The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-12-25
AN EDITORS CHRISTMAS.
This is Mr.. worthington's story Just as he

very WuOso pcu
carry great weight
Ny first journal was country weekly in
Doonville. A "hourishing and fearless jour-
nal, was tho way my kindly disposed contem-
poraries spoke of it in their liable" pages. Its
name was The Trumpet and speak only tho
plainest truth when l 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 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 Ell
counter with life they feel SO strong and con-
fdent 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 Spanards have a
proverb, "lle who expects good luck will get
it," and it is as true sentence as ever was
penned. Believe you can do anything, and
you can, if any one can do it, Success, like
the art of swimming, is largely u matter Of
confidence.
worked very hard on The Trumpet. l
was business man, editor and staff. | had
very decided IDEAS in regard to lettering the
world, and started out with the praiseworthy
intention of cxtinguishing several giant
wrongs" under which | plainly saw that so
cicty suffered. We all have the rcformatory
spirit much stronger i'll 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 imlnortaized in type. | wanted
to 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 its
ordinary size and brim full of the most
aluring holiday matter / 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
drstry, zeal and confidence | nursed into
respectable development in tn 'se old, hard
working, moneyless days on The Trumpet
Among other attractive features for my
Christmas paper | determined to write up the
very poor of Doonville. / could thus be the
means of comforting two benetactions-giv-
ing the rich a 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, all hearts are said to be tenderer and
more generous, and many are glad Of an OPP
portunity to do something for the needy.
Doonville was small place. and so very
prosperous that scarcely knew where to so
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 none whom l
personally knew had fallen below decent and
tolerable poverty. But down below Doons
mills, on the river bank, were some broken
down houses about whose doors had some
times seen very ragged and very dirty chill
dren play ing. | determined to 60 thither and
investigate.
had this thought in my mind as | was go
ing to Office one morning just two days
before Christmas. l determined to go out
that afternoon and begin the search. ! hadn't
gone far when | 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 a solemn, unhealthful gait and dis
tributed religious tracts. He always seemed
to me frightful excrescence on society, al
though he had the discretion to say but little.
1t fretted my progressive spirit to see him
crawling around thrusting his weak litera-
ture under more intelligent and buster peo-
pies eyes "The day and generation are be-
yond tracts,"I said to myself, land here Is
this threadbare fraud keeping up this relic of
fogyism" | despised him so heartily could
hardly speak "a decent good morning as he
passed me. think he felt that | disliked
him; but he had cultivated the unctuous af-
fectation of godliness and ali appearance of
patience and sweetness under Sights and
taunts and invariably returned n smile for a
frown. That very habit made him deteStablo
to me.
| began to think about him rs | went
along. He had only been i'll Doonvile 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 lISL NCih OH
reaching the Office was to write a half
column editorial article on "rcIigious
frauds" in which the practice of tact
distributing received merted castigatiOn. |
drew picture Of the typical tract man, of
which Parker was the model, which wasn't
calculated to make his path in Doonyille any
smoother. This incisive and | may say
cable" article, which was certainly IA flaming
sword of righteous wrath against the tract
fraternity, was to aGorn the Christmas num-
ber
Then | started out in my search for pov-
erty in u self satisfied spirit. 1t is delightful
to do something that wins ones own appro
baton. found tue row of old houscS all /
locked and tenantlesS save one, the last one
and the worst one. 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. y family |
of dull Drained, sallow skinned, chronically I
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 deStitutiOu unSDeakable