The fool-killer., 1914-08-01


enough it might grow and get to be
a big thing Yes, that part of it was
settled-I would start a paper.
Having gone that far, the next thing
to decide on was the style or charac-
ter of my paper, and a name for 1t.
Reason taught me that it must be odd
and unusual if l wanted to attract any
attention. In the first place it must
contain nothing but original hot
stuff" In the next place, the name
must be something to catch the
strangers eye and rivet his attention
at once. I made out long list OF
possible names and studio d them care
fully from every angle. And, finally,
from this list I selected "The Fool
Killer" as the one most likely to at
| tract attention and take the public
by surprise.
Without further delay I began to
prepare copy" and the first issue OF
The Fool-Killer appeared in January,
1910 Only three or four hundred
copies of that issue were printed, and
[ scattered them around the best I
could in order to get a subscription
list started. 1t was leap in the dark,
and I had no idea whether it was go
ing to lead to success or starvation.
for the first six months, and then the
subs began to come in right nicely.
| By this time we had bought an old
store house here in the village and
moved all our earthly belongings into
it. The front end was the printing Of
fee and the back end was the living
department
i We did not pretend to be living
i there in the back end of the printing g
office-we were just camping" and
Il waiting for a chance to do better.
Disease was every day taking a deep
er hold on my wife and I was not able
to give her the care and attention she
), needed.
Il The growth of The Fool-Killer was
not rapid but it was steady, and each
succeeding week the subscription re-
ceipts were little more than the week
before. That was encouraging, al
though every bit of growth made that
| much more work, which must be done
under very trying conditions.
At the very outset The Fool-Kill-
er espoused the cause of the poor and
, oppressed, and was merciless in its
, attacks on the dollar aristocracy'
/ and all the high-fyers of Society
: Church and State It was natural for
i
always belonged to the poor and op-
: pressed-had always been an under
l dog"
4 The language of The Fool-Killer was
3 (and is now the common corn-felG
t English that learned and used while
] growing up amid poverty and hard
t ship. AS I have often expressed it
i The Fool-Killer's object has been tt
make a man laugh right big, and the1
S cram a truth down him while hi:
S mouth is open.
= We sold the old farm and applied
t the money toward the starting of {
e home here in the village. AS soon a:
d the new cottage was ia,
n enough along to make ou
S with we moved into it, and
I although far from finished, it was
great improvement over the way w
S had been living We now had chanc
b to fix up one or two rooms to loOl
O something like home, and to get ou
e / hOme-life separated from the business
j It also gave us more Office room, whicl
l. was beginning to be needed.
l. In the meantime the paper wa
S growing at gratifying rate, and
S was soon necessary to have a large
r press. So about March, 1912, put i
a large COttrell Drum cylinder Pres
l. capable of printing all four pages Q
r the paper at one impression, and a
IS the rate of 1000 complete copies pc
d hour. I also installed gasoline en-
" gine to pull the new press, and the
y I began to turn out Fool-Killers at
70 rate that made the little job pres
ashamed of itself
IS Having then an outfit that enable
me to get the nrintinc done T hepa
G. to push the paper with samples, az
lx1oH ficir OF