Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-09-25
WHOSE WAS TIE NEGLIGENCE?
We have received the following commune

We have received the following communi-
cation:
LEXINGTON. Sept. %. 1856.
EDITOR iNTELLIGESCER-DEAR SIR:-In
your issue of last Saturday YOU charge that
quite a number of your subscribers Jailed To
receive their paper in consequence OF gross
negligence" rs you are pleased To term II, of
the pOstoflice at this place. ] al first Thought
of treating the unjust and unfOunded charge
with that contempt which it deserved, but on
reflection have concluded 10 let the facts he
known and let the community Judge for
themselves is 10 how much there WAS IN tie
charge.
The facts are as follows: Until within Il
few weeks past parties from the lnteiligencer
office had been carrying the papers TO The
Chicago n Alton railroad. and dispo>ing of
them 10 suit themselves. On Fridty evening.
however, AMI Just AT the time every one III
the Office were very busy in opening an! dis
tribuIIng the mail from the ea>t the lntelli-
gencerS were brought in and being some hat
crowded with lirsl-cliss matter the lntelli-
eencer was put IN a separate sack ready for
the mail. but not accustomed To sending Out
Il sack of saturday papers Oh FRIDAY evening
failed 10 hand them 10 the carrier. Now then,
this constitutes The gross negligence com
planned of. After all, would it not have been
Just rs well and looked better to have over
looked this act of gross negligence, as you
were pleased TO term IL, just Tor the once,
knowing that at best. &ome IF US AT least, are
ilip vi ~ MS u Z w
couldn't you have come TO us in a Christian
spirit and told us wherein we had done wrong
and admOnished us TO do so no more. After
all, however. il must be IA very nice thing Ia
have Il newspaper that you can rush into and
publish your real or imaginary grievances
to the world II large.
In conclusion permit me to express my
surprise that | have been permitted To run the
office up 10 this lime without being criticised
or censured in some way by the lnlclligencer.
This article Is intended spIply for The Duhllr
and not by any means As an apology or eX-
planatiOn to the lntelligencer.
Very respectfully,
L. 5.
In saying that about 400 copies of our
paper, of date Saturday, September IL, failed
to reach our subscribers on time because of
gross negligence at the Lexington postOihce,
we thought we stated Il simple fact. We still
think so. We care nothing for the feeling
displayed in the doctors communication. Ii
is uncalled for by the plain, business state
ment that we made Our patrons pay us to
serve them on time. If W. fail by our negli-
gence it is our fault; if by the negligence of
others it is their fault. We are not, by any
rules of common sense that we know of,
bound to take blame (and none is louder and
more swift than that of a man disap-
pointed of his newspaper) when it belongs TO
others. The occurrence troubled us greatly,
A half dozen men worked extra hard to get
that much of the mail ready in time. 1t is
not unusual for country papers to go to press
the evening before their date, As the doctor
seems to think. The Register nearly always
does it, and yet we apprehend it is not left
out of the mail on that account. We blamed
| nm Snppial narsan Inasf al oil tho ln,tor xrbn
we are satisfied, knew nothing about it one
way or the other until he saw the complaint
in the paper. We did not and do not now
know what individual was to blame. We do
know that the business of the Office is TO de-
liver mail promptly, and that to fail to do so
is negligence, the grOssest negligence that it
can be guilty of. The doctor says our allega-
, ton was deserving of contempt because I'M
founded and unjust, and Immediately makes
II statement which proves that we delivered
the papers IN time and that by the employees
of the Office they were MT placed in the mail.
We leave the public to judge between the
postOtfice and the newspaper in the question
now In dispute. We have no fear that they
viii! decide that it was our fault that the dis
appointed subscribers failed to get their pa
pers on Saturday morning, September IL.
Promptness of delivery is the life of a news
paper, as people want 1t when it is fresh and
new. The doctor thinks no apology or ex-
PLANTATION is due the Intelligencer. Probably
we are not like other people, and have no
lights In the matter. The doctors apparent
assumption that we would be oyer ready to
%critlcise him is not borne out by the facts.
| The paper has upOn every suitable Occ.Sion
had complimentary notices of him in cOnnec-
ton with his professional engagements. The
doctor is overly sensitive, rs he would quick
ly ascertain did we print every complaint that
comes TO us regarding the postOtfice.