The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1910-10-26
THE CAREER AND HISTORY
OF THE. LAURENS ADVERTISER
(By w. w. Ball.)
To the Editor of The Advertiser:

Advertiser Printing company was sold
by Nj. l.. Copeland and myself to the
Messrs. Lee more than n month ago,
have had 1t in mind to write some
thing about the newspaper and its
history, inasmuch as the whole 20
years OF my newspaper work has had
intimate association with 1t and 1t is
due the new controlling interests that
the Laurens people know that they
have the good will of the sellers. What
/ shall say will be in more of per-
sonal vein than 1 like to write, but
risk the exhibition of some vanity In
speaking of my long connection with
the property.
The Advertiser was established by
the late John Conway Darlington and
it's first issue appeared August, s, 1885
"a date almost coincident with that
of Capt. B. r. Tillman's Bennetttsville
speech which began his public career.
Politics, so far as l know, had nothing
to DO with the beginning Of the pa
per. few years before Capt. j. ID.
McLucas, of Marion county, had begun
the publication of the Laurens "Mcr-
chant and Farmer" but it's plant was
burned, think and was not replaced.
The i4aurcnsviie Herald, established
in 1SiS | believe, was the one other
newspaper and job Office in the county,
unless Our Monthly" at Clinton be
mentioned, and Mr.. Darlington thought
the field was big enough for another.
He made the mistake of fixing the
subscription price too low-the time
was not ripe then for one dollar week
ly newspapers and doubt If it be ripe
for them now. The people of county
ought to have better newspaper than
one dollar year will justify.
The Advertiser under Mr.. CARING
tons management opposed the Tillman
doctrines from the start and 1t was a
bold and outspoken newspaper At
times Mr.. Garlington's experiences
were stormy but he was never a man
to shirk or waver.
In 1890, few days after | was ad-
mitted to the practice of the law, MIR.
Darlington told me that he was going
to Spartanburg to establish daily
newspaper and offered to sell me The
Advertiser for $1,000. lie promised me
the refusal For ten day or two weeks
before that time, during vacation OF
Mr.. Darlington, L had written the edi-
torial articles for him-tbe first
had written for any newspaper though
the first thing of mine that appeared
in print was in The Herald-about
n trip to Washington that Judge Watts
invited me to join i'm with the State
Press association in 1856, when he was
part owner of The Herald. One OF these
first editorial articles in The Adver-
tiser-before | was the editor-com-
batted the argument of Capt. Tillman
that boy at the proposed Clemson
college could earn his own living on
the farm of the college. l think sub
seQuent events have proved that at
the age of 10 or 90 knew as much
on that point as Capt Tillman knew.
Imediately after Mr.. Garlington's
offer to sell ! went to the University
OF Virginia for a summer law course
and I'm August received a letter from
Mr.. Darlington saying he was ready
to SELL / accepted his offer, came
home. borrowed the money on the
endorsement Of my father and uncle
md tDok charpa lata I'm Anpnst NV
purpose was to practice law and run
the paper as side line" but In a
few weeks law was the side line and
was mighty busy trying to- get money
to pay the printers at the end of the
week.
When began to conduct the paper,
II was under the shadow of Farm
ers' Alliance boycott" but that didn't
hurt it. The friends of the newspa-
per everywhere in the county were
working for it and the boycott indi-
rectly helped It, ] learned then that
political opposition is not to be feared
by newspaper II the paper have rea-
sonable honesty and some intelligence
behind it. don't think the notion
OF writing for policy's sake entered
my head at all I'm those days. | wrote
what | chose and made some blum
ders which l regret, | said things that
l should not have said--as / do now
sometimes-b on the whole, IL was,
think, a newspape. or average con
science and responsibility. ! had no