The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-10-17
EDITOR TILLINeHAsT RETIREs.

ELI Oh
Iowa journalism has just sustained
severe loss through the retirement
of Mr.. B. F. Tillinghast, editor OF the
/ Davenport Democrat for the past
twenty-seven years, who has remov-
ed to his orange farm in Florida near
health. He will be gone six months
at least, and if his health is not ma
terially improved at the end of that
time he will stay a year.
The redeeming feature In the situa-
ton is the fact that it affords oppor-
tunity to testify not only to Mr.. Tilling-
hast's ability and industry as an edi-
tor, but to his conscientiousness as
we'll No editor in Iowa or elsewhere
ever brought to his work higher
sense of duty and responsibility or
addressed himself more Loyalty to it
His writings day by day disclosed a
man of broad views, large heart and
high ideals intent on serving his fell
low men by every means at his com.
mand. If ever an unworthy motive
found Judgment in his mind its pres
ence was never betrayed by anything
he ever said or did. Every reader of
the Democrat will agree that it was a
pleasure to read his articles both be-
cause of their high range of thought
and their lucid style. There was in
them no straining after effects, no pre-
tense of superior goodness, no appeals
to the baser passions of mankind
simply a plain statement of facts as
ne understood them with such illumin-
ating comment as suggested itself to
mind trained to high and orderly
thought. Mr.. Tillinghast's contribu-
lions to the newspaper utterances of
the day will be seriously missed, and
everybody will hope that his retire
ment from the Democrat will be only
temporary AS showing the esteem in
which he is held at home where he
is best known we take pleasure in re-
producing the following from an arti-
Gle concerning him in the editorial col
umns of the Rock Island Union:
mo one feels the loss of Mr.. Til
Iinghast more than the younger news
paper men of the three cities. They
have fixed him as an ideal and have
sought to emulate him.
Mr.. Tillinghast has always been de-
voted to his paper. Loyal to the core,
honest, earnest and Industrious, he
has given the best there was in him
at all times. You may look back over
the files of the newspapers he has
worked on for forty years and you
will find in every word, in every sen
tence, the spirit to uplift. Do good
has been his watchword To benefit
the community, advance its best in
terests and it's moral condition, has
been his aim. He never uses his
position to further personal gain. but
he has thrown the great force of his
newspaper with telling effect for the
benefit of mankind
"a shipload of Iowa produce was
sent to starving Russia, and Tilling-
hast's newspaper, his personality ard
his tireless energy did it. When fam
fishing India was extending its hands
for but a grain of corn Tillinghast
used the columns OF the newspaper
to the end that thousands OF bushels,
and thousands OF dollars in cash,
went to the sufferers. When the great
floods in the south swept away homes
and property and left vast communi-
ties in restitution Tillinghast and the
Democrat again came to the rescue.
These are spoken of only as incidents.
but day after day week after week,