Semi-weekly interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1881-1905, 1886-12-17
AN EDITORS CHRISTMAS.

tolQ ~ W " VI W Oiit vi ASeAio' wv
ming at his house. Mr.. Worthington isn't
Mr.. worthington at all in real life, but
very famous man whose tongue and pen
carry great weight:
My first Journal was n country weekly In
Doonville A "hourishing and fearless" jour
nal, was the way my kindly disposed contem-
poraries spoke Of IL In their cable" pages Its
name was The Trumpet, and l speak only the
plainest truth when say that it gave forth
no uncertain sound. l was a very young
man and very ambitious. thought knew
exactly what forceful weekly newspaper
should be, and hadn't the least doubt Of my
capacity TO construct and manipulate such an
engine Of reform and advancement That Is
the way Of the very young, God bless them.
Before they have had q hand TO hand en-
counter with life they feel so strong and con-
fident they believe they can do anything, and
this very belief, mark you, Is what makes
the phenomenal successes we so often admire
and wonder at The Spaniards have a
proverb, HE who expects good luck will get
it." and it is as true q sentence as ever was
penned. Believe you can do anything, and
you can, II any one can do IL Success, like
the art Of swimming. Is largely a matter OF
confidence.
worked very hard on The Trumpet.
was business man, editor and staff. l had
very decided ideas in regard to lettering the
world, and started out with the praiseworthy
intention Of extinguishing several giant
wrongs" under which 1 plainly saw that so
ciety suffered. We all have the reformatory
spirit much stronger in US in youth than later
on, for the reason, perhaps, that we haven't
fully measured the strength Of our antagonist,
the existing system Of things was sincerely
anxious to thoroughly represent all worthy
local interests. To that end secured Doom
vile night and day, and "wrote up" all sorts
Of things that never before had been described
by pen, or immortalized in type. wanted
10 wake up my fellow townsmen and women
TO the interests that lay close around them,
and Of all things wanted them to properly
appreciate The Trumpet
intended to issue magnificent Christmas
number Of my beloved Journal, twice It's
ordinary size and brim full Of the most
alluring holiday matter could create and
rake up TO perfect that number i almost
worked m yself into n decline Looking back
upon il row, from the standpoint OF what
beg to be permitted to call mature common
sense, commend myself heartily for the in
dustry, zeal and confidence / nursed into
respectable development in those old, hard
working, moneyless days on The Trumpet.
Among other attractive features for my
Christmas paper determined to write up the
very poor Of DoonviAe ! could thus DO the
means of comforting two benefactions-giv-
ing the rich q chance to taste Of the blessing
of giving-for it is more blessed to give than
70 receive-and also open the way for the
poor to be helped. And on Christmas, you
know, all hearts are said to be tenderer and
- -u-.-o,,, GA ,,,anv ara clad NJ nm on
portunity to do something for the needy.
Doonville was a small place, and so very
prosperous that scarcely knew where TO 60
TO hunt people so poor that dare intrude
upon them and tell their wants in my 'valu-
able and widely circulated" paper. Many OF
its citizens were very rich, and Done whom
personally knew had fallen below decent and
tolerable poverty. But down below Doon's
mills, on the river bank. were some broken
down houses about whose doors / had some
times seen very ragged and very dirty chill
dren PLAYING. determined to 60 thither and
| investigate.
had this thought in my mind as was go
ing 10 office one morning just two days
| before Christmas. / determined TO 60 out
that afternoon and begin the search hadn't
| gone far when / met "Calamity7 Parker
That was what called him when my speech
was without bride, for / held him in great
contempt
He was a tall, thin, broken down creature
who posed as q gentleman and moved about
with a solemn, unhealthful gait and dis
| tributed religious tracts. He always seemed
| 20 me a frightful excrescence on society, al
| though he had the discretion to say but little.
II fretted my progressive spirit to see him
| crawling around thrnsting his weak litera-
| ture under more intelligent and buster peo-
pies eyes "The day and generation are be
yond tracts,n said TO myself, "and here Is
| this threadbare fraud keeping up this relic Of
foeyism.p | despised him so heartily l could
hardly speak a decent good morning as he
passed me. / think he felt that / disliked
| him: but be had cultivated the unctuous af-
fectation of godliness and an appearance of
patience and sweetness under sights and
taunts, and invariably returned a smile for a
| frown. That very habit made him detestable
| to me.
l began to think about him as went
along. He had only been in Doonville a
couple of years, and had never heard OF his
doing anything but distribute tracts and
preach on the street corners down by the
mills concluded that it was time he was
abolished Accordingly my first work on
reaching the Office was to write a half
column editorial article on religious
frauds" in which the practice Of tract
distributing received merited castigation. i
drew picture Of the typical tract man, OF
which Parker was the model, which wasn't
calculated to make his path in Doonville any
smoother. This incisive, and / may say
aable,p article, which was certainly a flaming
sword Of righteous wrath against the tract
fraternity, was TO .adorn the Christmas num-
| Der.
Then Y started out in my search for pow
erty in self satisfied spirit. 1t is delightful
to do something that wins ones own appro-
bation. found the row OF old houses al
| locked and tenantless save one, the last ONE
and the worst one. 1t was in a state OF
dilapidation so hopeless that its owner hadn't
even thought it worth while to shut it up.
The result was that it was tenanted without
his permission having been asked. family
Of dull Drained, sallow skinned, chronically
INDECENT, half dead creatures who had been
crawling westward in worn out wagons
drawn by dying horses, had taken possession
of it by permission of necessity. They had
reached Doonville just as their horses sue
cumbed TO the memorable, and there they
were, sick, freezing, starving and dying In
a state of restitution unspeakable.