The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1922-11-22

by tnOSe WHO i've Gust VI tHe
Ateghanies, and referred to lovingly
sls back East by those who dwell
west of the Rockies. 1t is a country
town where. as the song goes, you
.lDow everybody and they all know
y'oU" and the country newspaper office
IS the social clearing house.
In our little newspaper office we are
Sal reporters. and we know many inti-
roate things about people that we do
not print.
As the merest incident of the daily
grind, IL came to the Office that the
bank cashier, whose retirement was
announced with half n column of re-
grcJ, was caught $500 short. after
70 years of faithful service, and that
ais wife sold the homestead to make
his shortage good.
Though our lOathed but esteemed
contemporary. the Statesman. spcal.3
If our town us this city" and calls
The marshal "chicf Of police" we arc
meme the less Il country town. Like
hundreds of its kind, our little daily
lug machines and is printed from II
web perfecting press, yet ii is only II
country newspaper, and knowing this,
we refuse to put Oh city airs. Oh
course, we print the afternoon ASSOc.
alcd Press report on the first page.
under formal heads and with some
DretCnsc of dignity, but that first page
is the parlOr of the paper, as it is of
most of its contemporaries, and in the
other wages they and we 20 around IL
our shirt sleeves. calling people by
rheir first Names teasing the boys and
girls good-naturedly; tickling the
pOmpOus members of the village with
straws from time to time, and letting
out the family secrets OF the commu-
nifty without much regard for the feel
ings of the superciliOus.
Nine or ten thousand people in our
town go to bed on this kind ga ment.l
pabulum, as do country town dwellers
all over the United States and al.
though we do not claim that it is help
ful we do contend that it does not
hurt them. Certainly by pOking mild
fun at the shams-the town phariseeS
we make it more difficult to main
tain the class lines which the pre-
tenders would establish. Possibly by
printing the news of everything that
happens, suppresslng nothing con ac-
count of the responsibility Of the par
cicS concerned" we may prevent some
eNil-docrs from going on with their
plans, but this is mere conjecture, and
we do not set it down to our credit.
What we maintain Is that in printing
our little country dailies, we. the
ScribeS. from one end of the world to
thc other, get more than our share of
fun out of life as we 20 along, and
pass as much of il on TO our neighbors
80 we can spare.
Because we live in country towns,
where the only car gnugs we hear are
on the bakers wagon, and where the
horses in the fire department work on
the streets, is no reason why city
iwcllers should assume that we are
natives. We have no dialect worth
recOrdinG-save that some of us west
erners burr our "r's" a little or drop
an occasional final "g." But you will
ind that all the things advertised in
the backs of the magazines are in our
houses, and that the young men in our
towns walking home at midnight. with
their coats over their arms, whistle
the same popular airs that lOvelorn
boys are whistling in New York, Port
land, San Francisco or New Orleans
that same evening. Our girls are those
pretty, reliant, well-dressed young
women whom you see al the summer
resorts from Coronado beach to Buzz
yard's bay. In the fall and winter
these girls fill the colleges of the East
aud the state universities of the West.
We take all the beautiful garden
magazines, and our terra-cOtta works
are turning out credltable vases
which we pronounce "vahzes." you may
be sure-fOr formal gardens. And
though we men for the most part run
our own ldwnmOwers, and personally
look after the work of the college boy
who fakes care of the horse and the |
'bN ibI us SUN lHfTt uTt II lew |
Of MS proud and naughty creatures
who have automobiles. At the flower
parade In our own little town last |
October there We're ten automobiles |
in line, decked with paper flowers and |
laden with pretty girls in lawns and |
dimitles and llnens-thOugh as a mat |
ter OF fact most of the linens were |
only "Indian head" And our partic-
uiar little country paper printed an
item to the effect that the real social
line OF cleavage in the town lies not
between the cutglass set and the dcv.
Otees Of hand-palnted china, but be.
tween the real nobility who wear gen
ilne linen and the base limitations who
wear Indian head.
In some towns an item like that
would make people mad, but we have
our people trained TO stand a good
deal. They know that II costs them
a.