Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-12-01
Rec0Ilections of
Old Noxubee.

publishing the paper up ther
that reconstructed rebel wa
the meanest thing that crawled,
and I remember that Col. AL
Harper who was at that tim,
publishing the Estates at Oko
Iona, and by the way the bitter
est Democratic paper In the stat,
"a regular fire eating, frework:
kind of a paper and carpetbag
ger hating sbeet-got hold O
Henry Jackson's saying in some
way and carried it at the mast
head of his paper with quotation
marks) for many years for Col
Harper. too, belonged to the un
constructed kind and delighted
in saying as much through his
columns.
s1ndeed, so bitter did his paper
wage warfare along these lines
that finally some of the leading,
more conservative people of the
state took it upon themselves tc
visit him in a body and try and
urge upon him to be more conser.
vative in his writing-that it was
injuring the South-that it barred
the South from ever getting any
favors from Congress, and that it
was bringing hardships in many
ways, but instead of the delega.
tion accomplishing anything it on.
ly made matters worse for about
the same day there turned up in
Okolona a newspaper writer, hail
ing, he said, from Massachusetts,
having journeyed all the way
there solely, he said, to see Col.
Harper. His name was Will
Herman, (the editor of the New
Era remembers him as in connec-
tion with a happening at Vicks-
burg later) and he told Harper
that he had gotten hold of a
copy of his paper up north and
that all the objection he had to
it was that it was not bitter
enough" and after convincing
Harper that he was a writer Of
the iconoclastic kind with but
few equals, the editorial depart
ment of the paper was turned
over to him and from that time
on the people had something to
sit up for and take notice of"
sure enough.
He even went so far as to urge
those who had taken the oath of
allegiance and had laid down
their arms to renounce the oath
and pick up their guns again,
and so sensational was every
thing the paper said and so eager
were the people both north and
south to read it that it eventual
ly attained to a circulation of 25,.
600 and more than two-thirds of
this in northern states.
Eventually Herman, (intoxi-
Gated over the success he had
made Of the paper, for money
poured in on every train by the
peck and half busheD that he
finally took to drinking and soon
reached a stage in his debauchery
that rendered him unfit to write
even a local for the paper and
when Harper again assumed
charge editorially his writings
were so tame (in their rabidness)
as compared to Kernan's that
the paper lost it's power and it's
star we it down as rapidly as it
rose under the Herman manage
ment.
Harper tried to hold the
papers prestige as Herman had
established it, but there has
never been a writer like Herman,
and soon the paper failed.
Hal Herman never showed up
at Okolona and the people not |
seen his writings, Harper would |
have continued to satisfy all who
came under the ban of fire
eaters" and "hot head" for his
writings were never hot enough. |
After the paper failed Col. |
Harper (being a lawyer re-
moved to Biloxi (this was in |
1879 and he there became fam
GUS in the successful practice of |
his profession, and prospered as
q green bay tree on up to his |
death later.
The last ever saw of Herman
was at Vicksburg when the Miss
issippi Press Association met
there in 1878 he lying in an alley
way beastly drunk.
1t was learned afterwards that
Kernan's writing was not so
much from any set principles he
had or for what he cared for one |
side of the other---it was for the
money he could make out of it.
J. ]. HAYNIE.