The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-01-05
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DIDu.r.


pared by Capt II. H. Power, proprietor, anC
twenty one of the thirty four were present
The bill Of fare embraced all the substantial
and delicacies of the season. Rapping fo
attention, Chas. Fl. Vanderford arose and ad
dressed the assembly as follows:
GENTLEMEN The proprietors of the ADvo
CATE have rendered you this dinner to-day a:
recognition of your services to US and as al
evidence of our appreciation. By your en-
ergy you have made the ADVOCATE tho fore.
most local paper of the state. by your fair.
ness and good judgment you have given it a
reputation for reliability, which is virtue ne.
cessary to the continued success of any paper.
We have envited you to this feast to-day,
you all together, and thought it would be pleas
ant for you to meet and become acquainted.
We thought You would like to see those whose
items you read, and especially would you
hike to meet the free lance from Sykesville,
whose pen touches up everything and every
body in pleasing and delightful way, but
who, unfortunately, was unable to be with us.
The meeting, too, would give you some idea
OF the work done on the ADVOCATE. None of
you perhaps had any comprehension of the
large force engaged in preparing each weekly
issue. There are twenty-one of us present to-
day, and some ten or more regretfully absent.
the work of about thirty-fve persons. Not
all of them contribute to each issue, bat all of
them are alert for local happenings, and when
they don't report there is nothing to report
You have much more knowledge of the work
on the ADVOCATE than its readers, and yet,
we venture to assert, none of you thought
there were so many engaged in its production.
1t Is probable its readers never thought of the
matter at all. The most of them suppose it
is published and edited by Vanderford
Bros, who prepare all the matter aud are
the sole editors. 1t is true we are the sole
editors. We divide the labor. The senior
selects matter for and conducts the outside
pages. The stories, the poetry, the many
valuable articles on agriculture, historical and
descriptive articles, are of his selection. All
original articles of that character are passed
over to him for acceptance, supervision or re-
lection. He searches books, magazines, lit
erary and newspapers and agricultural jour
nails to make up the outer pages, and very
much of his labor in that line is done after
office hours, for during that time he is attend
ing to the business of the establishment and
experimenting the printing department. The
Junior of the firm is the political and news
editor. To him belongs the task of keeping
the ADVOCATES readers informed of political
upon them. To him belongs the task of oul-
ling from the daily press such general and
state news as he may Judge interesting to the
people of this section, and it is he who re-
ceives and supervises all of your letters. The
most of you have improved so much i'll news
paper writing-the news sent and the manner
in which it is told-that the task of supervis-
ing is constantly growing less. The ADVOCATE
is always crowded. 1t is rare that we can
find room for all that we you'd like to pub
lish, and frequently we have to omit small
items in your letters or condense them. The
faculty of cQndensing is valuable one.
There is so much news collected nowadays
that weekly papers can only give o synopsis,
and TO put much in a little space is the CON
slant effort of editors. Ten or twelve years
experience has enabled us to accomplish this,
and there is nothing of Importance that the
ADVOCATE does not inform its readers Of 1t
is because tn ADVOCATE gives all the news
local and general-and publishes an excellent
literary and agricultural department, it has
such a wide circulation. 1t has, without
doubt, the largest editorial and reportorial
staff of any county paper in the state, and the
money and labor expended upon II are great
indeed. No county journal in the state uses
as good paper and ink or as good type and
and the cost of issuing one edition
of the ADVOCATE would be sufficient to con-
duct some county journals month. Most of
the income is spent in conducting it, but we
are determinedto publish first class journal,
and the excellence of its local columns is
mainly due to your exertions. | shall not
detain you longer. We had hoped that our
friend, Col. VIM. P. Maulsby, would
have been present, to give some "reminiscences
of early journalism in Carroll, he having
founded the first Democratic paper in Carroll,
from which the DEMOCRATIC ADVOCATE is
lipeally descended.
Isaac L. Pearson, Esq, said that while
Col. Maulshy was upavoidahly absent, he had
a few remarks to be read, which was
about what he would have said had be been
Mr.. Pearson read as follows
My presence with you to-day is due, not to
my being veteran lawyer, nor veteran cit
izen, which indeed no one would suspect, nor
to any thing else than my being veteran
man. That alone induced the in
yitation. SOLITARY and alone | put this ball
in notion" More than forty-fve years ago
| bought the press, type, paper, ink, and all
the fixtures required to issue the first number
of the Democrat, from which the DEMOCRATIC
ADVOCATE is lineally descended, and in print
ing the first number, This right arm worked
the press from dusk in the evening to snrise
the next morning. Eight hundred copies
were struck off, and no subscriber had heen
asked for, or secured,
Immediately thereupan nr. Jacob Shower,
Tobias Cover, Nicholas Kelley, Jacob Pow
der, Michael Barnitz, and John b. Boyle, on
their own motion, and of their own will,
joined me in bearing the burden Of all the
costs and expenses.
am sure that no one of us had any other
motive than warm desire to contribute, ac-
oording to Our ability, to sustain and promote
the principles of Democratic Republican gov
eminent, as formalized by Thomas jefferson.
Mr.. Boyle and alone remain, links be-
tween the generation of the men named and
this of you.
All the rest have gone to their accounting,
and if sincere love for their fellow men, and
an earnest laboring to secure to each and all
a perfect equality of right before Just law, be
amongst the virtues esteemed of Heaven, and
we know that to do unto your peighhors as
you would have your neighbors do unto you,
is one of Heavens highest laws, we may
reverently hope that, in their accounting, they
have been found not without some claim upon
the mercies of their all merciful, whilst Just,
Judge.
The mission of the Democrat, and of the
men who surrounded, and sustainedit, was to
maintain Jeffersonian principles of govern
ment. The DEMOCRATIC ADVOCATE is engaged
in the same good work.
Those same principles have existed, and
had their maintainers through all historic
time. Kings, mobiles, philosophers, and poets
have been found amongst their most valiant
defenders, in peF-ehristian ages, aye, even
Pagan Kings have given up their thrones, their
fortunes and their lives for the sake of vindi-
eating the principles of popular liberty, and
the equal rights of men.
Christianity essentially recognizes them.
The Great Law Giver who spoke by Moses
mouth, announced them. What nobler work
can any man do, than to strive to advance
them, each in his sphere?
You are local correspondents of the ADvo-
GATE. In gathering up, and transmitting the
local news of your respective neighborhoods,
there is given to each Of you an opportunity,
smaller or larger, to say good word for hu-
man rights. Not for corporate rights, not
for artificial rights, set up by strained and
unnatural processes of pretending philosophi-
cal reasoning-processes by which constitu-
tons and laws framed for one purpose, are
made to accomplish directly opposite pqrpos-
es-bpt just fprhuman rights the equal rights
of men. Always hear in mind that in the
al. ..-l,N