The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-01-29
Good Times Passed AWAY

Is Good Times Passed Away.
Theirs was i time,' said the. edit.
or, publisher, and proprietor Of the
EUniontoWn Banner and American
Watch Tower, when my country
subscribers brought in apples, pota-
toes, turnips, carrot squashes, eggs,
and lots Of other stuff as free gifts to
the editor, and when set aside the
second column Of the third page for
notices that Farmer Smith and SO
forth had laid on our table so and
so, for which he would please accept
our thanks. It has been three years
since even a tomato was brought in
to the Office"
s'What has brought about this
changer
. "The daily papers. They have
heaped ridicuel on the good old GUS
tom until they have given it it's
death-blow. Aud there's another
thing. Up to four or five years ago
some of my subscribers were certain
to put from 5000 to $500 in the rag
bag for safe-keeping and then sell the
bag to the peddler without remem-
bering the money. I could always
count on at least two items o. this
sort every year, but they are gone
forever now"
/: ''And do you blame the dailies for
this also?'
II do. They poked fun at and
heaped ridicule on the farmer until
he felt obliged to deposit his money
in the bank. Don't you remem Der
those good old days when the wife
used to put 500 in the parlor stove
for safe-keeping,> and her husband
used to build q fire without her
knowledge?'
"Yes."
"Well, it's fully four years since l
have had such a case. The daily
papers are to blame for it. There
was a time when [ could count on Il
straight column a week under the
head of Terrible Accident-Another
Farmer Dragged to DEATH The
farmer had a way, you know, Of
hitching the lines around his body
when he was breaking a colt: or ty-
ing the rope to his arm when leading
a fractions horse to water. He
doesn't do it any more. The daily
papers have had SO many items head
ed: Another Idiot Gone to His Re-
ward or Another Fool Farmer
Heard From that the practice is
dead"
Eyes, I know"
''And / could, in those good old
times, regularly count on what was
known as the pitcbfork accident.
Why, I used to keep the item in type
on the standing-galley and simply
change names and dates. You re-
member how it used to run? Far
mer, or his son, or hired man
stacking hay or straw and then slid
ing. down on the fork. 1t was some
times a haystack and sometimes a
haymow, but they always managed
to hit the fork when they slid down.
That fat take has gone with the
others, and the dailies are to blame"
cit seems sad"
at is sad. You know how we used
to make up the editorialpage? We'd
cut a leader from the Sun, Chicago
Times, Cincinnuti Enquirer, Or Buff
falo Courier and lead her rig hit out
simply saying as a preface: That
able and well-conducted journal, the
-, says l had to drop that style
three years ago. The dailies began
to kick and my subscribers to fine
fault. Many a time l have sheared
out four columns of editorial in less
than ten minutes. and it makes my
heart ache to realize that [ can
never, no never, do so any more
One of the saddest changes, however,
is the last.''
'What is that?:"
Forcing US to drop the we, which
was so long the power behind the
throne. You can look back to when
we called into Browns grocery;
when We took run into the coun-
try the other day; when 'We' die
thus and so and the other thing, and
were the biggest man in town. All
gone now-all gone with the other
perquisites and privileges. Why,
only last week when | chucked in
three columns of dead ads to fill up
on the fourth page, half a dozen SUBJ
scribers came in and complained of
a lack of reading matter! It's a
change-a great change, and I am
afraid some of us will die trying to
get used to it."-New York Sun.