The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-07-09
THE SCRATCH PAD
By THOMAS EWING DABNEY.

1t was after the storm and a party
OF gentlemen were talking about one
thing and another on Palafox street.
This conversation veered to The Jour
nal and its enterprise in surrounding
the terrible obstacles of that wild
night and coming out on time. Jour
nalism in its various phases was dis
cussed, and j. II. Smithwick was pro-
yoked into Renaissance.
II don't look it now" he said, with
one Of those healthy laughs, explod-
ing like shrapnel burst of cheer
fulness; ''but, you know, / used to-
own a little newspaper once. Once
isn't often, but / did. Fact.
at was in Moultrie, the town that
has the packing plant it would pay
this place to copy. I got the little
gimlet more for spite than anything
else, and I had printer who was the
LATEST man ever saw in my life.
He was so lazy he wouldn't pack
his own watermelon.
He used to come down to work at
about 9 o'clock in the morning, and
kept me so mad / could hardly see.
The only reason didn't bite nail
in two was didn't have the nail. He
used to smoke battered old corn cob
pipe that smelled like poison gas and
gave out a soft suffering sound when
he pulled on her.
"And the quieter it got the louder
that pipe sounded in the Office. That
and the clicking sound of the type GO
ing into the stick used to get me so
crazy / would have to write fierce
editorial against something or other
to ease off.
Things went along pretty well-it
was a lot of fun. Everything in the
newspaper game is fun. You work
like dog to help some one and he
treats you like dog. You write nice
things about him and he knocks you.
You boost his business and he gets
his printing done at mail order
house. You pay him cash and he
beats his advertising bill. If you
don't run his spite work, he bellows
like bull and says the papers don't
print the truth.
mo, the newspapers don't always
tell the truth. If they did, there
would be an awful lot of people leav-
ing town. I can just see them go
railroad, automobile, horse, bicycle,
wheelbarrow-just a-galloping away
in every direction like people when
you light a dynamite fuse.
"Well, I lost money like the usual
country editor, and I saw I had to
get the official printing. In those
days the sheriff would choose the pa
per and all legal publications would
be made in that paper during his
term of office.
ut was up,to me to get sheriff.
81 looked around and / found an
old man with whisk IS and he didn't
know as much about the sheriff's
business as a wooden leg. He couldn't
any more have signed warrant or
done any of the other doo-ficker
things a sheriff does than cat. OF
course, intended to do all that fer
him.
"He wasn't as we'll qualified as the
average school boy, but he had more
relatives than anybody I ever saw in
my life. He had nineteen children
and thirty-two grandchildren, and no
body ever knew how many relations
he had.
There was a story that ne tried to
measure them. He counted how
many could comfortably stand in the
calf lot-talxing them as they came,
men, women and children; fat and
lean, Democrat and Mugwump; Bap-
fist, Methodist and Episcopal. His
plan was then to fill the calf lot as
long as the relatives held out, and
multiply the number of times by the
: number Of head, but had to call it off
on account of darkness; and the next
day it rained and they all got tired
of standing around and went home
and he never did find out.
"Well, sir, it was hard campaign
/ because, let me tell you, the other
candidate was a humdinger, but
elected my man by five votes.
: 'It was that vast surplusage OF
children that turned the trick, Of
course, and / always did believe that
7 Roosevelt was thinking about that
campaign when he was talking about
race suicide"
= Now Is the time to preach thu
, Spend-your-vacation at home doc
trine.
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