The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-03
NEWSPAPER WRITERS
From an Editorial Sanctum to a Dig
nifsd Judicial Position.
JUDGES HUNT AND BUCK
Once the Columns of the Benton
Record" Clistened With Their
Logic and NeWs-First Step
of a Successful Man.

Great Falls, March At is not very
generally known at this time but 1t is
nevertheless a fact, that Horace X
Buck, now district judge in Lewis and
Clarke county. is an old newspaper
man, and served with marked distinc-
ton as managing editor of the Fort
Benton Record, when the River me-
tropolis was the commercial and imam
cial center of all Northern Montana.
Mr. Buck had as an associate editor
no less a distinguished person than
Hon. William II. Hunt, now associate
Justice of the supreme court OF Mon
eana, and the boys made the Record
howl during the boom days of Ben
ton-along in 81. Mr. Buck devoted
his talents i'm those days to grinding
out long and dignified editorials, on
intricate financial and social problems
of a national character, while Mr.. Hunt
roamed the streets of the future me-
tropolis of the Northwest" and startled
the good people of the town by an
nouncing on the local page of the Rec
ord that "Sol Yates has arrived from
the north in chargeof pack train"
that Hon. James Arneaux was in
town from Highwood;" that Charlie
Rowe had added two more beds to the
Overland hotel for the accommodation
of the travelling public" that Ben
toms future was assured owing to the
fact that IT was and always would be
the head of navigation on the Mis-
souri," and other sensational facts Of
a like nature that always interested
patrons of 1.-The largest newspaper pub
lished in the territory''-a nine-column
folio.
In looking over the old files of the
Record. now in the Great Falls office
of the Standard, the reader is profound
ly impressed with the sage advice of
fered Mr.. Gladstone and the English
house of lords" the French government
after 1.-The Marseilles riots" Roscoe
Conkling, Thomas c. Platt. James G
Blaine and other statesmen of that
period, by Editor Horace r. Buck, who
had just been graduated from Yale
The business end of the Record was
not in good hands, however. and not
wfthstandng the labored efforts OF
Messrs. Buck. and Hunt to give the
proper prestige and tone by making II
strong editorially, matters so shaped
themselves that the property went
back to the original owner and founder
and the young lawyers slid gracefully
out of Journalism" A few years latel
the Record suspended publication and
the handsome structure erected for Ii:
home has since been used for Other
purposes.
The law firm of Buck & Hunt built
up a successful business at Benton
but the limits of the old town were too
narrow for the ambition of the gentle
men composing the firm, and they re-
moved to Helena, with the result tha
Will Hunt, as everybody knew him IN
those days. now occupies an honoreC
position on the supreme bench of tbs
state, while Horace Buck is headed IN
the same direction by serving the peo
pie in an acceptable manner as distric
judge.
Both of these gentlemen are justl!
entitled to become honorary member
of the Montana Press association, b!
reason of the fact that they were for
merly engaged in active newspape
work