The Mena weekly star., 1920-01-08
rnE MoRkINGs or mn.

the sanctum of The Star to hark back wards almost a quarter of a century
 The first is the raging of the build fng. at the corner of Seventh and Wal nut streets. that was The Stars first home. When outgrown by The Star is was sold and moved from it's old site on Mena street and converted into q residence.
 The other is the shipment from Mena of the printing plant that, thru innumerable changes. in material, ownership and management has been a contemporary if not competitor of The Star since the year 1896.
 That old building carries lot of interesting memories. In the early days of August, 1896, when Mena was largely tent town, Roy R. St. John, coming as advance man. as it were, for The Star. and his father. A. w. St. John. and brother, V w. St. John, landed in Mena from Carthage, Mo-, and at once put all the energy he had into securing lumber and having con structed building to house the equip ment for the paper it was planned to issue. 1t was a race to get the lum- Der those days, but it was secured, and carpenters, imported from neces- sity. did the rest. The building was l6x24 feet, one story and an attic, and was located at the corner of Fourth and Maple streets. And, in those early days, there was plenty of room for The Stars mechanical department, editorial and business offices, in that 16x24 room.
 Sometime later the whole structure and contents was moved bodily to 602 Mena street Here signs of crowd ing developed, and the attic was made over into a composing room, with an elevator" attachment to get the forms down to the newspaper press and back, (0f course you re- member Gilbert McMillan. chief ''en- gineer" of the "elevator" department).
 A few years later the walls began to squeeze again. and the old outfit was showed over onto a borrowed" lot while brick structure 20x70 feet was builded. This was deemed ample for the time and long time ahead. but along about 1910 it was found necessary to double-deck part of the building and an addition was added at the rear a few years later.
 By 1918 there was hardly breath ing space" in the old shop. It was all most intolerabIe because of crowding, and in March the present home, with a floor space of 36xS0 feet, and out side storeroom, was occupied, and the answer to a frequently y-asked ques- tion What are you going to do with all that room is so obvious nowa- days that there is an incentive to of fer prize for suggestions as to economizing in space to make room for incoming stock and machinery
 h those early days. aside from the proprietors, one man and boy made up an ample force" The payroll was under $100 month Now The Star employs around fifteen persons with a payroll of more than ten times that of the early days
 In the beginning The Star had lit- tie 2-page newspaper press and one job press. and a handful" of type and other equipment, It now has a big Babcoek newspaper press with folder, two linotypes, three jobbers, and latest thing-a Miller Automatic press feeder an equipment that not only does twice as much work, but does 1t with more accuracy than is possible to the human hand
 The motto of the first editor and founder of fhe Star could we'll be epitomized in one word Service. ? In it's meaning it stood for service to the community and the people thereof and if The Star. thru tn, years has in truth rendered sucl service, its existence and its growtl may be inscribed to just this Possi bly because it gave more it receive, more. and this may explain the signi ficance of the second item of news re ferred to above.
 The Star IS beginning the New Yea better equipped than ever before t serve the people of Mena and Poll county There gre more people | serve than before, and the people ex pect and demand more. and The Sta has vision of days that are brighte and better than we have seen befor
 and events of this time point to al early realization of the best aspira tions of the community.
 It means much. let it be said in clos ing to be located in one of the yer, best spots in great state and na ton, and to be part in the develop ment of it's resources. opportunitie and general molding of the wilds int q community of homes and prospe
 ous. wholesome. happy men, wom.
 and children.
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 Mena has suffered all kinds of ii
 tress avcause, year after year, ju
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