The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-01-19

| hire a room, engage In game t,
see which of them know the mos
about a deck of cards, win none.
back and forth, get rich and poor
and rich again, get information abou
card mysteries and pay for it, ant
go home feeling bully IL the Officers
do not come In on them and SCOOP
the pot. Being thus overtaken IL
sin they are fined in the sum of two
hundred bucks each, and are adjudg
ed to be in disgrace for the same
thing that the society bunch arr
honored for, but while both the
gambling games were in session, the
| family from the country attend the
picture show and Jose their robes
from the vehicle and the harness
from the horses. Nothing doing in
official circles. Steal a ten-dollal
cayuse and to the penitentiary you
go. Steal a fifty-nine dollar harness
and they don't even look you up
There are families about town who
have no visible means of support
If they are suspected of bootlegging
they are watched; if perchance they
belong to the fraternity of pirates
DeRig, their larder is we'll filled and
their cup runneth over.
AS we remarked in the beginning,
the few weeks following the holidays
are a good time to do some thinking
and some getting ready for better
things for the year. There are firms
in town protesting to serve the public
but have no system for doing it.
Everything is done in hap-hazard
way, working at disadvantage, and
they wonder why they don't succeed
or why they can't compete with
others. There are coal dealers in
town who say it is absolutely neces-
sary to collect cash for coal 1t takes
SO much capital to handle it, and yet
with good customers they put it on
the books and let it run SO long the
customer can't tell whether the coal
was received by him or somebody
else. The man who saves money all
fall to pay some coal bills, does not
gain anything if the bills do not come
in for three or five months, and he
is annoyed when they do come in so
late. We know firm of plumbers
who were called last spring to take
care of a rush order for firm that
was new in town, and the bill was
not presented for the work till Oc-
tober The. bill was held up till the
plumbers identified themselves and
proved that they did the work. Then
it was paid and the plumber firm
was listed as one that it was unde-
sirable to deal with because of their
lack of system for completing a
transaction. Their modesty or tardi-
ness in presenting their bill Keeps
them from getting more business.
We knew a firm with three en-
ployees and two of them had ideas
of their own about sport. They
thought it was funny to play tricks.
The firm had a tenant in the build
ing, and these funny fellows fixed
the trap of the toilet so 1t would play
a prank at a certain embarrassing
moment. Such pranks were held
against the firm that owned 1t. Ul-
timately these employees lost their
jobs and they have been failures or
near-failures at whatever they nave
tried.
There are about 1900 people pay
ing The Idaho Republican two dol
lars a year to deliver to them the
local news. Every little while some
body rings up or comes to us to say
that he or she doesn't want us to
publish the account of certain mat
ters affecting them. Sometimes we
comply with such requests II made
In the right way and, in most OF these
instances we would have done the
same thing anyway Not long ago
seven fellows were caught in gamD-
ling game, and certain garage IN
town slipped a message to us via a
third party, that if we published the
names of the offenders it would cost
rhe Republican 5000 worth of ad-
vertising. We promptly published
the names and that firm isn't adver-
Using with us. We were informed
hat the same message was sent TO
another newspaper in town. 1t did
lot publish the names. We are salts |
led with our course and we are still
1ustling for more news and more
There is a man in Blackfoot who
8 mayor Of the town. He is the ad-
vertising manager for one OF the Dig
irms of the town. We have worked
With him and helped him and COM
rended him and opposed him and
criticised his. course verbally In
ouncil meetings and publicly Cen
ured some of his Official acts
n our newspaper, and we don't
hink it ever made a dollars
Inference in the amount of advertis-
ng he did with us or any difference
n his personal attitude when we
net, or in any way modified the pur-
base of goods in his line when we
wanted to buy something OF him.
We think more of him each year, and
We believe the differences on public
uestions that have been aired be-
ween the two men in this spirit have
made for the improvement and ad-
of the town and its in
erests.
Once we owed a man a sum OF
money; large sum for us, and III
xposing some graft we mentioned
is name in connection with a shady
but he was not the Of
ender, and the article showed 1t.
he newspaper just had time to
each their home when that mans
rife rang up the editor and attempt
d to start some fireworks. By this
laneuver she placed her husband In
n embarrassing predicament, for he
ries to please his wife and be square