FAR-WESTERN NEWSPAPERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 1006, 19 December 1868, Page 3

FAR-WESTERN NEWSPAPERS.

(From "All the Year Round.") There is not a 1 town anywhere in the- West of sufficient" importance to be "reckoned a right smart chance of a city" without a local weekly, bi-weekly, or even daily newspaper. As it is impossible for the whole community to be of one mind ' in matters political, we generally find one devoted to the interests of the democratic party, and a second to the well cherished opinions of the republicans—these two parties r : ' riding social affairs and public and priv. . " . life in " the Far. West." J" ; . what do I mean by the Far West : at;- .'.-en used, but with, a most indefini' , . 'i-ation? About New York, tlie term i.i applied to the region of which Chicago is the centre. If you go to Chicago you will find that the railway companies arc advertising the "Far .West" as Omaha. At Omaha, on the Missouri, Utah seems to be that bourne : while, again, at the city of the saints it is Oregon, or California,: — somewhere about the Pacific at all events. " "Whether the people of, the Pacific coast have any place where they "locate" the " Far West "" it ' is hard to say ; probably China and Japan would be about the nearest whereabout of that goo-graphically-relative locality. The scene of the following sketches will lie, broadly speaking, in ' the region on either side of the Rocky Mountains; somewhere in the wilds of those new states and territories which are now and again springing up out of the wilderness ; which are peopled by an ever moving and adventurous people, not by any means barbarous, yet far from refined — in fact, of that peculiar type known well enough in those parts of the world as the " western man." ' It is with the ruder type of newspaper, produced in such out-of-the-way places as lie within the shadow of the Eocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevadas of California, or the Cascade Mountains of Oregon or Idaho, with their characteristics, and with their humour, that I propose to deal. The flourishing state of ephemeral literature on the shores of the Pacific (associated as it will ever be in our minds with bowie knives and nuggets), cannot be better expressed than by stating, that in the city of San Francisco alone, numbering one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and nineteen years ago consisting of only a few cotton tents on some sand-hills, there are published no fewer than forty-five periodicals, comprising ten dailies, eight monthlies, one semi-weekly, one tri-weekly, and two annuals. Of these, three are published in the German language, three in Spanish, and two in French. The gold of California has attracted men clever in every department of brain and handicraft, and, accordingly, wo find these periodicals edited with good ability and even refinement. It is only when, wo get up in the interior that wo find the western editor in all his crudity. Suppose that it should ever fall to the lot of a wise man of the East to ride some summer day into one of these quiet little western towns, situated on a prairie or by some river with a not euphonious name, where it is difficult to say when the town commences and the country ends, or which is which, and where the inhabitants, in their dolce far niente languor, seem to wish, like the lotus eaters, as they tilt their rocking chairs on the shady side of the street, in front of the "grocery" door, that " it was always afternoon." Before he has well taken off his jingling Mexican spurs, or imbibed a preliminary "drink" with the landlord of the " Ho-tcl," he will be accosted by a shabbygenteel individual, whom, by the shrewdly telling questions he puts, the traveller will have no difficulty in recognising as the local editor. If he has not done so already himself Colonel Homer S. Smith, mine host, will soon take upon himself a western landlord's privilege, of introducing you to "Dr.," "Captain," "Judge," or "Mister Ossian E. Dodge, editor of the Swampville Flag of Liberty (and one of our most distinguished citizens, sir)." If he be not of the same way of thinking in political matters, it is immaterial, for this civility will only be delayed a few minutes until the opposition editor, from across the way, makes his appearance in his shirt sleeves to take his meridian "'cocktail," and to squeeze out of the new arrival all the public news he may possess for the public good (in a professional way), or, true to 'his country, matters of private history for his own private satisfaction. As you got bettor acquainted with your friend you will find that he is far from being such a truculent fellow as his loaders and "personal items" might lead you to suppose. He will hospitably ask