New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-07-02
THE "sNAPTOWN TOMMYHAWK.,'

Simon Slope had projected the paper;
Simon Slope had formed the company
thatwss to publish it; Simon Slope had
built the Office; Simon Slope had been
chiefly instrumental in securing the
type and paper, and Simon Slope had
written the most brilliant of the edi-
torials and the most pungent of the
paragraphs; and yet you will be sur
prised to learn, my reader, that Simon
Slope was only fourteen years of age.
The Snaptown Tommy asck grew out
of a public need. The boys Of Snap
town had been for years grooming un-
der parental oppression and the System
attic tyranny of their elders, and they
needed an organ. They needed =
mouthpiece through which they might
lift up their voices against their OPP
pressors. When q months half-holi-
days had been taking away from them,
because they had merely driven COW
into the village school-house and put
cayenne pepper onto the meeting house
stove, they felt that the time had come
when they should make their wrongs
known to the public and appeal to that
sense of justice that is supposed to
slumber in the heart of every COM
munity.
One day the Snaptown Courant had
published paragraph rejecting un-
kindly upon the boys of the place, and
Simon Slope had read it. He could
hardly contain himself with indigna-
ton as the words sank into his heart;
and as soon as his father had turned
his back he rolled the scurrilous sheet
into ball, and, thrusting it into his
trowsers' pocket, rushed out of the
house to warm corner by the meet
ing-house horse-sheds, where the boys
were wont to assemble for the twilight
loafng.
"Look herer' he shouted. II say,
this is too bad. Nobody is going to
stand this sort Of thing" And he
pulled the rumpled paper from among
the tops, jack.knives, fshing-tackle
and chewing-gum in his pocket.
/" Now, you fellows, just listen, an I'll
read you something that'll make your
HAIR fairly stand on end. Here tbs"
And he read aloud the following para
graph:
"MncHIzyous BoYa When We consider the
ike to exchange our editorial zen Tor eood tof
birch rod and give them thrashine. all round.
ssSs GSd s 9eee s
vailing spirit of mischief until It came home 70
our own door. We did not mind their playing
ball before our Office till Pandemonium would
not heed, Or. at least, pretended not to heed, the
hleroglyphlcs with which our garden fence had
been decorated: We should have felt quite lost
our office-windowa And Ne looked upon the
hanging of dead cat to our front door a. 3
harmless pleasantly. But when it comes to
t1s sds 6 : s1
comes TO puttine loaded sticks into our wood.
5 e. up or Sos evs few
virtue and that honest citizens have some rights
that boys are bound to respect. We hope this
hint hint Will be taken in the proper Quarters, and
mons wise admonition. We shall be happy to
"There!'' exclaimed Simon, when he
had finished reading. "What do you
think of that?''
"Nobody amt willin' 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 draw
ing of caricatures on doors and fences.
I'll make picture of him hanging to
q gallows. Paint it in red on his front
door"
81 might lick his little boy" said a
pugnaciOus urchin; ''but I've done it
SO often already that he wouldn't know
what twas for, an I'm afraid 'twouldn't
do no good"
eve 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,
\ "l'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.
take much if you do your own work Of
it. We can buy press for five dollars,
and buy secondhand type by the pound
for little more'n the price Of old
lead"
"Where you goin' to get you're five
dollars to buy your press?" asked ono
practical youth.
Earn it, you booby," said Simon.
can whose goin' to write the paper,
after you get thingsP Seems to me it
will be good deal like writin' compo-
sitions, and everybody knows there
amt no fun in that
"Oh! I will write most of it," said
Simon; "me and two or three of the
other boys. Well form q company.
Capital ten dollars. I've got five al
ready, and I'll be half owner; and the
rest Of you can make up five more easy
enough
This was the beginning Of the Snap
town 1ons1'eyhasck. The company was
formed, the type was bought and sort
ed, the press was set up in the building
which the publishing company had
erected for it. The building, as I've
said, was not imposing, but it answered
admirably. Old doors, old drYgoods
cases, in fact any old boards that could
be found lying about were used in it's
construction, and the sash for the
windows were surreptitio usly obtained
from q ruined hen-house on the
Slope premises, But / needn't 90
into the details Of preparation. The
Snaptown. IonaneyhG1ck became real
ity in due course of time. and . copy Of
its first aud only issue is lying before