Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-07-11
T~hirty-Four Years..

That's q good long time, isn't it?
More than a generation. and when
taken from the latter portion of three
score years, represents pretty nearly
the effective work of q lifetime extend
ed beyond the average. The REGISTER
Is our Network, or nearly so, and o O
IN our cast must come the summing up
of the law and the evidence and the
rendering of the Judgment. That the
verdict ought have been made more
certain and favorable to the culprit
soon to stand at the final bar, is be-
yond question; but, since the world
began the doom of man has been TO
serve the Lord in the face of a devil
whose wiles, whether of pleasure or
malice, of ~self-seeking or revenge. are
often hard to vercom May each
temptation withstood weigh fourfold in
the balance! As TO sins of omission,
the writer must throw himself upon
the mercy of the court-confessing in
ability and presumption, but pleading
good intention according to his light.
July g., 1867, the first number of the
REGISTER was published, with Messrs.
Essex & Winfield as editors and pro-
prietors, and the writer in charge of
the work; and he has superintendent
or controlled every issue from then to
now. In 1868, he bought a half inter-
est in the plant, Mr.. Essex retiring.
A year later Mr.. Winfield sold his in
terest to Mr.. c. e. Miller, who after
two years also retired, leaving the
present proprietor full owner. The
early years of the papers existence
were ''hard grubbing" and beset with
difficulty. Bills accumulated with sim
gular ease and persistence, while the
wherewithal for their liquidation was
remarkably slow and uncertain. Ere
~quently the devil" was to pay and
the pitch cold as an Alaskan gold field.
Saturday night was a bane and the
first of the month a terror. That con-
dition passed, however, and each sue
ceeding year found the paper steadier
on it's pegs and better enabled to fight
the good fight for existence; the fig
ures ON the DIR" side of the ledger
grew, by degrees, beautifully less, and
those on the opposite page slowly as
sumed more comfortable and comfort
ing proportions. The mortgage-that
ball-and-ehain to offending poverty
was wiped out, and new and better
materials made TO take the place of
the old. In other words, having kept
the shop, the shop kept US. vfndicat-
ing the homely assurance of old Ben
franklin, the patron saint of Amert-
can newspaperdorn.
T~h1rty-four years! Like the reced-
- - 4, tho hi<h-
way to the backward glance, so to the
mental vision how insignificant grows
the space that separates the years
less and less as they recede! The petty
ills that once perturbed the mind, the
causes that spurred to action. sufficient
unto the day thereof. are swallowed up
In the demands of the present and the
provision for tomorrow Here and
there a dismaying defeat or a momen-
tous victory-a heavy sorrow or a
great blessing-stands out to vary the
mouotone; but. generally speaking,
the dead past buries its dead and COW
ers them deep, with ne'er a stone to
mark the spot.
Thirty-four years! The changes in
them embosomed! Old friends hailed
to the unknown by a power which will
not be denied, or. if yet lingering,
knowing strange hahitations. far away;
old aspirations quenched in the rapid
flowing stream of life; the very rocks
and hills, though not melted as wax
the Wales and dales that in other days
owned the gentle reign of fairy mild
are transformed, and the rumble of
the train and the clang OF the sickle
succeed 10 the quiet of seclusion and
the songs of the birds. Yet it is not
all change. There are men who in
all these years have stood u~nswerving-
ly by the editor in his e%ndeayor: heart
ened him in defeat, rejoiced with him
in victory. and upheld his hands along
the sometimes weary way: men whom
il is his pride and boast to have known
and held as intimate friends. Many
have departed and are at rest. Dill
bingham, g. Emerson they
were an b or to the community that
called them citizens, nor is their fame
confined to the narrow limits of q State.
Others there are who yet live to enjoy
in declining age the fruition of 8 life
of honor and integrity. To them hum
BILE acknowledgment is made with the
sincere desire to hold their esteem and
friendship to the end.
But there is 0ER-now an angel, else
God is not God, and heaven ia q myth
Ito the influence of whose gentle, low
ing sway is mainly due whatever OF
worth these hands have attempted.
Thirty-iva years ago, come next
month, she linked her fortunes ''for
better or worse with him who pens
this poor tribute. and for more than
thirty-one years wrought upon the
coarser fibre of his being as IA only
a pure, faithful. self-sacrificing wife.
Wifei The hottest, sweetest word
known to the tongue of man-not even
that halloved name of mother tran
scends it in glory or more nearly
touches the heart. Year after year, in
the long and sometimes bitter strug-
giles which come upon all who fight
the battle of life, she faithfully did
her part In the h0me-aye, and In the
Office, too, when hard fate demanded
it-bravely, accomplishing, willingly,
lovingly. Years ago, in publicly &C
k~noEledging the good fortune which
had redeemed US from debt, the writer.
in enumerating the causes leading &c
that happy conclusion, ended with the
playful though sincere assertion, laid,
, ed by the best wife in the State" Thu
son, then q boy of fo~urteen, to whom