Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-01
BY 3. r. TILLINGHAsT.
Crescent City, Florida.

ure to be with you, and to try to DO
my part toward making your Special
Edition representative. The Press
club has done so much for the tri-
cities in so many ways and for so
long a time that it is no more than
fair for the public to reciprocate.
And then the closer relations are
made between the Press club and
those it strives to serve and help
the better for all.
For several months I have been
out of the newspaper whirl, living
in the woods and on the water, down
in this great sanitarium bountiful
nature has provided. But the tri-
city papers have come to me daily
and have read them with more in
terest than l would have done in the
offices where they are printed. The
old associations will always persist
and 1 want them to do so.
Forty Years in Harness.
Forty years of my life have been
given to newspaper work, all but
three of them to the newspapers in
Moline, Rock Island and Davenport,
my home having been in each city,
in the order named, since 1872.
There are very few of my acquaint-
ances whose connection with the
press in any department covers so
long a time. 1 recall not one in
that locality, who has been contin-
uously in the news and editorial SER
vice for such a period. One of your
veterans is my good friend, P. S.
McGlynn, editor of the Moline Dis
the old Davenport Gazette, back in
the days of John Deere, Bailey Dav-
export, George H. French and Cap
tain Flagler of the arsenal, Patsy"
was higher up" During many a
long night he struggled with the
yards of rush copy 1 then furnished.
That we have been on speaking
terms since shows that he is Jolly
good fellow" ready to forgive and
forget.
And my dear Simpson, don't run
your blue pencil through my lines
when 1 say that to no one does the
Press Club owe more than to you.
In the bright days of the departed
Davenport Gazette you came to me
as a cub" 1t took me only a min
ute to discover that you had in you
the staying qualities which you have
since so we'll shown. You never fell
down" when told to get there" And
as a kid you will remember you
were up against some hard ones.
Poor Walter Johnson, genial soul
as many of US knew him, was Mo-
line reporter for the Rock Island
Union when 1 began scribbling for
the Moline Review, from the wreck of
which was born the Evening Dis
patch.
Thoughts Make sad.
1t makes me sad when I think of
my newspaper friends who have left
us. L. NJ. Haverstick was the edi-
tor from whom Mr.. Johnson received
his orders, and he was a power in
his day. Colonel Danforth and l
have had many crossing of the pen
ellis; the colonel always held a sharp
one. He called me the "beardless
boy" and now 1 can see how fresh y
1 was. Then, too, there was John
V: Potter, of The Argus and 1 can
never forget Sunny Jim" LaVelle,
who was the heart of honor as well
as the soul of humor. And the
chills come when 1 recall that brave
fight made by w. F. Eastman to
live Eastman, more than most of
US, lived up to his strict convictions.
He deserves a front seat in paradise.
On the other side of the river the
grim reaper has cut down more of
my old associates. Among them was
the elder of the Richardson brothers,
with whom 1 touched elbows for
more than 16 years. Mr.. Richard
son never used long word when he
could find a short one to serve hisI
purpose. He told me when 1 be-
came his assistant on the Democrat
that a good reporter could see more
with one eye than an average scribe
with two eyes and magnifying glass.
use your eyes and ears" he told
me many a time. And he was a philos-
opher as every editor should try to
be.
The junior brother, now on deck,
Is youth in spirit with more than
so active and unbroken years behind
him. And the Richardson brothers,
sons of noble sire, are still on your
rolls AS 1 write, the form of brave