The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-01-08
A BORDER EDITOR.

Arthur John Roylston was new:
paper man and an obscure one. Hi
name never figured in The Journals
nor in The Fourth Estate, but all tn
same there were no flies on A.
Roylston. He was editor and propri
etor and part of the typestickin,
staff of The Border Scout, publishes
in q small town on the American sid
of the line, close to Mexico / hav,
found it convenient to forget TIL,
name of the town, as there are still
some lively shooters left there, ant
they may perchance consider them
selves aggrieved by my revelations
Angel alley is the picturesqu,
name of the main street of the town
which does not possess a single two
story house or store within its Dor
ders. And on Angel alley you may
still see the sign of The Border Scout,
gloriously gilt, in letters foot high,
running across the front of a wood.
en- building which has never worn
paint. / asked Roylston why the
name of Angel alley had been given
to the street along which lounged
daily cattle thieves, gamblers, Uncle
Sam soldiers and the miscellaneous
population of a frontier town.
"We gave it the name of Angel
alley because, in the first place, it is
not an alley, and, in the second, be-
cause candidates for angels stand
here and are translated to brighter
realms with no more formality than
pistol shot" At this moment a
sharp defamation made me look out
of the window of the editorial office,
and / noted that another angel had
been manufactured. 1.-THE boys will
bring me the news" observed Royl-
ston calmly; lit is always happening
here"
Roylston was a delicate and rath-
or elegant fellow, locally known as
His Dudley Nibs," and he had only
won respect by his utter fearlessness
in paragraphing and by having man.
ufactured several angels with his
gun in the course of animated con-
troversies over the propriety of Ger.
tain items. He had clear blue eye,
a mustache always carefully curled
upward, and he wore a tall hat, the
only one permitted in the town, and
allowed to him as being the editor,
His Dudley Nibs. Everybody, found,
was proud of Roylston, for, as Jim
Waddy informed me, the editor kept
up the style for the whole place and
made English tourists and Boston
men respect the town"
Roylston had placed over the door
of hi, little Office, in clear view as
you entered from the street, this
legend: "As it is inconvenient for
the editor to pop at people while he
is seated, and, moreover, as it is TAX
ing an unfair advantage of him, he
therefore begs friends who may have
a difficulty to settle to give him a
chance on his legsr'
AS a matter of precaution against
the lively lads who wentup and down
the street on festival occasions, pop
ping into the open windows, Royl-
ston had placed some sheets of cor
rugated iron at the street window, so
that his head, when he was in his
editorial chair, was just under the
level of their topmost edge. 1T isn't
worth while, my boy" he observed,
to be hit when you are in hurry
to get out the paper.
Somehow there had grown up in
the place healthy sort of public
spirit. Everybody who lived in the
town deemed it his duty to stand up |
for the climate, for the superior COM
mercial advantages and for the high |
tone of the place, for, as Jake Thoms
a gentleman adventurer from Mis-.
sissippi, said to me confidentially:
1--WE have in this town only decent
people. We have otSr little affairs
sometimes; but, on the whole, we
git on well, and, if I do say it as
shouldn't say it, the play is fair, and
we give every Teller from outside a
chance for his life, if it is only 30
yardsg'
To tell the truth, did not find the
climate all The Border Scout had
painted it, The wind was always
blowing, and it was a trade wind
from the Mexican gulf and came up
over 700 miles of cactus and sand and
was exhausted of any moisture it had
once possessed. 1t was dry, nerv-
Gus wind, and to my mind fully
accounted for the preternatural irri-
liability of the inhabitants. My room
when in town was always the apart
ment over Poppendyke's barroom,
and after the gentlemen below had
adjusted the politics of the United
States and had discussed the local
news it was always 2 a. M, and then
would try to sleep, with doors and
windows open and all the while that