The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-06-28
SOME LIES NAILED AT LAST.

All this talk about the country editor
being poor, hard up, down-trodden
coyote is an absurdity which has out.
lived its day. Orpheus c. Kerr or
Artemus Ward, or some of the other
pioneer funny fellows, started the
stories about editors taking wood and
hay and vegetables on subscriptions and
having to live on bread and cheese, and
the public accepted them as facts, For
years past the country editor has heen
fondly supposed to be crying for more
copy, and to be on his last sheet of pa
per and last shilling, and / presume my
article will be great disappointment TO
the masses.
/ began life as printers DEVIL 1t is
popularly supposed that the devil
sweeps out and does other dirty work
for year or two before promotion
On the first morning reached the office
| was told to take things easy until the
old man came down. | went over to
the bank for one of the comps and de.
posted s., 900 for him, cleaned up the
foreman's 5000 diamond, and busted off
the plush chair and opened box OF
Henry Clays for the pressman and by
that time the editor came down in his
carriage, He ordered his coachman to
give me an airing, and when returned
he benevolently observed:
We'll, Henry. you and | are to run
The Gazette. You won't have much TO
do. Give me about three columns Of
crispy editorial per week and if you
want to dash off poem or a sketch. go
ahead. Your salary will be thirty dol
lars per week for the first six months,
and you will occupy one of the spare
chambers in my residence-the blue and
gold one.
His residence was valued at 1926, 900,
filled with the richest of furniture. His
wife thought nothing of giving a wash
woman silk dress which cost $500 and
had splash Of mud on it. No tramp
went away with less than twenty dollars
in cash. Their ice cream for one season
cost 81 ,425.76, and they were astonished
at the smallness of the bill. One of the
rooms was known as the coupon room.
A young man with very delicate COM
plexion spent eight hours per day the
year round in this room sheariDg Off
coupons from bonds, and from Novem-
Der one to December 81, he had to have
two assistants.
While the bona fide circulation of the
Gazette was close on 10 200 900, the edi-
tor kept the figures at 1,400 in order to
avoid rush of patronage. He paid six
of the largest merchants in the city
50 900 per year each not to advertise
with us, as their advertising would
make extra work for the compositors.
What advertising we did do was very
high-toned, and was charged at the rate
Of 81 per word. The salaries paid to en-
ployes were not as large as in some
offices, because we could not afford it,
but every one who had been on the Ga
zette two years had saved sufficient
money to buy house and lot and horse
and carriage.
During the ten years in the office /
never knew us to be hard up but once.
The proprietor bought a gold mine in
California, coffee plantation in Brazil
and railroad il New England a: about
the same time. and carelessly made out
the papers so that we had to raise about
So, 900, 900 in one day. We raised it, but
| had to chip in fifteen cents from INV
private finances to make up the sum. 1t
was only week later that the wife OF
the proprietor paid $4,000 in cash for
sun iAu"Ni AOA a NbIhtI Vi tue
back yard, and the only remark made
by her husband as he learned of the pur.
chase was:
Why, my dear, you should have taken
pair of them at $ll ,000'
In the seventh year of my stay The
Gazette changed bands. There was the
usual notice Of Sheriff's sale, and of the
plant being bid in by young and en-
terprising man who would seek to make
it a popular local organ etc. but that was
all tar. The proprietor sold out to open
chain of National banks extending
from Portland to Galveston, and to put
five new lines of ocean steamers into
operation. | can remember the day he
left town. | was called upon to see his
wife jewelry to the special car char
tered for it. There were seven large
dry goods boxes full, and peck or so Of
diamonds which could not be crowded
in were brought along in coffee sack.
II Detroit Free Press.