The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1915-04-01

| ngnt dIter tne ln0lans nau been Deater
off. Then the oxen were hitched up,
and the men forced them with goad anC
whip as fast as.they could travel for II
hours, all the time without water.
This adventure is one of the many
high lights in Mr.. Blythe's long career
for he was 70 years old last month.
He was born in Adams county, Penn.
sylvania, February Ia, 1912. He en-.
tered as a printers apprentice in the
office of the Franklin Repository, in
Chambersburg. Pa, in 1856, and can
remember setting type on President
Pierce's next to last message.
Having learned his trade, he worked
west into Ohio and Indiana, setting
type in the troublous antebelIum days
in Cincinnati and Eaton, Ohio, and 9TH
er towns in the Ohio valley.
Mr.. Blythe is we'll known to the older
members of the printing craft in Port
land. They remember him as the man
who could set more type in a week than
any Of them. Other printers could. or
would, set more type for day, or two
or three days, but at the end of the
week Sam Blythe would usually draw
more than any Of the other "switts,'
The most that Mr.. Blythe ever made
in week was at Virginia City, terri
torial capital of Montana. He went
there in the spring of '67 with some
other printers who had settled in the
Gallatin valley. Like him, they needed
money to keep them until their home
steads should become a source of in
come. They were paid 81 Thousand
ems. One week Sam drew $l44. Sew
eral times he drew 500.
1--WE worked long hours" said Mr..
Blythe last week at the home of his
son, E. N. Blythe, who, like his father,
is printer and newspaper man. 1.-THE
law said that the work should be set in
small plea. IL point. Ten point was
the nearest size to it in the office, that
of the Montana Post. So we set the
legislative bills in 10 point, with a plea
or IL point slug. between lines. The
slugs counted, and with the type made
% points for every line of type and
slug, as though two lines had been set
in II point. We set the type for the
paper, which issued three times a
week, but, of course, we made our big
VII tHc sldle WUTh.
After the legislature adjourned, Mr..
Blythe worked on the journals for the
Odd Fellows and Masonic lodges, which
had just organized in Montana.
Early in '68, with a stake of $500,
Mr.. Blythe returned to Ohio, where he
had worked as printer before the war,
The trip from Fort Benton, Montana,
to Sioux City, Iowa, was made by
steamboat on the Missouri river, and
was long, because the boat did not run
at night for fear of snags. Sioux City
was connected with the east by rail.
Arriving there on Saturday Mr.. Blythe
had to lay over until Monday. as trains
did not run on Sunday in those days.
81 had not been back in Ohio long
before saw had made a mistake, "
said Mr.. Blythe, "and | deterimed to
go west again. | had visited the
scenes of my early labors, and was
fully satisfied that there were better
chances for printer in the far west. I"
One of the places that Mr.. Blythe
visited on this trip was Wabash, Ind,
where he had been a compositor on the
Plaindealer before the outbreak of the
war.
"Ihe paper was Democratic, and the
party had split" said MIR. Blythe.
Breckenridge was nominated for
president by one wing and Douglas by
the other The editor, whose name
was McGonigle, did not know which
candidate to support. He wrote an ed
ltorial supporting Breckenridge. Then
he turned over the same sheet and
wrote one supporting Douglas on the
other side. Handing the copy tome he
went out on the street. | set one of
the articles, which one | do 7not re-
member. Pretty soon, before | could
set the other, McGonigie came back,
having felt the public pulse to some
extent, and wrote an editorial support
ing Lincoln, the Republican. This |
put into type. and it was printed.
Il was a Democrat myself, and | be-
lieved that the Democratic party was
the only thing that could save the
country. When Lincoln was elected |
thought the country had gone to smash.
Lincoln was not idolized in those DAYS
as he was later. Politics were pretty
severe, and attacks were made on a
the principles he espoused.
"But when the war broke out | en-
listed in the Twenty-second Ohio volun-
teers, and served four years. After
my first enlistment, which was served
in the western field of war, Joined the
veteran volunteer army that served the
rest of the war in the eastern field"
Mr.. Blythe was at the siege of Vicks-
burg. As soon as the surrender came,
he went right into the city "oL his own
hook, without waiting for a pass or
permission. Hungry for the sight of
print shop, he soon found one. The
forms of a paper were ready to go to
press, just as the rebel soldier-printers
had left them. In the forms were
articles ridiculing the Union besiegers,
General Grant and telling
Of the impossibility of his taking the |
city. With the slight alterations that |
the Union soldier-p printers added when |
they found the forms, was printed the |
famous Vicksburg siege newspaper,
thousands of facsimile copies of which, |
printed on wallpaper like the originals,
are now extant.
81 was the first Union man in the |
shop. think, and left before the others
,ame, or would have had a hand in
getting out that paper" said Mr.. |
Blythe.
After the capture of Vickbsurg and |
Fort Donaldson, MIR. Blythe was with |
roops that fought in Arkansas, having
he rebel irregulars, or guerillas, as
heir opponents, principally.
But with the war behind, two trips |
lcross the plains to his credit, and
that he could no longer be
in the east, the year 1869
ound Mr.. Blythe working at his trade
n San Francisco.
He came to Portland July 5, 1870,
With several other printers from San