The Press., 1888-06-28
Detroit Free Press) SOME LIES NAILED AT LAST.

All this talk aDOut me country tulhof being poor, hard-up, down-trodden coy ote is an absurdity which has outllved It's day. Orpheus o. Kerr or Artemns Ward, or some of the other pioneer funny fellows, started the storles about editors taking wood and hay and vegetables on subscrip,, tion, and of having to live between bread and cheese. and the public accepted them as facts. For years past the country editor has cen fondly supposed to be crying tor 'smore CODY" and 10 be on his last sheet of paper and last shilling, and l presume my article will be great disappointment to the masses.
 I began life as a "printer's devil" It ls popularly supposed that "the devip' sweeps out and does other dirty work for year or two before promotion. On the inst morning reached the office I was told to take things easy until the "old man" came down. I went over to the bank for one of the "comps' and deposited $2,000 fer him, cleaned up the foreman's $500 dIa- mond, and dusted off the plush chair and opened box of Henry Clays for the press man, and by that time the editor came down in his carriage. He ordered his Ooachman to give me an airing, and when I returned he benevolently observed
 "Well, Henry, you and l are to run The Gazette You won't have much to do. Give me about three columns of crispy editorials per week, and if you want to dash off poem or sketch, go ahead. Your salary will be $3O 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 $125, 900, filled with the richest of furniture. His wife thought nothing of giving a washwo- man a silk dress which cost $500 and had splash of mud on it. No tramp went away with less than $2O in cash. The r ice cream for one season cost $l 426 70, and they were astonished at the smaIlness of the bill. One of the rooms was known as "the coupon room." young man with very delicate complexion spent eight hours per day the year round in this room shearing off coupons from bonds, and from November to December 3l he had to have two assistants.
 While the bona fde circulation of the "Gazette" was close on to 200, ,0OU the ed itor kept the figures at l, 400 in order to avoid rush of patronage. He paid six of the largest merchants in the city $2, ,OOO 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 $1 per word. The salaries paid to employees were not as large as in some offices, because we could not afford it, but every one who had been on ''The Gazette" two years had saved suffi- eient money to buy house and lot and horse and carriage.
 During my ten years in the office I nev- CT knew us to be hard up but once. The SnA< O n fornia, coffee plantation in Brazil and a railroad in New England at about the same time, and carelessly made out the papers so that we had to raise about &, ,- 0O0, 900 in one day. We raised it, but had to chip in fifteen cents from my pri- vate finances to make up the sum. It was only a week later that the wife of the pro- prietor paid $6, 900 i'll cash for blue-faced sum- flower for corner of the back yard, and the only remark made by her husb nd as he learned of the purchase was:
 "Why, my dear, you should have taken pair of them at $11 ,0O0.''
 In the seventh year of my stay "The Gazette" ch ged hands, There was the usual nos sheriff's sale, and of the plant be by young and enter prisin1g would seek eek to t5d1 make Ike. it oi1 tar. The pf6prietor sold out to open a 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. I was called upon to see his wife's jewelry to the special car chartered 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 a onffoa Sanlr