Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1879-10-21
An Arkansas Editor.

An Arkansas Editor.
RUNNING A PAPER WITH A REVOLVER
THE CAREER OF THE FIRST NEWS
PAPER IN THE STATE-SOME OF THE
PLEASANTRIES OF BORDER LIF FL
EDITORS WHO CARRY MARKS OF
THEIR DUELLING DAYS.
Correspondence of the Philadelphia Times.]
LITTLE Rock, September I'll was
tanding to day on Main street, smoking
! cigar and watching the bales of cotton
Is they were brought into the State cap
tai on numbering wagons driven by d.
apidated but jolly negroes, when car
rage drove rapidly up in front OF the
Gazette office. A little old gentleman,
with florid face, hazel eyes. and rather
Jewish nose, and with his hair and the
whiskers under his chin as white as
snow, sprang out, ran nimbly up STAIRS,
chatted awhile with the boys, gathered
up his mail, and was off again to his
residence, over q mile away. In the
afternoon walked out there, some dis
lance beyond the State arsenal. His
house is an old-fashioned two-story
brick, surrounded by trees and flowers,
and the picture of comfort and content
ment, such as gather about and tinge
the southern homes of q half-century's
growth.
I found the old gentleman sitting on
his roomy porch reading his newspaper,
and ready to talk of his long and event.
full experience as the Oldest editor west
of the Mississippi. William E. Wood
ruff will be eighty-five years old next
December, and he is as hale and sprlght-
~ in mind and body as the majority OF
men who have attained no more than
three.quarters of his age. He was born
on Long Island, learned the printers
art, and was a journeyman at Nashville
at the time Arkansas was erected into
Territory, March 2, 1918. Itstruck him
that this section offered favorable
opening for one who desired to grow up
with the country. Accordingly he pur.
chased quantity of old type-in 'pl,.'
and that had been thrown aside as al
most worthless-and with a wheezy
wooden press, upon which the first pa
per in Tennessee had been printed, he
embarked upon a keel-boat at Smith
land and floated down the Ohio to Mont
geometry Point, at the mouth of White
river, in Arkansas, which was then the
depot for freight and travel from the
interior OF the Territory. Here he en-
gagged a couple of cottonwood canoes,
and at the end of six weeks from start
ing reached his destination, Arkansas
Post, then the site of the Territorial
Government. On the Goth of November,
1919, he issued the first No. of the
arkansas Gazette. The edition was less
than hundred, and he started without
a single subscriber. There were four
columns to page, few advertisements,
and the editorial was modest, well writ
ten, and correctly printed. This paper
was the first printed in Arkansas, the
fifth started west of the Mississippi, and
the Oldest one published continuously
by the same name. There were two al
st. Louis, one at Cape Girardeau, one
at Natchitoches, La, and one for shorI
time at Nacogdoches, Texas. The Ms
souri, Republican is the representative
of the old st. Louis Gazette, established
in 1903, its name being changed in 1928
All the other papers had an ephemeral
existence.
The arkansas Gazette was issued in q
little log cabin, and young Woodruff,
was publisher, editor, foreman, compos-
itor, proof-reader, pressman, ball boy
(they had no rollers in those days., mail
clerk, and carrier. The paper was
printed on an old Ramage press, and
Arkansas Post at that time numbered
less than half q dozen cabins. There
were only five counties in the Territory
Lawrence, Arkansas, Hampstead
Pulaski, and Clark. There are now
seventy-four. The price was three dol
lars a year in advance, or four dollars a
the end of the year.
The next season Mr.. Woodruff wa
Joined by a partner, but he Withdrew
shortly after, went to New Orleans, an(
died of yellow-fever. Soon after, thu
site of the Territorial Government wa
removed to Little Rock, whose entir'
population was less than half hun
dred. The Gazette establishment was
worth, perhaps, $780, to-day its ap,
praised value is 10000.
BORDER PLEASANTRIES.
Mr.. Woodruff was quiet, methodica
man, attending strictly to business, ant
a clear, forcible writer. As he Away
had an opinion of his own upon al
questions, it was impossible to steer clea
of difficulties. The pistol and "Arkan'
sas toothpick" were an indispensable
part Of every gentleman's wardrobe il
this section in its early days. During
the heated contest between the Critten-
den and Colonel Ashley parties thu
Gazette espoused the cause of the latter
One day, Jack Garrett, a well known
desperado, doubtless melted by Critten-
den, stalked into the Gazette office witt
a cooked pistol in each hand-the lef
being under his cloak. Woodruff saw
him coming and sprang up to clos
the door, but the fellow hurled hin
aside and made for Colonel Ashley, sit
ting at the other end of the office. Ash
ley was near-sighted, but he saw hi
danger and drew his pistol. Woodruff
at the same time caught up weapon
which was unlOaded. He seized Carrot
by the left arm, and instantly the des-
peradO discharged both weapons anC
Colonel Ashley fired. The bullet of thu
latter passed through the arm of Wood
ruff; the pistol in the right hand of thu
desperate missed its mark, and the dis
charge of the one in his left-under hi
cloak-was probably accidental, as i
entered his own body. Garrett turned
about and coolly walked out of the offic'
and across the street, where he lay dowr
and died.
The Arkansas citizens of the older
time were lively boys, and the Cheerful
crack of the pistol and the flash OF tn
boWle-knlfe was heard ana seen At al
hours Of the day and night. Andrew
Scott and Joseph Sheldon, both judge
of the United States court, had q litti
misunderstanding, and adjourned bust
ness to settle it on the Mississippi shor'
opposite White river. Judge Sheldon
was killed at the first fire.
At the session of Congress of 1888
John Wilson, of Clark county, Arkan-
sas, was elected Speaker of the House
of Representatives and Joseph Anthony
was member from Randolph county
in the same State. In the course of de
bate Anthony said something which
Speaker Wilson regarded as insulting
and he left his chair and started for him
Anthony rose to his feet and drew his
bowie. The Speaker whipped out his
knife and made one rushing plunge, and
Anthony tumbled back and died in 9
few minutes. Wilson was tried and
acquitted.
While at Arkansas Post, in 1920, Mr..
Woodruff met Captain William Allen,