The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-12-24
AN EDITORS CHRISTMAS.

very famous man whose tongue and pen
carry great weight:
My first journal was country weekly in
Doonville. A "fourishing and fearless" jour
nal, was the way my kindly disposed conten-
poraries spoke of it in their cable" pages. It's
name was The Trumpet, and speak only tho
plainest truth when say that it gave forth
no uncertain sound. l was q very young
man and very ambitious. thought / knew
exactly what forceful weekly newspaper
should be, and hadn't tho 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 hand to hand en-
counter with life they feel SO strong and con
Gdent 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 a sentence as ever was
penned. Believe you can do anything, and
you can, if any orc can do it. Success, like
the art Of swimming, is largely matter of
confidence.
worked very hard on The Trumpet /
was business man, editor and staff I had
very decided ideas in regard to bettering the
world, and started out with the praiseworthy
intention of extinguishing several "giant
wrongs" under which plainly saw that So
ciety suffered We all have tho reformatory
spirit much stronger in us in youth than later
on, for tho 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. l wanted
to wake up my fellow townsmen and women
to tho interests that lay close around them,
and of all things l wanted them to properly
appreciate The Trumpet.
intended to issue a magnificent Christmas
number Of my beloved journal, twice its
ordinary size and brim full of the most
alluring holiday matter I could create and
rake up. To perfect that number / almost
worked myself into decline. Looking back
upon it now, from the standpoint Of what |
beg to be permitted to call mature common
sense, commend myself heartily for the In
dustry, zeal and confidence I nurscd into
respectable development in those old, hard
working, moneyless days on The Trumpet.
Among other attractive features for mys
Christmas paper determined to write up the
very poor of Doonville. / could thus be the
means of comforting two benefactions-
ing the rich chance to taste OF the blessing
of giving-for it is more blessed to give than
to receive-and also open the way for the
poor to be helped And on Christmas, you
know, oil hearts are said to be tenderer and
more generous, and many are glad of an op-
portunity to do something for the needy.
Doonville was a small place, and SO very
prosperous that scarcely knew where to so
to hunt people SO poor that dare tntrude
upon them and tell their wants In my Hvalu-
able and widely circulated" paper. Many of
its citizens were very rich. and none 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 60
ing to office one morning just two days
before Christmas. I determined to go out
that afternoon and begin the search hadn't
gone far when I met Calamity" Parker.
That was what called him when my speech
was without bride, for / held him in great
contempt
He was tall, thin, broken down creature,
who posed as gentleman and moved about
with solemn, unhealthful gait and dis
tributed religious tracts. He always seemed
to me q frightful excrescence on society. al
though he had the discretion to say but little.
It fretted my progressive spirit to see him
crawling around thrusting his weak litera-
ture under more intelligent and buster peo-
ples eyes. 1.-THE day and generation are be-
yond tracts" said to myself, "and here Is
this threadbare fraud keeping up this relic OF
fogyism." I despised him SO heartily could
hardly speak decent good morning as he
passed me- I think he felt that disliked
him: but he had cultivated the unctuous af
fectation of godliness and an appearance Of
patience and sweetness under sights and
tannts. and invariably returned smile for
frown. That very habit made him detestable
to me.
/ began to think about him as I went
along. He had only been In poonville q
couple of years, and had never heard OF his
doing anything but distribute tracts and
preach ON tho 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 half
column editorial article on religious
frauds" in which the practice of tact
distributing received merited castigation /
drew picture of the typical tract man, of
which Parker was the model, which wasn't
calculated to make his path in Doonviile any
smoother. This incisive, and | may say
Hable," apticle, which was certainly u flaming
sword of righteous wrath against the tract
fraternity, was to adorn the Christmas NUM-
ber. GsfjHs
Then | started out in my search for pow
erty in self satisfied spirit. 1t is delightful
TO do something that wins ones own appro-
baton. found the row of old bouses all
locked and tenantless save one, the last one
and the worst ons 1t was in 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. A family
of dull braired, 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 Doenville just as their horses sue
cumbed to the inexorable, and there they
were, sick, freezing, starving and dying in
state Of destitution unspeakable.
saw through the windows that the house
was inhabited, though tho only figure could
see moving about was moro Chostlike than
human. On pretense of borrowing @ match
knocked for admittance a match! such
thing was far off, undrcamcd Of luxury to-
the family within. There was neither Gre
nor food in the house, and the wind, the rain
and the snow came in at win through tho
glassless windows. Haven't you noticed that
tho very elements conspire with poverty TO
make his victims wretchedl
A skeleton man sick unto death lay ON the
floor, his head on q bundle of dry leaves.
Two famished children, i'll and feeble, were
on the semblance OF q bed i'll another corner
of the room. A very old woman sat belpiess
by the side of the sick children, whose enact.
ated and miserable mother Eroped about
feebly trying to give help to the Others. Tho
only one who seemed to hayc any life to
speak Of left was wan and ragged little girl
with delicate features and big, old eyes
got fire and food for them, and did aH Il
could for their immediate relief. Then I
rushed to the Office Of Tho Trumpet and
wrote such an account of them as would be
sure to send the good people Of Doonviile TO
their door with abundant relief It was
long and graphic article, and realistic to
startling degree. We wero not Illustrating
newspapers then as now, Sd could only pic i
ture the suffering OF this family in words 4
However, rave the article tremendous head