The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-06-12

| .houtus ditef TOOK cnarge. captain
Judd Ferguson was the first subscriber
10 pay bis subscription. He gave me
y, the then price of the paper. He
had hardly left the Office until neigh.
Dor woman came in with a hard-luck
story of how her children were without
shoes and for that reason could not 90
TO school. Thinking, no doubt, that |
had the only paying business in town.
she struck me for the loan of $40. to
be paid when her strawberries came on
next year, provided We didn't have an
other flood in the Columbia. assured
her business was not very good with
me, but II was picking up, was very
sorry | didn't have as much as $40.
but cheerfully gave her the two dol
lars. For two years the Glacier never
got land notice. Fortunately my ex-
penses were about as light as any
country paper that ever existed. For
the first year | got rent free. My pat
ent outside cost SLIGO a week and
few cents for postage on fine papers
mailed, made up my necessary expendi-
tuIes. ! did all the work on the paper
with the assistance of my boy on publi-
cation days, and kept doing so'for five
years. during which time my gross re-
ceipts averaged $50 a month. The
second year I. G. Dallas built the Gla-
cler an office across the street from
where the Glacier had been located by
John Cradlebaugh. After the building
was finished and | had moved in |
asked MIR. Dallas how much rent he
was going to charge me. He said
We'll, Uncle Sammy, do you think you
can stand So a month";" | thought |
could. About this time the price of
the Glacier was reduced to 81. so a year.
AT the end of five years the first irri-
eating ditch in the valley was complet-
ed and then good times for Hood River
came along. 1t want long until the
circulation of the Glacier got too big
for the old Washington hand press and
a Country Campbell power press was
installed. This necessitated an extern
sion on the building. Mr.. Dallas
eheerfully put up the addition. When
the new press was set up in the new
building again asked Mr.. Dallas what
the rent would be. In his good natured
drawl he replied. well, Uncle Sammy,
do you think you could stand SO
month"; told him | could stand $40,
and $40 1t was up till the time sold to
MIR. Moe. Hood River never had bet
ter citizen than Theodore Dallas. Open
hearted, hard working, always cheer
ful, his tragic death was mourned by
all who knew him. Bless his memory!
Old timers will never forget him.
The setting up of the power press
caused AN unlocked for difficulty in
getting the machine to do the work.
1t was geared to run by hand as well
as by other power. To find man stout
enough to run off the whole edition was
not always an easy matter. We could
never get a man to do the job second
time. One day, while hunting man
to run the press, W. M. Stewart, the
hardware merchant, overheard me max
ing inquiries. He was at that time
temporarily out of business and was
taking day off from his vocation of
out doing Isaac Walton. MIR. Stewart
volunteered to hel p me out and turned
the press for the whole edition for the
Sl.50 paid for the work each week.
Mr.. Stewart has held my good opinion
ever since. About this time Joe Wilson
came to my assistance when assistance
was badly needed. He told me how
could get water motor to do the work
and Immediately he sent to California
and before long we had the motor in.
stalled. With what pride and broad
grin did ID. N. Byerlee feed the old
Country Campbell press after the
motor was installed He would turn
on the power till the old press would
bump and bang and wake people on the
street to the fact that there was some
thing doing in the Glacier office. Dur
ing the last five years of my manage
ment of the Glacier the business was
good Though no great wealth was
accumulated, | was well enough paid
for the hard work put in for the first
five years. | never solicited an ad after
the first month. | discovered years
before that | was no ad man. But on
subscriptions was more successful.
After | had run the paper for one
month went to The Dalles to collect
for the advertising then in the Glacier.
Every Dalles ad was ordered out. The
merchants said they found it didn't pay
to advertise in the Glacier. But there
came time when they thought il
might pay. When times got to boom
ing in Hood River got an order from
a big store in The Dalles to run a half
page ad one time, without asking the
price. At the same time they said they
would give me about l2-inch ad to
run in certain space for a year, to
be changed once month. and asked
my rates. replied by giving them
price of SIS for the half page ad one
time and $l0C month for the l2-inch.
ad. They never came back but they
put their big ad in the semi-weekly
Chronicle and sent the paper free for
three months to any name they could
learn in Hood River. Dead mems
names we're on their list. Postmaster
Yates showed me stack of Dales
Chronicles as big as his head that had
been sent to persons who refused to
take the paper from the postofFice.
For my ten years connection with
the Glaicer have nothing to regret.
In fact | look back with pleasure to
those old days when ] knew nearly
every person in Hood River and made
lasting friendships with the old timers.
Looking back and remembering the old
time citizens of Hood River, some of
whom are still with US, we can recog-
nize their sturdiness of character,
their cheerfulness under adverse cir
cumstances, their help in building
Hood River to what it is today.
May 5, 1904. disposed of the Glacier
to A. ID. Moe. Under his management
it has gone ahead with leaps and
bounds and taken front rank with the
country publications of the state of
Oregon. From the little sheet started
by Geo. T. Prather it has grown to
mammoth proportions and become an
institution of the town and valley of
which we can all be proud. May il
continue so that, like its namesake on
the mountain. ''it will be a cold day
when it gets left"
Sam F. Blythe.
Hood River, June 3, 1918.