The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-02-12
A TRIBUTE TO THE
LATE FRANK |. MAYES
Former President ofthe
Florida Press Association.

Among the many tributes paid to
the memory of the late Col. Frank l..
Mayes, editor of the Pensacola our
nal, and former president Of the
Florida Press Association, none are
more eloquent of fact than the follow
ing from the Lakeland Evening Tele-
gram:
1t is very hard to realize that
Frank L. Mayes, of the Pensacola
Journal, is dead, and. when the Asso-
ciated Press dispatch came yesterday
announcing it, it sent shock to the
heart of every newspaper man in
Florida that read it, and to those who
knew the Pensacola editor and had
been admitted to the circle of his close
personal friendship, the brief sad sto-
ny that came over the wires carried
a deep and poignant sorrow. 1t SEEM
ed unbelievable. To associate the
CHASTITY, grewsome thing called Death
with the bright, keen, wholesome per-
sonality of Frank Mayes was gro
tesque-out of the natural order of
things-a cruelty so wanton that it
was not possible in a world governed
by kindly Providence
But the great A. P. makes no mis-
takes in such matters. Frank Mayes
was dead, and it is doubtless true that
no death ever occurred in the newspa-
per ranks of Florida that brought
more real grief and sense of personal
loss to larger number of people in
4 hn
rare, fine character. He was cast in
a mould of almost unique excellence,
for, combined with personal charm and
social graces not often met with, was
a strength of fiber, frmness and
force of conviction and keen appre-
citation of the practical side of life
and its imperious duties that made
him a forefront figure in his COM
munity as a worker for the common
good and an inspiring example to all
around him.
Never very robust, his capacity
for work was marvellous, and he met
the daily duties and exactions re-
quired for the management of the
big newspaper property he had built
up with a quick decision and quiet
force that carried the business for
ward with the smoothness of a per-
feet machine in which there was the
maximum of efficiency with the min
imlm of friction. He was a Won
derful manager, and he made the
Journal people as one family, bound
by the ties of common interest. No
man in his employ ever complained
of Frank Mayes, but he would have
good work or none, and, while he was
patient and forbearing, and made
large allowances for natural limita-
lions and infrmities, the one who
was persistently unworthy had to go
and he left with no grudge against
the man who "fired" him.
He came to Pensacola raw youth
from the great plains of South Da-
kota, and when he got there and de-
termined to locate, permanently he
stripped himself bare of every ham,
pering prejudice and became a citi-
zen of Florida in the broadcast, trl-
est, finest sense of the word. He
was a Floridian to the very core, and
in contemplating his many-sided
character nothing is more impressive
than his splendid loyalty to Florida
and her people, including the old
timers of another generation, his
constant and earnest efforts to aid in
the development of the State, to dis
courage all harsh or invidious criti-
cism and to discover the good in all
men and all things
His impress was upon every issue
of the Journal. He dictated its pol
icies in all things. He kept his mind
open on all subjects. He abhorred
bigotry and intolerance as he did the
devil, and with it all he was strong
in decision of character and lived
true to his ideal that as the editor
and owner of a prominent and infu-
entail daily paper he must swing it
always on the side of right-not
mere expediency-and make it an
instrument for service and construc-
tive work in every good cause with