you to "come up to my office, Cap.; write your letters there, sir ;" and when you look into his office, which is generally press room, composing room, and study, with little furniture beyond a, saliva-rusted stove, a spittoon, and a huge rocking chair of cheap construction, you will find that it seems to be a general loafing place- for the more idle of the citizens of the political opinions which tho "Flag" professes. There they are, all smoking, chewing tobacco, eatingapples, or ruminating with chair tilted back, or sitting on tho step in front of the office door, only occasionally moving over to tho neighbouring bar room to "put in a blast," or " to hist in a drop o' pisin." Tho editor will now and then, if not better employed, rush out to ask a passing acquaintance "if he has not such a thing as an item about him," or will bolt round the corner of the street to pump a rusty gold minor who has just now wearily trudged into town for tho week's supply of pork and beans. Shortly afterwards, you will see tho two adjourning to '•' take a drink;" or, if news from tho diggings at "Mad Mule Canon," or "Shirt Tail Bar,"* is of a particularly spicy character, the miner /will adjourn to the office. There his news will bo "set up" in duo course, and ho will be invited to " take a char," doubtless not only in hospitality, but with eye to tho policy of keeping him out of the way of tho "opposition," already on the gui vive, for in these dull, die-away mining or rural villages in some mountain valley of tho Far West, a man with news is an important personage, and comports himself (most properly) as ono from cities. The telegraph and tho mail may bring matters of general interest to all alike, but the local items of a "difficulty"' down at Greaser's Camp or a gold "strike" in Black Jack's Claim at Yuba Dam* are matters which must be picked np by that most industrious individual, the "local" editor, or as ho is called in other places, "reporter." If the paper is going to press, and there is a dearth of ''items" under tho column " local,"' there is nothing for it but to extemporise some, or resort to that unfailing remedy of a newsless editor, write letters on local grievances to himself, and answer them in the next issue. In many years' wanderings about the less settled portions of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, I have had much intercourse — pleasant, on the whole — with the western editor. Scattered through my note-books are various memoranda illustrative of these rough "spurtings" of literary effort in a roughly organised state of society. The editor works to ploase the public, and from the paper can generally bo drawn a tolerably fair picture of the community for which it is produced, tinctured, of cotirso, with more or less of tho individual peculiarities of tho presiding spirit. I must, in honesty, explain that no one need expect in a few glances over a single file of

wes(tem'ri6ws^aisei^^:fintfsp'ift^Ay'str6hgl^ marked characteristics as occur, witbm. ■ narrow limits,; in a, gathering like taiifft^ for that contains picked specimens ' culled* at wide intervals. On the other.. hand, '.. l can assert that as they were not: gathered with any special object in view-, they- are fairly representative, and in no case is .there; the slightest exaggeration, ' "„{ The editor himself has generally been' brought up as a printer, and not unfre-* quently in case of "accident will" set lip" and " work off" his own leader. Not. \ih-. frequently '''he. puts in his. time at case;", and if he be of a speculative t\mi of mind, drives the .stage coach, or. "runs" this hotel; but oftener, he is' a local Attorneysfilling up his spare time with politics, andt possibly sits in the territorial legislature.. There is not, I believe, a politician of any eminence in this wise,- who' at. .one time 6i other has not been a printer or a lawyer : the former generally graduating into. the latter, as the world deals more luridly witli him or ambition pricks, him on. „ He very seldom sticks to. the editorial. desk, but gravitates with western. versatility into some other more lucrative line of business. If he be sufficiently talkative,' he .takes /to politics, and "runs" for the local- legislature or the district judgeship ■; or, if musdularjjr inclined, you wiir find him working in 'a mining claim, or .engaged in fulfilling a contract to ". blaze "a trail. ..-....,.' '.' ','... The first thing which attracts attention in the little, dirty-looking, ill-printed sheet,, is its astounding personality ; tKai person.