The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-02-12

eating before the arrival of a flock OF
blackbirds Fastening thither ere the
eventide should be upon them. The
blackbirds came, chartered, gossiped.
quarreled and beat each other with
their wings above the smoker sitting
on the top fence rail.
But he had remembered. A thousand
miles to the east it was commencement
day, seven years to day from his
own commencement.
Five years ago, on another June aft
ernoon, young man from the east had
alighted on the platform of the station
north of Plattville and, entering the
rickety omnibus that fingered there
seeking whom it might rattle to deaf
ness, demanded to be driven to the
Herald building. 1t did not strike the
driver that the newcomer was pre-
cisely gay young man when he climb
ed into the omnibus, but an hour later,
as he stood in the doorway of the edi-
fee he had indicated as his destination,
depression seemed to have settled into
the marrow of his bones.
Plattville was instantly alert to the
strangers presence, and interesting con-
lectures were hazarded all day long at
the back door of Martins Dry Goods
Emporium fhis was the club during
the day., and at supper the new ar
rival and his probable purposes were
discussed over every table in the town.
Upon inquiry he had Informed Judd
Bennett, the driver of the omnibus.
that he had come to stay. Naturally
such declaration caused a sensation,
as people did not come to Plattville to
live except through the inadyertency of
being born there. In addition the young
mans appearance and attire were re-
ported to be extraordinary. Many OF
the curious, among them most of the
manageable females of the place, took
occasion to pass and repass the sign Of
the Carlow County Herald during the
evening
Meanwhile the stranger was seated
in the dingy Office upstairs with his
head bowed low on his arms. Twilight
stole through the dirty window panes
and faded into darkness. Night filled
the room He did not move. The young
man from the east had bought the Her.
aid from an agent-had bought it with
out ever having been within a hundred
miles of Plattville. The Herald was
an alleged weekly which had some
times appeared within five days Of its
declared date of publication and some
times missed fire altogether. 1t was
thorn in the side Of every patriot of
Carlow county, and Carlow people, aft
er supporting the paper Loyalty and
long, had at last given it up and sub
scribed for the Gazette, published in
the neighboring county of Amo. The
former proprietor Of the Herald. a
surreptitious gentleman with a goatee,
had taken the precaution Of leaving
Plattville forever on the afternoon pre-
ceding his successors arrival. The
young man from the east had vastly
overpaid for his purchase. Moreover,
the price he had paid for it was all the
money he had in the world.
The next morning he went bitterly to
work. He hired compositor from
Rouen, young man named Parker,
who set type all night long and helped
him pursue advertisements all day.
The citizens shook their heads pessi-
mistically They had about given up
the idea that the Herald could ever
amount to anything, and they betrayed
an innocent but caustic doubt of abil-
ity in any stranger.
One day the new editor left note on
his door: ''Will return in fifteen min
utes"
Mr. Rodney McCune, a politician from
the neighboring county OF Gaines, hap
pening to be in Plattville on an errand
to his henchmen, found the note and
wrote beneath the message the scath-
ing inquiry, why"
When he discovered this addendum,
the editor smiled for the first time since
his advent and reported the incident in
his next issue, using the rubric why
Has the Herald Returned to Life?' as
a text for a rousing editorial on hon.
esty in politics, subject Of which he
already knew something. The political
district to which Carlow belonged was
governed by limited number of gen.
tlemen whose wealth was ever on the
increase. and honesty in politics was
a startling conception to the minds of
the passive and resigned voters, who
talked the editorial over on the street
corners and in the stores. The next
week there was another editorial. per-
sonal and local in its application, and
thereby it became evident that the new
proprietor of the Herald was theorist
who believed in general that a politi-
clans honor should not be merely of