White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-06-03

THAT / was TO do all the editorial Work
land the nominal editor was to rustic
the ads and take the credit or dis
credit for my part in II. | was to be
"a mere automatom--a machine con-
lstructed to order.
First day out, as the young lady's
ocean diary would say, l was told to
write a nice salutatory and hand ev-
erybody a bouquet. but l was direct
ed at the same time to--Mait until
the second day, in the meantime to
read up on this Lincoln highway
skullduggery and to hit Salt Lake
between the eyes. Those were the
exact words of my employer--"Hit
'em between the eyes He said thai
to me twenty times If he said il once.
For the second issue | wrote an
editorial headed salt Lakes Black
leg Play"
oh, / don want to go that
strong" protested my employer Il
don't want tn call EN- blaeklegs."
"All right; change it," I told him.
Its your paper and your editorials.
Well make 1t as mild as you say"
Well, he scratched around for half
an hour trying to think of some word
as a substitute for blackleg, but could
think of nothing. He changed II tenn
porarily to double cross or something
on that order, but that did not suit
him. He said he liked the whole
editorial fine except that word black
leg which appeared in the heading
and the opening paragraph. Finally
| told him the Klondike story / I'm
going to tell You here and invited
him to look up the definition of
blaekleg in the dictionary He said
the Klondike story was an exact fiji
and the word was justified and found
that Webster said a blaekleg was a
dishonest gambler.
"Oh, let 'er co. he finally in
structed.
The next day when the editoria'
appeared and for a part of The third
day the office was thronged with Ely
people congratulating the editor
How they did shake his hand over
that straight from the shoulder edi
torial as some of them called it.
That word blackleg made I hit and
he was congratulated not only for
thinking of it but having the fear
lessness to use IL.
Meanwhile I sat off in the corner
and hammered my rickety old I'm
derwood. My employer acted his
role u.aI1 uo aoooptai tho plauIita
like an Adeline Patti and never tip
ped his mitt or mine.
Well. here is the Klondike story.
I was running a newspaper called the
Dawson Record. | was editor and
ostensible owner. The real wne
was John Il. Grey, but only two per-
sons knew it. Never was a secret
better kept. The business manager
and I agreed to always speak of Mr..
lGrey as Jim. In that way if n of
the other help noticed ii the i'm
preston would be given out hat Jim
McNamee was the owner, and of
course he could honestly deny IL. SO
that was all right.
We were making the fight of our
lives for the morning field against
the Yukon Sun. managed Icy w. +.
Thompson. The Sun was the gov
ernment or administration organ. Its
real owner was Richard Roediger.
owner Of the Dawson News. the eve
ming paper and opposition organ. So
Roediger owned what here would be
both the republican and democratic
papers of the territorial capital.
fighting the government yet getting
an enormous government printing
graft.
The time came for the Record and
Sun to consolidate. Grey had to re-
veal himself. He signed a contract
agreeing to suspend publication the
next day after announcing the CON
solidation under the name of the W.
kon Sun, Limited. One of the arti-
cles, which he insisted upon putting
into the contract. was that each "a
per should 90 into the new company
free of debt. The next morning both
papers announced the deal and the
Record suspended according TO agree.
hA'hAF ivy Iaib ph o'tt Rfs'Ff VI
Record Indebtedness instantly.
That day Thompson and Roediger
mildly apprised Grey that the Sun
owed tho News $12,5O0 for printing
its paper for several months and
Roediger set his massive foot aud
more massive hand down and said
1t would have to be paid or he would
close u both plants. The Record
had been caught in the trap 1t hal
suspended publication, which vas all
that Thompson and Roediger were
maneuvering for.
That's a blackleg play ehCuted
4rey-and my Dawson employer
never would say damn.
No consolidation followed. as that
was not the object of Thompson and
Roediger. The Record was merely
u.x o..t 80 hucfnacc hu Gro.r atuo..-.