The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-12-28


This issue Of The WkEKIY NEWS
completes volume twenty-five SO The
paper is a quarter Of century old. 1t
was launched in the uncertain sea Of
newspaperdom in June, 1857, go that as
We count time il was Twenty-Five last
June. bat by the happening of various
causes il missed issues |
enough in the first three or four years
Of lis then precarious existence TO |
throw the commencement OF the volume |
op the first of the year, and as we count.
that is by the number OF papers issued, |
because we always insisted in giving
the full 80 numbers for volume, it is
just twenty five to-day. Twenty Eve
years is long time in new country.
IL newspaper life it is a long time IN
any country, because we persume not
one-third Of the newspapers IN existence
to-day In America are weniy- five years
old
We look back What a sea of remin-
iscences masquerade before our mental
vision since the first holiday week Of
THE News. There were three board
shanties here when 1t commenced.
Tue Emporia House, that stood where
the First National bank now is, was up
but no floors were laid or partitions
made. We opened the first type and
put up the old hand preston loose
boards, and issued the first numbers OF
the paper there. But We celebrated
our first holidays in our own building
the one that stands yet on the alley in
the rear of the building we now print in.
But we did not sit down TO write
history. That would take too much
time and too much room. H0w crowd
ed the twenty-five years since-we issued
the first number of THE NEWS are
with startling and important events.
When the paper commenced its career
the Republican party was just spring
ing into existence. Since then its noble
ideas and principles have upset doctrines
that were then thought 10 be perma-
nently engrafted upon our government.
Four millions of men, women and chill
dren that wore chains and were bought
and sold in the market and driven
about like so many cattle, have been
made free men and women The border
of civilization has advanced from the
prairies of Kansas 10 where the last
CLEAN of sunset kisses our western
shore The then uninhabited Rocky
mountain region has changed from
chaos to prosperous cities teeming with
vallies and the richest mining camps,
| and the nation has spread down TO the
borders of Mexico. A railroad across
the continent was then only the promise
of the new party and the dream of the
future; now three of them reach the
Pacific, and their traffic is simply mar
velous. Progress in material growth has
been but little less marked in the east
ern half of the country. Kansas herself
has led them ali in growth and improve
ment Her population has grown from
100000 10 100000. Her enteTprising
people have blotted the American desert
from the map, and created happy homes
where the Indian and buffalo were the
only occupants When the NEWS was
started two-thirds of the people believed
the Creator had made all these prairies
tor waste places. The immigra ant has
come and suffered the privations neces-
sary to conquer success, and has sue
ceeded. There are two classes of heroes
| in Kansas, those who shouldercd their
muskets and went out to fight the bat
ties of the rebellion which Kansas ideas
! inaugurated, and those who have patient
ly toiled to subdue the wild natural OBJ
structions which had to be overcome
before the comforts of home life could
be enjoyed. These last are no less he
roes than the first Bullets were not so
plentiful in the lite of these prairie he
roes, but moral courage and patience
and christian fortitude were even more
necessary. The men and women who
came andendured the rays of the broiling
sun and the blasts of the cherries win
tiers, the impure water, the privations
and Inconvenience of starting anew
/ WIZ NhC AONNAo1 lAAO nCAA L
aches and the longings for better days,
year in and year out, who
saw their crops go year
after year, from various causes, and who
yet meyer gave up till their labors were
crowned with success, displayed a cour-
are which was no less commendable
and no less needed than that of the he.
roes who braved the lannon's mouth
that America might be a nation.
The News has watched all this strug-
gle with interest and anxiety. 1t has
been pant of it in its humble way.
While il sees many dark spots in the
panorama that moves before it while
we write this, and It's heart beats IN
sympathy with those who have suffered,
yet it rejoices with those who rejoice
over all the victories which have been
gained inch by inch, since that bright
June day when it issued No. Of volume
one. 1t turns to-day with grateful
heart TO all its friends, in this prosper
Gus city and county, and to many out
side, for their friendship and support,
and promises to be as true TO what it be-
lieVes the best interests of the commun-
ity in the future as it has been in the
past. 1t would like to be, and expects
10 be, an agent in building up this
community for another quarter of a CEN
tury.
We wish you all, dear readers, many
happy New Years, and We start out on
our twenty-sixth year with the vim and
enthusiasm of a healthy young man OF
twenty-five.