Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-03-23
SERVING TWO MASTERS.

tIle W COllle, WclcOIleu me when ar
rived, or expressed wish to have me
stay
The place had no newspaper, it is
true, but it seemed to need one. Most
of the population We're silver~miners
who were so much under ground as to
be little interested in affairs on the sur
face Again, a large part of the inhab-
ttants could not read; another large
part did not want to. and Il majority
of the remainder objected to paying
for the privilege.
imagine that advertisers We're not very
plenty. Those l secured insisted on
paying wholly in goods that were
never of use to me.
One advertiser was Il s:loonkceper-I
never drank. Another was Il tobacco
nist-I did not smoke A third was a
harneSSmaker-1 had no horse. A
fourth dealt in gunpowder. rend-rOcl,
dynamite and other explosives-while
l never blew up anything or anybody
in my life excepting tiguratively.
Nevertheless managed to live, or at
all events l did not die. At the end of
the first year I had four hundred and
sixty-eight subscribers. two hundred
and ten of whom remained such be-
cause l never attempted to collect their
bills. a few paid-for Eastern adver-
| tiSements and some job printing en-
abled me to keep my head above water
as a general thing. For the rest Of the
| time had to hold my breath.
At last l reached such prosperity-that
| after paying off my one journeyman
on Saturday night occasionally found
Il dollar or two left for myself
Just at this time an opposition paper
was set up!
THE Calabash City Spy. George
Rowe, editor and proprietor" appear
cd in all the glory of secondhand type
mine was northumberland Il grade of
paper somewhat resembling real
'newS"--minc did not resemble it at
all. The Spy had Il brand-ncw vigncttc-
head. representing the town as seen
from Gringo mountain This utterly
| eclipscd my wOrn-out woodcut of the
Goddess of Liberty sitting on Il large
cog-whccl. surrounded by plows, an
chOrS and steam engines. She held q
book in one hand. and in the other Il
Wheat-S hraf which looked so much like
Il birch rod that it gave her the air OF
an old-fashioncd school ma'am holding
Il session in Il machine shop.
Since every person who owed ME a
grldgc or arrears of subscription i'm
mHliatcly went over to Rowe. he soon
had Il pretty large list. In some mys-
FERROUS way he detached several Of my
advertisers from their insecure ale
glance. besides obtaining several new
ones among people from whom l had
been unable to get anything.
Rowe was a good-loOking, bright,
| tyt.. ..,n foil low
with whom l should certainly have
been friendly under different crcum-
stances: but this was now quite i'm
possible Aside from business rivalry.
it is Il part of the business Of country
editors to be ilreconcilAble foes in Or
der to satisfy the public's demand for
excitement.
AS subjects Of interest are few in 4
hamlet like Calabash City. the weekly
contest between the newspapers was
eagerly anticipated by the citizens and
Il peaceful settlement of any dispute
would have been regarded Il dcrclictiOn
Of duty. So we two poor editors con-
tinurd. week after week. to act the
gladiator for Il far from Roman popu-
lace. and soon sincerely hated each
other.
How we did quarrel! We quarrcled
about pOliticS--thOugh we belonged to
the same party-abOlt law. religion
and medicine. about the amount of sill
YER to the ton in the last cleanup at
MuchachO mine, about the distance Of
the earth from the sun. and the dis
lance of Juan MOrcnO'S ranch from the
town plaZa-:bOut nj, things terreS-
trial subterranran and supcrterrcne.
BY practice we grew so expert that
7 l1,,1 ,,1i ,ts,vsn
on lively discussion about the four
rules of arithmetic.
Rowe had the better of it at times.
because he was sharper and wittier
than l. Besides, he had Shrewdly ar
ranged to bring out his paper the day
after mine. Tlls he could reply to my
attacks ut once. while | could not come
back at him for Il whole week. /
prided myself on a lofty. reprOving
tone. BETTING the character Of ii long
established Journal dealing with an i'm
pertinent iDterlopcr.
The situation was so absurd the hos
tility between us so puelile and silly.
that | cannot now conceive how I
could have taken tho thing seriously.
Yet I became Rowr's enemy as cordi-
ally as ii there had been some good
cause for detcSting him.
w nen 1illS war llau gone on 1Or sew
eral months. | detected Il falling off in
the vigor OF the Spy. 1t was as trucu-
lent us ever. but written with Il certain
langour. which seemed to show that
Rowe was losing courage. This. of
course inspired me to renewed efforts.
| and began to hope that l should drive
| the foe off tho field
One publication day I sat down early
| to do up the customary batch of scat
tering exposures and ''unanswcrable
arraignments" of the Spy. when Bud
Haskins, my editorial assistant. COM
/ positor, job printer, mailing clerk and
man-of-all-wOrk, came in, Deaming with
| joy.
Got some good news for you. Mr..
Warren!' said he grinning. 'COrdin
to the way it looks now. there won't
be no Spy this weck-p'r'aps not mex
week-p'r'aps never
| inIuircd. much
pleased.
"Rowe's sick abcd-fcver or sunthin'
He can't do stroke of work. n that
Teller Mckay he has with him amt Of
| no uraat ,,Sa M SDy thiS 1vnaE T toll