Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-12-12
WOODBURY., N. J, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 70 1901

1OUuL luOSt IHluSS, Out IL QlQ HOT SLOp
+; to give the subject a second thought
/ when Josh Kinney took Mary Man
ming home after choir practice. He
was just the bass singer and she the
Organist, and of course he would not
let her go unprotected. Lower Cor
ners thought he was accommodating,
that was all.
Would she protest also when he
should tell her of his longing, of his
love? You, gentle reader, know she
would not, and Josh made bold enough
one night when the moonlight was
glowing on the hills to find out for
himself. 1t was not for others to
know what he said
'Not necessarily for publication, but
just as an evidence of good faith"
said Josh long after when twitted
about it.
There came another night when the
moon was not shining. The little office
was as dark as the great world out
side and as quiet. 1t was Thursday
night and the hand press was still
That seemed strange to passersby on
the road. They were used to hearing
the steady clack of the press on that
night long after II. If they had OBJ
served closely, they might possibly
have seen that the door was standing
wide open and that over it was
square white patch of something.
The next day-ah, what Friday
that was for Lower Corners! 1t has
been written in great big letters into
the history Of the neighborhood. By
some freak of fortune or misfortune
John Manning was the first man to
ride down the road past Kinney's Of
fee. The sun was just lifting its red
disk over the cornfelds to the east.
He was whistling his favorite tune,
the one he had learned in the old days
when he wooed and won Nancy Cor
win. He spied the bit of paper over
Kinney's open doorway. He passed
through the latticed gate and up the
hill to the cabin. There he adjusted
his spectacles and read these words:
'To subscribers: Walk in and get your
paper. The editor is busy elsewhere"
Manning, consumed with curiosity
and never bashful about getting what
was coming to him, went In and picked
up paper from huge pile stacked on
the office table. He glanced over the
first page and then turned to Kinney's
editorials-he always liked to read
them even though he was not always
convinced by them. There was some
thing there this time that blanched his
face and made him totter to chair for
support.
His first impulse was to tear his pa
per into fragments and burn the rest,
but instead he folded it up, thrust it
into his pocket and hurried from the
Office.
"Drat his hidei'' he mumbled to him.
self. "He might at least have asked
me. How'd he know what l might
have said?'
|. In two hours every man, woman and
child in Lower Corners who could had
devoured these double loaded lines:
'With this issue publication of The
Sangamon Boy is suspended for lack
of an editor. He came to you empty
handed; he has gone with the fairest
flower of Lower Corners, with the
queen rose of the rosebud garden of
girls He hopes he has gone, too, with
the kindly wishes of all this worthy
people. He bears with him no enmities,
no regrets, save those that come from
the sense of work i'll done. If he had
ideals and failed to reach them, it was
not because he lacked the inspiration
of your generous support.
"Better The Sangamon Boy should
die in his youth than be cast waif
upon the world. Of him / shall hold for
myself the tenderest remembrance; to
you l bequeath whatever of good he
may have done. loved him the more
that he was only boy, just strip of
a lad who longed to be a man and
WELD a mans power. Pity that one so
young should not have had wiser
hand to point his way and guide his
wavering feet. When you my friends.
shall read these lines, his life will have
closed, and mine-will have begun in
fuller measure. Do you doubt my
prophecy? Read:
"KINNEY-MANNING.- June II, in
Springfield, at midnight, by Rev. John Ingalls,
pastor of the Grand Avenue NJ. E. church, at his
residence, Joshua Kinney and Miss Mary Manning,
both of Lower Corners. Shortly after the cere-
mony Mr.. and Mrs. Kinney left on the Alton for
Kansas City, where the late editor of The Sanga-
mon Boy will give his entire time to newspaper
work. The bride is the daughter of John Man
ming, one of the best known farmers of Sangamon
county.
Two hours after he had read this
concise notice John Manning held in
one of his hands telegram from st.
Louis signed MARY" 1t simply stated
that she was very happy with the
dearest man in the world"
A cynical neighbor said Manning was
conciliated by that statement about
zone of the most prominent farmers"
but, whatever the cause Manning de-
clared that kinney is a mighty long
way from being the worst man in the
worId."-Chicago Record-Herald.