Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-12-24
AN EDITORS CHRISTMAS.

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Mr.. Worthington at all in real life, but "A
very famous man whose tongue and pen
| carry great weight:
My first journal was country weekly in
Doonville. A "hourishing and fearless jour
nal, was the way my kindly disposed contem-
poraries spoke of it in their "able' pages. Its
name was The Trumpet and speak only the
plainest truth when | say that it gave forth
no uncertain sound | was very young
man and very ambitious thought knew
exactly what forceful weekly newspaper
should he 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 a 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
proverb, He who expects good luck will get
| 1t, 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 a 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 eXtinguishing several giant
wrongs" under which 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
m A. I
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 the interests that lay close around them,
and of all things | wanted them to properly
appreciate The Trumpet
| intended to issue IA magnificent Christmas
number of my beloved journal, twice its
ordinary size and brim full of the most
alluring holiday matter / could create and
rake up. To perfect that number | almost
worked myself into a decline Looking back
upon it now, from the standpoint of what |
beg to be permitted to call mature common
sense, l commend myself heartily for the in
dustry, zeal and confidence | nursed into
respectable development i'll 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 Doonville. | could thus be the
means of comforting two benefactions-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 he tenderer and
more generous. and many are glad of an OPP
portunity to do something for the needy.
Doonville was a small place, and so very
prosperous that | scarcely knew where to go
to hunt people so poor that dare intrude
upon them and tell their wants in my "vau-
able and widely circulated" paper. Many Of /
its citizens were very rich, and none whom |
personally knew had fallen below decent and
toerable poverty. But down below Doons
mills, on the river bank, We're some broken
down houses about whose doors | had some
times seen very ragged and very dirty chill
dren play ing determined to 90 thther and
investigate
had this thought in my mind as was go
ing to office one morning just two days
before Christmas. | 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 l held him in great
contempt.
He was a tall thin, broken down creature
who posed as a gentleman and moved about
with 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 PEG
pies eyes. The day and generation are be
yond tracts" said to myself, land here Is
this threadbare fraud keeping up this relic of
fogyisn." | despised him so heartily could
hardly speak decent good morning he
passed me- | think he felt that | dSliked
him; but he had cultivated the unctuous af-
fectation of godiness and an appearance of
patience and sweetness under Sights and
taunts, and invariably returned smile for
frown. That very habit made him detestable
to Inc.
/ began to think about him as | went
along. He had only been III 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 half
column editorial article on "religious
FRAUDS, III WHICH tnc pTtcllce 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 Doonville any
smoother. This incisive, and | may say
"able," article, which was certainly ii flaming
sword Of righteous wrath against the tract
fraternity, was to adorn the Christmas num-
ber
Then | started out in my search for pow
erty in a self satisfied spirit. 1t is delightful
to do something that wins ones own appro-
baton. found the row of old houses all
locked and tenantleSs save one, the last one
and the worst one 1t was in a state of
diapidation 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 braned salow skinned, chemically
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 Doontille just as their horses sue
cumbed to the memorable, and there they