* ality being, generally not -so much directed against the other party, or even against the rival paper as representing the other, partjv as against the editor of it in his private capacity. Every western editor's name ik prominently printed at the head of hia paper, and instead of talking as he of -.thpV Eatanswill Gazette, might, of out «.' contemptible contemporary The Journal," the Western paper talks of "that low-lived hound, Cephas E. Slocum, who edits the miserable two-bit* thing over the way." The editor of a San Jose paper quarrels with another editor. Listen to his description of his friend's character: "He is" a professional loafer, and may generally, be seen round drinking saloons, not only at election times, but for years after. He makes a game of politics, and plays as he would a game of short cards or cut throat monte to win. He wears. his hair short— a style known as the " fighting cut" — that 'he* may be always ready for a scrimmage, . and - that his adversary may take no undue ad*vantage. The preponderance of his brains is located between his ears. His countenance is concave, and one or both of his eyes are usually in " mourning" from the effects of his last fight. He is "powerful" in "primaries,", where lie votes early arid often for .his -favourite candidates, succeeds and calls the nomination regular. . In the matter of piety, long prayers, &c, that is entirely out of his line. Cursing is more especially his forte. He can tell the difference between a whisky straight -and. a gin cocktail with his eyes shut, and can snuff a treat two blocks off. He spends his money with -, and makes it a point of honour never to pay an honest debt. He accepts office' for the sake of the stealings, and is loyal because it pays best !" . There is no joke here; the man is peiv fectly in earnest, as none who knew the pair of worthies would for a moment doubt. Nothing can more thoroughly express this - personality, as well as the absolute dearth of local news in a mountain newspaper in Nevada, than the following from the "Virginia Enterprize ; "we observe that Brier, localf of the News, has on a new coat. • If we remember right, there was a dry. goods store burnt out a short time ago, and that a number of tlie coats which were put on the street for safe keeping, after having been saved from fire, were missing. Of course we don't intend to cast any reflecr tion, or to say that Brier nipped any or* them. ,Ohno !" Another indignantly states that.it "would take the auger qf common sense longer to pierce into a ceiytain editor's brain than it would take for a boiled carrot to bore through the Alps."-' After this elegant burst of eloquence, we may be prepared to learn that William T. Dowdall, an Illinois editor, having ''read I .' Brick Pomeroy out of the democratic party;; the latter replies by calling Dowdall a^i " idiotic swill-headed chunk ;" whereupon. Dowdall calls Brick a " Pandemodiac pastepot cut-throat." The editor of the Oakland News offers a handsome apology to the ed£ tor of his San Learidro contemporary for a typographical error in calling him a "«wmkoy ;" he meant a " cfonkey !" Sometimes these personal pen-battles are a little more truculent. There is a well-known editor "out west," of the name of Prentice. Prentice is never known to be put out ; and accordingly Mr, Smith (we shall call him), of the Cleavland Plain Dealer, made a fatal mistake when he penned iJie-fGllQwing^: " Prentice is a liar, and we shall tellliim so when we meet him I" Prentice thus replies in his next paper : "Ah ! Will you, Mr. .Smith ? About that time there'w.ill l}e - a funeral, and the Smith family wittijetlia principal mourners !" * > The following is more in the highly jocose way, and coming from a village in the vicinity of San Francisco, is characteristic enough. " Wanted a calaboose.* M'QuUlan, of tho Parajo Times, is earnestly petitioning the board of supervisors for a calaboose, which institution, he argues, is sadly wanted in tho town of Watsonville. . We once spent a week in Watsonville, and we have no hesitation in saying that McQuillan's head is quite level on the calaboose question. A calaboose is sadly needed in that locality." So says the Dramatic Chronicle ; to which the editor pointedly referred to. i\s "M'Quillan," replies in parenthesis at tlie end of a reprint: ("Yes,". 'we remember your visit here, which suggested to us tlie necessity of a calaboose.") My friend, tnff Hon. W. P. 11., is well known in NorthWept America as the active superintendent of Indian affairs in Oregon, and was at one time editor, and is still proprietor, of 'the Oregon Statesman.. On one of his tours, he captured the wives of the great' war chi§f, Pahnine, of the Shoshones, who had for eight years waged continual war against the whites, accompanied with most merciless outrages. Those women were held as hostages, and the result was that in the ensuing summer the chief sued for peace, and MV. H., with the officers of the Indian department, and a party of friends, of which the writer of these pages formed one, journeyed along the region of the Snake River to deliver them up in state. Our astonishment was great, to find our doings subsequently recorded in the opposition paper as follows: "Bill H., editor of the Statesman, went up Snake River, last week, with three squaws," tho notion evidently being to lead those at a distance who did not know the official character of the journey to suppose". that "B\M IT." was a person of very immoral life, who consorted in trigamic concubinage with aboriginal ladies, and that the Statesman must bo a vile. paper to have such. 