The Wilmingtonian., 1886-12-25
AN EDITORS CHRISTMAS.


Doonville. A "tlourshing and fearlessn jour-
nal was the way my kindly disposed contem-
poraries spoke of it in their 'ablen pages Its
name was The Trumpet, and spcnk only the
plainest truth when say that it gave forth
no uncertain sound / was a very young
man and very ambitious. thought l knew
exactly what a 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 hand to hand en-
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 Spaniards have a
proverb, "He who expects good luck will get
1t" and 1t is as true sentence as ever was
penned. Believe you can do anything, and
you can, IL any oro 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. | 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
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 the interests that lay close around them,
and of all things | w,sited 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
alluring 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
lustry, zeal and confidence | nursed into
respectable development in th ,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 benefactions-giv-
ing the rich a chance to taste of the blessing
of gi,ing-for it is more blessed to give than
to receive-and also open the way for the
-nrF1SSs ta be helped. And on Christmas, you
know, all hearts are said to Be 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 'valu-
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 play ing. determined to 90 thither and
investigate
had this thought in my nina as was go
ing to office one morning jrst two days
before Christmas. l determined to so out
that afternoon and begin the search. hadn't
gone far when / met calamity" Parker
That was what called nim 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 q solemn, unhealthful gait and dis
tributed religious tracts. He always seemed
10 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-
ple's eyes. dThe day and generation are be-
yond tracts,"I said to myself, "and here Is
this threadbare fraud keeping up this relic of
fogyism.p I despised him so heartily l could
hardly speak decent good morning as he
passed me. / 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
taunts, and invariably returned smile for a
frown That very habit made him detestable
TO me.
/ began to think about him as l 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 half
column editorial article on religious
frauds,n in which the practice of tract
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
table," article, which was certainly flaming
sword OF righteous wrath against the tract
fraternity, was TO adorn the Christmas num-
ber
Then started out i'll 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 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 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 10 the inexorable, and there they
we're, sick, freezing, starving and dying in
a state of destitution unspeakable,
saw through the windows TINT the house
was inhabited though the only figure could
see moving about was more ghostlibe than
human. On pretense of borrowing Il match
Knocked for admittance. matchl such a
thing was Il far off, undreamed Of luxury to
the family within. There was neither fire
nor food in the house, and the wind, the rain
and the snow came in at will through the
glassless windows. Haven't You noticed that
the very elements conspire with poverty tC
make his victims wretched,
A skeleton man sick unto death lay on thr
floor, his head on bundle Of dry leaves
Two famished children, i'll and feeble, were
on the semblance OF bed in another corner
OF the room. A very old woman sat helpless
by the side Of the sick children, whose ENACT
ated and miserable mother CROPPED about
feebly trying 20 give help to the others. The
only one who seemed to have any life tc
speak OF left was wan and ragged little girl
with delicate features and big, old eyes.
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