Year: 1874

THE editor of the Odell Weeklg thus
pungently explains the situation:


Other towns of the size of Odell sup
port their paper, and the printer, to-
gether with the lawyer, doctor, merchant
and mechanic, can live. In the city of
Pontiac, about twice the size of Odell,
the editors of both the papers there wear
paper collars without turning them yet
this is luxury beyond what we aspire
to, and as the publisher Of a paper in
Odell we do not expect it,


Our readers need not be surprised if at
any moment they should see flag of
truce hanging out of our office window,
but in case they do they don't want to
mistake it for a flag of distress; we are
not distressed particle We are just as
independent as a three-year-old boiled
Shanghae rooster. The boarders can eat


em or let i'm alone. It's all the same to
us, because if we can't edit paper in
Odell and make living at it we can lay
off and saw wood and laugh at the next
man who tries it; and we would do it if
it extended our mouth another four
inches. One man wants a long-winded
article on politics in favor of
Grant dished up in the paper, and
the next one wants the Democratic
party resurrected; and then we
are asked to support the Order of the
Grange, to the overthrow of towns and
empires. We are asked to say that one
man is selling goods twice as cheap as
his neighbor, then we have to go through
a back alley for week in order to avoid
the other man, who was in reality giving
his goods away-that is, such as empty
soap barrels and herring-bo2es. We hear
man making a speech and want to
pitch into him, but don't do it.; he'd
leave us a wreck One man wants us to
blow up the city fathers, and another
wants us to work out his pOll-taX, or loan
him three dollars, and if we want a bar
of soap it costs us ten cents. Amt there
some spot where mOrtals weep no more?
where everybody advertises? If there is
we'll dig out. We are in very near the
same fix Methodist minister was in
Kansas. One morning he knelt in the
pulpit and prayed: 90 Lord, keep Inc
poor and humble" One of the deacons
in the church, who felt that Providence
was overtaxed, replied: 80 Lord, do
Thou keep him humble and we'll keep
him poor"


We have carried blackberries four
miles and sold them; we have walked
four miles to see circus; taught coun-
try school in York State one-half day;
served three weeks apprenticeship at
mixing mortar; carried pair of scissors
suspended with tape; made something
less than wagon-load of Western Anti
Bilious Pills during term at drug clerk
ing-sold patent ights-herded sheep
wore out several hand-saws-ru a sta
tionary steam engine-superintended a
Sunday school and chopped cordwood,
and even lay awake all night with
squalling baby, but the present dilemma
a paper in Odell-is the
tightest fix we ever got into. Sometimes
we think We'll grin and bear it; then we
commence grinning, and the doctors ask
us if we are bilious; that shows the ex-
tent of their medical education. Then if
we get excited people say we are nervous,
etc, etc, etc. But we are inclined to
take different view of this matter, and
when we close this enterprise we'll an
nounce it with as much calmness as we
would the approach of town meeting,
and with as few regrets.