'an editor. . . ' '• ' '} Some years ago I passed an evening' at tho Dalles of Columbia River ; a locality well known to all readers of- early adventure beyond the Rocky, Mountains. , 'it, is now a little village ("city," of course, tfiey call it) on. tlie highway to the mines 1 of Idaho. It was crowded on this particular

•;. Among the motley ite^^^^refyarious newspaper men bound i6°^|^s|j^pLes, either to canvass for their pape^p||£rresp6nd, or to look around. Among Others, I^was introduced to an exceedingly pleasant gentleman called Mr. Samuel Bowers, editor of a Portland paper. He was an excellent fellow, affable and pleasant, 1 and, after the manners and eiitrtioms of the country, we had many " drinks " together. I believe we engaged to' correspond. What was my delight when ""the Dalles Moxmtmne&r, the weekly paper, cam%, out next morning, to find the following arient my. friend of the evening before, who was now on his way up the Columbia' Rjver .'. "Miners, look out!, Among other rogues, thieves, cut-throats, rowdies, and blackguards generally, whom we noticed in the city last night was Sam j £<j>Wesrs^ who lias figured in the role of ne^paper; editor, school-fund thief, etcetera, that he is on his way to the mines; in which case the honest miners had letter look sharp else Sam will "bilk them — Sraoii ,1 expressed a little surprise to the Mend ,'yho had introduced me. "Oh," Was "the ; reply, "that's nothing. Sam, perhaps, ain't much on the pray, but still he's: hot such a bad coon ; but he differs in politics with, the folks in this quarter. Watch the Umatilla and other up-river papers, and see what they say." I did \jratch them, with this result, that the paper in the next village on the river, 3W|ve. the Dalles (after a fashion very common in the western newspapers — I suppose for the sake of filling up) copied out the item, with the commentary: "Sam patssed : through here the other day — nothing ■ missing!" To which the next weekly " adds, ' ' Sam passed through here on Thursday, but 1 as fdr as we can learn without injury to the portable 1 property of any of 'bur, citizens. There was talk about a Child's rattle arid a red-hot stove, but we believe the rumour was without foundation." So, another editor apologises to smother for calling him a miserable thing — he meant a nothing ; and the editor of the Sglano Press calls his brother of the Herald *' an absurd ass, a contemptible cur, a dirty dog, 5 and a liar." Equally parliamentary is/the language of the Oregon Statesman in reference to a contemporary: "We republish to-day a vile, degraded, infamous, aiid execrably atrocious lie from the columns of the Daily Oregonian* Next week, when tJme'and apace will permit, we shall reply ttfitf. ! 'lT6r the present, suffice it for the low, vulgar, foul-mouthed, and unrefined Hound to know that our eye is upon him, and 1 he cannot escape us." The Solano iPress is apparently of a "fierce nostril" and anxious for a fight. Woe betide the unfortunate wight who differs with it in opinion-^— even though the opinion be not political, but on the serious business of the best route to a certain mining locality. I remember a newspaper correspondent (as harmless a man as need be, I well know) who ventured to hint that there was a better route to the Idaho mines than by passing up the Columbia. His advice, if followed,, would be to the detriment of the. Columbia Eiver towns. With what unanimity was he abused ! No attempt was made, at argument : it was the old endorsement of! the brief, "No defence; abuse plaintiff s attorney." The Oregonian suggested that "Some charitable packer* had given him the privilege of riding the 'Bell mare,' and had generously offered him a blanket to cover his miserable carcase." The Jast I heard of this unfortunate young .man" was the suggestion of the Umatilla Tri-weekly Advertiser : " That the flunkey must have 'lingered along the road scouring knives and washing dishes. That he never paid' for a meal is evident from his statement of the prices charged," &c, &c. Here below is a piece of fine writing from , an editorial in a Californian mining paper: /'Let vagabonds howl and traitors hiss ; let the breeders