The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-02-22
REST AT LAST.

The FREE PRESS this week lays aside
the types which have for years done
service in its columns, and appears in
u new dress. This morning while
watching the foreman, amid jokes and
laughter, casting out the old to make
room for the new, with praises of the
clean new face and criticism of the
battered body of the old types, we
thought that, mere chunks of black
metal though they are, they are at
least entitled to credit for work done
in the past. For years as weekly mes
sengers to the people of our city they
have told the tales of joy and sorrow
that ever arise in the lives of humani-
ty. Songs of gladness have they sung
at the successful achievements of Man
kato; dirges of grief have they chanted
as her honored citizens have respond.
ed to the calls from above. Mute
agents Of civilization and advancement,
with earnestness they have for years
been used as means to urge our citi-
zens to activity, and with what success
is known. They have been holding
constant yigils while Mankato has aris-
en- from quiet village to be the south
ern metropolis of the North Star
State.
In the long years of their service
what multitude of facts they have re-
corded! Of shipwrecks at sea, where
hundreds, yea thousands, have Eeen
wrapped in the deadly embrace of an
CRY waves; of holocausts on land in
which many, many scores have with
out warning been compelled to surren-
der lives; of awful calamities by rail;
Of fearful destruction by floods; of the
blood-stained path of the rushing, roar
ing cyclone; of the pitiless, merciless
visits of the blizzard to the pioneer up
on the western prairie; of valleys sub
merged, and thousands of Gods fami-
ly swept from existence by the burn
ing lava which poured from the mouth
of the belching volcano; of poverty
most distressing, of crime of the deep
est infamy. What tales of horror. and
yet how stoically have they told them.
With equal calmness have they re-
corded the wonderful achievements OF
man; Of great enterprises completed;
Of the mighty progress i'll art and sci
ence; of the advancement of the peO-
pie and the growing honor of our ma
ton. Alike to them were the birth
and the death, the marriage and the
separation, the success and the failure
the virtue and the fault. No tale so
heavily loaded with sorrow as to un.
fit them for duty; no joy 80 great as to
lessen their power of meeting the re.
quirements upon them. They have
been made the avenue of thrusts al
"our esteemed contemporary" and
yet are guilty of no malice. They have
criticised State, county and municipal
officers without diminishing their pow
err of praising when praise was DUE
Simple bits of metal without thought OF
sensibility, they have, we hope, been
the means of doing much that has in
some way benefited mankind.
Their work is done, and well done.
AS parting duty they spoke in praise
of the greatest meeting ever held in
our city, and to their Successors they
now turn over the duty of continuing
the work carried on for years. There
is bitter irony in the law of the print.
ing Office which consigns them to the
"hell-box" after having done yeoman
service in the cause ofgeneral advance
ment. What travesty on justice! If
there is heaven for old material, the
seat at the right hand should be accord
ed to WORKOUT newspaper types.