The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-25
ONE EDITOR IS CONE
WROTE A PATHETIC STORY ABOUT
A PREACHERS DEATH.
TURNED OUT TO BE A SUICIDE
Used His Imagination With Few
Facts and Details Come on Too
Late to Allow a Cor
rection.

Il naQ d little 0ApCI1CuCC OANC A~AA
ming a newspaper myself" said Martin
Clyde at the Thornton this morning when
he was approached by reporter with
query for news. Il don't know OF any
thing just at present that is fresh and
startling" he continued, but when l
see man rushing around with a big
wad of white paper in his pocket and
looking for things that are happening
can't help but recall the days when
did duty with the scissors, paste-pot and
pencil. 1t was back some years ago
when daily papers were not as common
as they are now and the editor of the
weekly cut pretty wide swath in some
localities"
when I got through college 1 spent
about week in trying to fix my vision
on something that would be worthy OF
my genius and finally decided that I was
cut out for an editor. I didn't want
any effete east Journalism in mine and
so put my finger down on the map OF
the United States at spot that indi-
Gated that it represented the central part
of Kansas. The next day was ON
train speeding toward the Sunflower
state and fame. or course I picked out
a county seat for my operations and
within two weeks I was seated in my
Office ready to do anything from recelv-
ing an advertisement that Tom Jones
had spring chickens for sale to writing
heavy editorial. Ibid not find much
use for my college learning in penciling
locals about how my neighbors had top
ped out their chimneys and painted their
fences pale green, but bided my time
and lived in hope. was certain that OPP
portunity would come down one of the
dusty Kansas pixies in a long lope some
day and I was keeping my eye out for
him.
my paper went to press on Thursday
along about noon, you see. One day
when l had been an editor about three
months my hour to distinguish myself ar
rived, and 1t was in this way: News
came in Thursday morning raht an old
and greatly respected preacher in a town
about thirty miles from where lived
had died suddenly. There was no time
nor easy means for getting any details
in regard to the passing away of the d.
vine. All had was simply the fact that
he was dead and I thought that was all
I needed. My imaginat ton needed a lit
tie free play and I turned it loose on the
sad news that had reached my commu-
nifty. From a history Of the county L
cleaned most of the important facts in
regard to the life of the man. He had
come out from the east in an early day
when he had to ride around the country
and ford streams in getting to the meet
ing houses where he preached. I brought
all that out in graphic language. Some
of those rivers the old minister crossed
We're, as my story ran, about as wide as
the Mississippi, but he always got over
them in good shape. I was travelling
along wonderfully we'll in my descriptive
writing as I took my facts from the
county history but the first important
part of the narrative was still to be told.
had to describe how the old gentleman
had passedaway surround eddy the MEM
bers of his family. That was the part
Of the account in which I wanted to
shine and turned out all the long words
and pathetic phrases I could call to
mind in my hurried work.
1.-THE history of the county had given
the names of the old mans children an
put them in my article and told how
the members of the family had been
summoned by telegraph from distant
parts of the country. how they came
home on express trains and went up to
the old family home woth sorrow written
on their faces. The scene abut the house
where the neighbors had gathered on
hearing of the approaching end Of their
old towns1nen was described. The meet
ing Of the members Of the family at the
bedside of the dying man was one of the
best things had in the whole story. At
ter I had the whole affair written and
the printers had put into type read the
seemed so realistic to me that I began
to think myself that I had actually wit
messed the things that were described in
the story. I made a few corrections IN
the proof and passed it back to the
printers with much pride. Then turned
my attention to an editorial on the death
of the man. My paper could not go to
press, you see, without some expression
from the editor on so important an event.
After l had written about twenty lines
in an editorial vein I wound up by say
ing that the esteem in which the de-
ceased was held could not be better
shown than by quoting a paragraph
from our reporters account Of the man
ner in which his relatives and friends
gathered at his home to show their ap-
probation of his life. Then quoted the
lines to which had referred from the
account as given in the local column.
when my paper went to press that
afternoon I thought had climbed up the
ladder in journalism several rungs in a
single day. I fancied that my account
of the death of that old man would be
copied wherever he had been known and
that other editors would come out the
next week and comment on the mastery
way in which had discharged my duty.
but things turned out quite differently.
After my paper was in the hands of tn.
postoffice authorities and my subscribers
news came up from the town where the
old minister lived, that he had commit
ted suicide by hanging himself to raft
err in his barn. There We're no children
near him when it happened and his
neighbors did not know that he was dead