of bloodhounds to track and tear Union refugees bay like their own dogs, let the smitten maniacs who cursed ; Johnston till he turned traitor, alao vomit new blasphemies against the holy name of liberty ; let foul lust, and lazy pride, and /insolent and testy spleen, and self-conscious envy and gleaming hate, and blear-eyed prejudice, and besotted ignorance, and porcine stir every cesspool with their assinine vociferations till every clubroom of Democracy reeks like an omnium Of stenches I" - "'■' I regret te say that many, of these gems of far-western periodical literature are occasionally not only scurrilous ou the individual attacked> but verge on the sacred precitictsofthe family circle: holding up to public scorn the foibles and weakness of the female members of the family of the individual attacked, and even occasionally being up openly coarse and indecent as to preclude thejr- being noticed in this place. JPrpbablyj no one likes, when "running" ' for the honourable office of congressman or 'supreme state judge, to have it shown in a Newspaper how, in an early portion of his career, he murdered his grandmother, and ignpminiously buried her in the back kitcKen. Mr. "Arfcemus Ward," himself a quondam "newspaper man," has exactly Struck this nail on the head when he represents in the " controversy about a plank road/ this attack upon the editor of the ' 3Eagle of Freedom. The passage is worth quoting as an epitome of a system : : r * The road may be, as our contemporary , says, a humbug ; but our aunt isn't baldheaded, and we hav'nt got a one-eyed sister Sal ! Wonder if the editor of the Eagle of Freedom sees it. This used up thelSagle of Freedom feller, because his aunt 3 head does present a skinned appearance, and his sister Sarah is very much one-eyed. .... We have recently put up in our office an entirely, new sink, of unique construction, with two holes, through which the soiled water may pass to the new bucket underneath. What will the Hell hounds of the Advertiser say to this ? We shall continue to make improvements as fast as our rapidly increasing business may warrant. Wonder whether a certain editor's wife thinks she can yarm off a brass watch-chain. on the community for a gold one." A paper in Vancouver Island used to style its evening contemporary " the night «arf." - Though a vast portion of a western newspaper might, without a very great stretch of adverse criticism, be styled personal, yet, by;emphasis, in the "local item" column, you iCan.see every now and then paragraphs .entitled- "Personal." These paragraphs refer .to the business of private individuals in contradistinction to others relating to the public weal. What they are, may be judged by : ;the following "personal" welcoming home of a prominent citizen :— . '? Mr, Joe Tritch arrived home last night _ With the .stage. He has on a new suit of , Sitote .clothes, including a fine plug hat. lie, looks the dogondest cuss ever since ;,;jirn,Pord left; but nevertheless, we are " glad to see. him, and hope he will settle down, and behave himself." ,',^ 'The following is peculiarly national in ,' ;its, curiosity :~ _f.T. /'Nathan E.Wallace and Charlie Henry '..., went fup.to Fort Lahgely last night—busi;nesß.tw»fcnou3Ji.'' ; 4 .^j&irnight be txpected, such personalities djc^ionally lead to hostile encounters be- ;. J'twefiiC rival editors and . their readers. . jyfcfosfc -frequently these consist only in a on either side, and I fancy very i;Ji;few^e^fh editors have missed having a %(d^ciu]ty of that sort at one time or another &?ofi their hands..;-; 1 possess a scrap-book

kept by Mr. B. Grffin, of Victoria, in the early years of California, and such items as the following are not unfrequent : — " Collision between H. A. De Courcey, Esq., editor of the Calaveras Chronicle, and Mr. W. H. Carter;" "Affair of honor between W. H Jones and Salucius T. Slingsby;" " Editorial Difficulty down at Santa Clara — Man Shot," &c. John King, of William, editor of the San Francisco Herald, was shot by a rowdy, whom he had attacked in his paper. Hia death may be said to have been the origin of the Vigilance Committee, which, with a lawless justice, created comparative peace and order where anarchy and villany had feigned. I heard a stoiy about a new editor who had come to a place which was infested with a gang of ruffians. Before his face was generally known, he attacked those men most violently in his paper. One day, as he was sitting in his office after having published a particularly severe article, a, stalwart individual, brandishing a whip in his hand, rushed in and inquired for the editor. Suspecting evil, he asked the visitor to be seated, and he would call the editor, who had just stepped out for a minute. On his way down-stairs he met a second individual