straight
through it.''
'I'll tell you what let's do" said Simon,
"Let's start paper and pay him back in his
own coin. Sarse for sarse, that's what / say"
Takes lot of money to start a paper"
demonstrated the hieroglyphic boy.
''Bother!' said Simon, sit don't take much
if you do your own work on it. We can buy
press for five dollars, and buy secondhand
type by the pound for little moren the
price of old lead"
''Where you going to get your five dollars
to buy your press?" asked one practical
youth.
Earn it, you BOBBY said Simon.
Gan who's goin' to write the paper after
you get the things? Seems to me twill be
good deal like writin compositions, and ev-
erybody knows there amt no fun in that"
sob! I'll write most of it, said Simon,
'me and two or three other boys Well
form company. Capital ten dollars. I've
got five already, and I'll be half owner; and
the rest of you can make up five more easy
enough.
This was the beginning of the Snaptown
Tommyhawk. The company was formed,
the type was bought and sorted, the press
was set up in the building which the pub
fishers had erected for it. The building, as
Pve said, was not imposing, but it answered
admirably. Old doors, old dry-goods cases,
in fact, any old boards that could be found
lying about were used in its construction,
and the sash for windows was surrepti-
tl0usly obtained from a ruined henhouse on
the Slope premises. But L needt go into
the details of preparation. The Snaptown
Tommyhawk became a reality in due course
OF time, and copy of its first and only issue
is lying before me as | write.
81 Slope had very good conception of an
editors duties. He had thought good deal
about the matter and asked the advice of
his elders. He had heard his father say that
what the public wants is facts;'' and his
mother remarked that it was gossip that
made people read the papers. His older
sister who had just returned from finish
ing school, declared that no first class paper
could exist without a fashion article and
poetry. Then Sis quick observation had
shown him that the most attractive articles
in the Snaptown Courant were those that
were most abusive. In fact he had heard
his father say ''that fearlessness is what
everybody likes in a newspaper-calling a
spade spade, and liar liar, and thief
thief;'' and upon this free and fearless
basis Simon determined that the Snaptown
Tomahawk should be conducted. Then it
should be original-nothing stolen from
other papers, no rehash of stale jokes, no old
rhymes; but all fresh and original. To
attain the end of originality Simon enlisted
all the boys of his acquaintance to bring
him in items.
Just keep your ears and eyes open,
boys" he said, "and tell me what YOU hear
and see. FL fix it into shape and publish
it, and you shan't be the losers, you bet"