The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1903-08-01
REMINISCENT.

NeAAAN sh1ND StAN tANthNtA1 ~ ShtN >>sASC
of The Leader when he purchased
his printing Office outfit in 1888
from Hon. r. Fl. Henry, editor
of the Daily Clarion-Ledger at
jackson and now Worlds Fair
Commissioner for Mississippi, we
came across two or three copies
of THE Comet a newspaper
published at Brookhaven in 1877,
with James M. Buckley proprie-
tor and Fleet 7. Cooper editor.
The brilliant and unique posi-
tion occupied by Fleet T. Cooper
among Mississippi's abIest and
most influential writer's of gen.
Grafton ago-his sparkling wit,
his droIl humor, his whitening
satire-is we'll remembered by all
newspaper readers of that day,
and won for him distinction en-
ioyed by none of his contempora-
ries. Mr.. j. M. Buckley, the
proprietor of 1.-THE Comet, !" was
then the Chancery Clelk of Lin
coin county, position to which
he had succeeded when the carpet
bag incumbent was driven out,
and it goes without saying among
those who knew him, that he made
one of the best Chancery Clerks
Mississippi ever had.
1t is recalled that the publica-
ton of "The Comet" was begun
in Brookhaven early in 1877, by
Messrs Buckley and Cooper, and
the two-story frame building on
the corner east of the /. G. depot
and known at present as 1.-The
White House,, was originally
built for The Comet Office and
occupied by it until the paper
was moved the following year to
Jackson.
However, the most interesting
train of "reminiscences awakened
by the discovery of these old
papers, especially to the younger
generation of The Leaders, read
els, and which connects the past
in vital way with the present,
remains to be told.
When THE Comet was pub
lished in Brookhaven in 1877
Marion Buckley, the eldest
daughter of Mr.. Jas. M. Buckley,
who came here with her father
when a child from the old home
in Lawrence county, was about
completing her education in Whit
worth College, aud Lizzie Coop
er, the only daughter of Col.
Cooper, was her school mate.
The summer of that year, instead
of spending their vacation in idle
ness and ease and as butterflies of
fashion, as they might have
done, they both resolved to be-
come typesetters in their fathers
printing ofice-a work for which
their bright minds, liberal edu-
cation and >nimble fingers, accus-
toned to manipulate the ivory
keys of the piano forte, peculiarly
fitted them. They went to work
with zest and energy, and
many a warm summer day was
spent by these girls in 1.-THE
White House, setting up columns
of type for The Comet. It was
not popular or stylish thing then
for girls of their culture and high
social standing to work with
their own hands, and so far as
this writer is advised, Miss Ma
rion Buckley and Miss Lizzie
Cooper were the first young la
dies in Mississippi of gentle birth
and aristocratic lineage, and whose
ancestors, for generations back
belonged to the proud slave-hold-
ing class, to set the example to
their sisters of independent self
reliance by engaging in work
which had hitherto been per-
formed onlyby the sterner sex.
A few years after this when Mr..
Buckley and his family had
moved to jackson, where he
was filling an important de-
partment in the Auditors Office
under the administration of his
old friend, Sylvester Gwin, from
Lawrence county, his hea lth
broke down, and having suffered
financial reverses, he was loath
to resign his position until he
could recuperate. At this iunct-
u1e, his daughter, Miss Marion,
with beautiful fihal devotion, vol
unteered to relieve his embarrass-
ment by filling his place herself,
and thus she became the first
woman in Mississippi who, BRAY
ing the conventionalities of the
day, occupied a mans desk in the
State Capitol at Jacksonville
the position efficiently too, yet
with a modesty and dignity and
queenly grace which commanded
the respect and admiration of all
who CHANGED to see her at her self
imposed task.
The Marion Buckley, who set
type in the old Comet Office at
BlookhaVen-w whose delicate fin
gers probably. set up some of that
in the very copies of the papers
now before us-the Marion Buck
ley who heroically served as her
fathers substitute for months in
the Auditors Office at jackson IS
today the mistress Of the Cover
nor's Mansion at jackson. over