carrying a bludgeon, and likewise inquiring vigorously for the editor. "Oh, sir, he is sitting in his office up-stairs. You'll find him there." When he next peeped into the office, the two were belabouring' each other thoroughly, rolling over and over, and each fancying that he had the editor in hand. I tell the story for what it is worth ; and do not pretend to guarantee its exact truth. Doolittle, a Southern editor, held his poSfcfor six months, and in ,thafc time was stabbed twice, shot three times, belaboured with a bludgeon once, thrown into a pond once, but was never kicked. During his six months' experience he killed two of his adversaries. All these are absolute facts. When Isaac Disraeli wrote the Quarrels and Calamities of Authors, he must assuredly have known nothing of western newspaper life, otherwise a chapter ought to have been added to both books. As a set-off, the "local" of the Memphis Bulletin jestingly sums up his year's experience as follows : Times. Been asked to drink 11,313 Drank 11,392 Requested to retract 116 Didn't retract 416 Invited to parties, receptions, presentations, &c, by peopie fishing for puffs 3,333 Took the hint 33 Didn't take the hint 3,900 Threatened to be whipped 174 Been whipped ... 0 Didn't come to time 170 Been promised bottles of champagne, whisky, brandy, gin, bitters, &c., if I would go after them 3,650 Been after them 0 Going again 0 Been asked, " What's the news ?"' ... 800,000 Told 13 Didn't know 200,000 Lied about it 90,987 Been to church 2 Changed politics 32 Expected to change still 33 Gave for charity $5 00 Gave for a terrier dog 23 00 Cash on hand ... 00 00 . Everybody advertises in the West, professional men as well as tradesmen, and it is mainly owing to this extensive advertising business that so many of the local newspapers subsist. It is always expected that the editor should call attention in the body of the paper to the advertisement when first inserted, and accordingly you continually see such notices as the following: "We call our readers' attention to the auction of boots and shoes by our fellow citizen, Washington Hubbs, which appeal's in our advertising columns this day. Wash is pretty tonguey, and generally persuades folks to buy." Or, "Our readers will observe that Messrs Caleb Johnston and Co. have opened a restaurant on the corner of Jackson* and Fremont-street, where the tallest sort of feeding may be had at all hours at the lowest possible cost to the spondoolics. f We advise our friends to give Caleb a call." Advertisements of hotels, with an initial letter of a Noah's ark like house, or of horse dealers, figure extensively. What would the London Times say to the following, which I cut from the Idaho Statesman. J The advertiser is apparently aggrieved on the head of some rivals running an unfair competition with him : " Opposition is the life of business ! "Work for nothing and find yourself, Mr. E., and I am with you, you d d old rascal. " Here we go I Horses kept to hay per night $1 00 Saddle horses per day l 00 Two horses for buggy per day 2 so Oats per pound 5 Call any time, day or night I" "A new era I Wool mattresses in Grande Eonde Valley, Oregon. Prices reduced. The cheapest house in the 'burg.' All the creature comforts to be had at " our house' as they can be had anywhere on the sunny side of the Blue Mountains. "Are you hungry ? Come to our house. " Are you thirsty ? Take a drink. "Are you weary ? Try one of my mattresses. 1 ' Are you sad ? I will condole with you. " Are you glad ? I will rejoice with you. " If you are mad I will go out and— spar with you* " Come and see me 1" Eoadside hotel-keepers are every now and then calling the miners' attention to their "square meals :" by which is meant full meals, in contradistinction to the imperfect dinner a man has to put up with on the mountains. Men who wish to buy timber are referred to this solemn announcement of the fact of some timber being for sale : "Grand benefit of Salem, Marion County, Oregon. From and after this date we propose to sell lumber laths and slabs as cheap as any other high-toned mill in the country. Times are changed, and we have changed the credit of one year, and return to ready pay, without which no Webfootg need apply. Book-keeping is most effectually played out. You that owe come to our office, there's the place, and settle now. We cannot afford to wait, and when we commence to dun, we never get done. Be wise to-day, 'tis folly to delay !" Queer people follow all sorts of queer businesses out west. A classical scholar was keeping a hotel in Victoria, Vancouver Island, as might be inferred from his advertisements, which used to be interlarded with Greek and Latin quotations from .ZEschylus, Plato, Horace, Oppian, and Ovid. Sometimes the newspapers contain