Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-06-19
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
SOUTH ARKANSAS.
A City Built as if by Magic.

We are indebted to Mr.. S. F. Rathvon,
late of this city, for the initial number Of
the Mountain Nail, printed in the city of
South Arkansas, Colorado. Don't consult
your biographies or guide books to ascer-
tain its location, for you will not find it.
A month ago there was not stick of
timber on the present town site. Now it
has regularly laid out streets. forty-five or
fifty stores, hotels, a bank, restaurant,
billiard room, boarding houses, q rail-
road depot and newspaper Office.
Among the business firms advertised
in the MuH is that of Rathvon
& Co., dealers in hay, grain and produce"
Within the first three weeks of the towns
existence over $50, 600 worth of town lots
were sold at prices ranging from 5000 to
$500 each. The town is all hustle and
business, and mechanics, especially car
penters and builders, are in great demand.
As an instance of the manner in which
business is rushed through in the new set
tlement we publish below the experience
of the editor of the lNaa in getting out the
first number of his paper:
at is a we'll known fact that Job was a
patient man. But he never undertook the
job of moving printing Office that had
been knocked into cooked hat for year,
setting it up in a new place and getting
out paper inside of week. We would
rather have "biles" from this time until
Gabriels trumpet sounds than to do the
job second time.
At one o'clock on Friday afternoon May
%, the first lick was struck on our build
ing. In two hours from that time we had
our press set up on the floor while the car
penters were hammering and saving over
our heads. Upon examination we found
that the type was all in pi, advertising and
column rules gone or so damaged as to be
useless, leads broken or bent, cases full of
dirt and the wind bringing more of it in
through the cracks and knot holes. But
June was the day we set for the first is
sue of the Mountain Mail, and issue it
must. We telegraphed to Chicago for
column rules and they came in on good
time. Paper and ink had to be secured in
like manner, but the latter has not ar
rived. We sent for a heading for our
paper to be sent by mail, but it failed to
come to time. Mr.. Geo. A. Smith, one of
our enterprising dry goods merchants,
came to our relief by drafting the let
ters on pine board for heading.
Mr.. B. F. Montgomery whitfield the head
out with his pocket-knife and we put it in
the form and went to press. 1t is not
handsome head but it has some peculiari-
ties. For instance, the NJ in Mail seems
to have met with an accident which par
TALLY disabled it. And then some of the
blurs around it remind us of the dark
spots in some peoples characters. We
charge these spots to the poor quality of
ink used. 1t was some that We chanced to
find in an old lard bucket under the floor
of the old Office in Cleora. BY softening
it with turpentine, lard oil, petroleum and
the sun we managed to get it so it would
spread, and have spread it before you.
The paper does not present as clear an
appearance as we would like. We will
make it look better in future. r-
This is not an apology, but an explana-
tion."
The nexv town ia situated in a valley on