The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-06
Edwin markhan'S Experience
with a Newspaper.
PRACTICAL WORK TOO PROSiIC
An Early Venture In San Jose-A
Before Many Times.
CSan Jose Mercury.)


and when the rainbow hue of promise
made brilliant the sky Of the ambitious
and the aspiring, it followed as a mats
ural sequence in order of events, as a
rule in fact, from which there was no
recorded deviation, that meeting be-
tween an unkempt newspaper man out
of a job and an eager-eyed printer with
a vest pocket full of type meant the
publicatio of paper to fill long
felt want" and incidentally several
other things which aforetime had been
doing windy business in the vacuum
line If an angel were found in the
guise of man with a superaDun-
dance of shekels awaiting investment,
grubbed and saved in order that the
sere and yellow of life might find him
handsomely equipped for a stout re-
sistance to the onslaught of the wolf
which haunts the doors of the poor, It
would be dollars to nickels that the
existence of the want would be pro-
lOnged for period measured by many
months. The end, however, would al
ways be the samoan utter collapse,
newspaper man again out of JOB,
printer minus a vest pocket full OF
type and an 'angel'' without money
but with world of valuable but non
negotiable experience.
San Jose is Strewn with the wrecks
1n
tory of each be written, with no emas-
culation of facts, it would prove most
interesting reading for an idle hour.
| One is recalled to the mind Of the
writer by the prominence that has
| lately been given the poetical work of
| Edwin Markham. The author of that
| fine conception, THE Man With the
Hoe" was once a resident of San Jose
and a newspaper proprietor. 1t was
away back in 1874, shortly after Pro-
lessor Markham had graduated from
the Normal School His tendencies
| were decidedly literary, and when he
| was asked to join in scheme to eS-
| tablish daily newspaper, in the CO.
ed opportunity for the publication of
illusions of both poetry and prose, with
so fear Of a blue pencil making his
soul sick the answer was ready ac-
quiescence The venture was called
The Garden City Times, and the origi-
nal proprietOrs were S. Harris Herring,
Perriman F. Page, Edwin Markham
and E. T. Sawyer. Herring was then
the publisher of an agricultural paper
and a clever writer on practical sub
jects He is now a ranch owner near
Sartoga Page was printer, who had
studied for the ministry. He lent the
moral support to the undertaking,
while the other partners furnished the
brains, such as they were. There was
no business manager, for it had not oc-
Cured to these innocents that an at
tache of that description was at all
necessary for the success of a neWSpa-
per project. They fOndly imagined
that the mere announcement of the
publication would be followed by such
rush of business men to the office as
| would necessitate the employment of
score Of clerks to attend to their re-
quirements. Besides, of what use
would be business Manager man
to quickly drum up advertisements for
immediate financial needs-when an
'tangeP' had been secured, whose purse
was large and where promises were
all that could be desired?
The angel was old Ben Casey, a
rancher living on the Los Gatos road,
who had but one hobby and that, tenn
perance. How the hobby ruined the
prospects of the paper will soon APP
pear.
The Garden City Times duly made
its appearance, and, what was a
novelty for San Jose, with the tele-
from the start. Markham was the
literary editor and assisted in the re
porting, and his faculty Of throwing a
glamor of romance over the most tri-
vial local subject, even though il
CHANGED to be the erection of a chicken
coop, or the reception Of a watermelon
from an admiring subscriber, gave such
interest to the local columns that his
salary was advanced after the first
week. The city and managing editor
was z. T. Sawyer, and his principal
duties consisted in consigning to the
waste basket such editorials as in his
opinion were not on all tours with
the conservative policy of the paper.
These actions were considered high
handed by Mr.. Herring, and after they