Middletown transcript., 1884-02-15
Harry Moss.

Harry Moss. who died short time ag'
at yicksburg, Miss, was an eccentric jour
nalist. Many readers Of the TRANSCRIPT
well remember him as the founder, editor
and publisher Of the Chesapeake ChesG
pike, weekly paper Of twenty-four col
ums which was started at Chesapeake
Citv in 1867. 1t lived as the CheSdptkt
less than two years. A man by the name
of Brown, of Pennsylvania, revived il
under the name ofthe Chesapeake Record,
and falling to receive satisfying support
in Chesapeake City he moved the material
to North East, Md, and printed for time
the North East Record. That paper had
a funeral, too, and the material passed
into other hands. Moss was clever, good
hearted, easy-going genius. He was a
ready writer and welded a caustic pen,
but he lacked energy and the practical
qualities necessary to enable man to
become successful in the conduct of a
village newspaper. He seemed to be
delighted with the climate and people of
the Eastern Shore and after spending
short time at Chestertown and zton, he
went to Chesapeake City and soon decided
that it offered fine opening for a weekly
paper. So the Chesapeake Chesdpibe
appeared. 1t got good many readers at
first, because it was bright and spicy, but
i'll health and discouragements of one
sort or another soon wore poor Moss out,
and toward the last he got to letting the
"devil'' run the paper. And the ChesG-
pike had great variety of devils during
its brief career. The statement in a Cecil
county exchange that Moss was both
editor and printer is not true, for Moss
knew little about types. He used to come
to the office about ten O'Clock in the morn
ingand go to work with great deliberation.
He was never in a hurry and always
appeared to have plenty of time to talk
to visitor. His pipe was his almost con-
stant companion in his room, and cupot
black coffee, about as strong as it could
be made, stood always upon his stove and
within easv reach. Moss rarely, if ever,
drank anything stronger than coffee. The
first dollar bill received for subscription
to his paper he pasted firmly up against
the wall of his Office. He delighted to
stir up little spicy controversies with
his exchanges and his paper at last came
to be called "The Fighting fish of the
Chesapeake Perhaps this sobriquet
grew out of Moss definition OF the word
s' 'Chesapike," )" which he said was defined
in old English dictionaries as fish Of the
pike species that never turned it's tail to
an enemy. Poor Moss! The writer OF these
lines edited the Chesapike three days once
while its owner was laid up in bed, and
we came near to getting him into libel
suit. We wrote up the nocturnal de-
parture of barber in a rather lively way
and the barber came back after damages.
However, he never went to law. But the
next time Moss got sick he let the devil
run the CheSdpike. With all his eccen-
tricities, Moss was good fellow and was
generally liked by those who knew him.
His first newspaper work was on the
Vicksburg Times. After severing his con-
nection with that paper, he made tour Of
Europe almost without cent in his
pocket. Before he started he had been
frequently employed by the New York
journals on what is known as "piece-
work. Having thus formed their ac-
quaintance, he started for Europe, and
while there he supported himself with his
pen, writing letters to American news
Daners