an ominous warning from the " city marshal" to certain suspicious characters " to get up and dust," or an announcement of some indignant individual who has been paid in greenbacks instead of gold, as is customary all over the Pacific still, notwithstanding the depreciated currency, with " Spot him ! spot him 1 spot him 1" The following melancholy advertisement is culled from an Oregon paper : "Will the gentleman who stole my melons on last sabbath night, be generous enough to return me a few of the seeds, as they were a very rare variety." Marriages are expected to be, or at least are, accompanied with some guerdon to the printers. At the end of these announcements you generally see something like the following, " Our staff return thanks for their present, and drank the happy couple's health in flowing bumpers of champagne." The present consists almost

always of a few bottles of champagne, as no charge is made for such announcements in the local papers. Typographical errors are always troublesome, and a Western paper is usually distinguished for their number and variety. Occasionally these errors become matter of considerable difficulty to the editor, and add one more responsibility to many others. For instance, a friend of mine got into a little trouble that way. In a weak moment he agreed to conduct the weekly paper in a mining village, for the editor, who was called off on other business. All went well until a leading man among the miners brought in an obituary of his deceased wife, who was about the only white woman in the village. Now, as items are scarce, it was sent straight to the printer. On revising the proof my friend found that it read, " she was distinguished for her virtue and benevolence." He concluded that the husband must have meant virtues. A proof was accordingly despatched to the husband, with a request to correct it and send it to the printer. My friend went to bed. Early next morning he was roused by an acquaintance with a paper in his hand, informing him that Jim So-and-So (the author of the obituary aforesaid) "was hunting him (i.e., the editor) all over town." Now, as "hunting" a man means, in the "West, going through all the drinking shops with a huge revolver, shouting "Where is he %" my friend had just reason for alarm, and inquired what in the world he was being " hunted" for ? " Oh ?" was the reply, " fun is all right, but you know that item about old Mother was a little too .much. She mightn't be just the .correct thing, bxit Jim thought a sight of her I" It was some time before the temporary editor could understand what was meant, until the paper was shown him with the obituary intimating that "Mrs was distinguished for her virtue (?) and her benevolence." The husband knew nothing about a proof, and the printer had treated the query as an editor's correction. After considerable difficulty the indignant husband was consoled, and peace was made over " drinks" in the nearest " saloon." Errors of context are not unfrequent. Thus the San Diego paper announces that the schooner General Harney had just arrived in the harbour, with "no passengers but Nathan Brown, who owns half the cargo and the captain's wife," or that there was lost "a valuable new silk umbrella belonging to a gentleman with a curiously carved head." Sometimes the " make-up" of the paper is a little out of joint. Thus, it was rather a mistake, savouring of grim humour, to put the arrangements for a police commissioner's funeral under the head of "Kural Sports." Paying in advance is always one of the cardinal virtues in the subscriber to the periodical; but perhaps the pious editor of the Christian index need not have announced so prominently that "but a week since we recognised the death of an old father in the church, a careful reader of the Index and who paid for three papers in advance." In a country where every year thousands of emigrants from the south-western states arrive over the "plains" and the Rocky Mountains, full of stories of Indian fights, and "chock full of alkali," a good itemiser of such matters is important. Accordingly we find announced that "We have engaged the services of an immigrant editor, to whom is entrusted all matters connected with Injuns, fights, and alkalied subjects." Utah editors, notwithstanding the presence of the saints, are rather profane fellows. One of them heads his leader with the startling title of " Hell Boiling Again." English newspaper readers would be rather surprised to find some morning their favorite organ printed on brown packing paper, by reason of the office having run short of the usual paper. I have seen this more than once in Vancouver Island. Again, the Chronicle, a paper published in the same English colony, off the north-west coast of America (worth stating, as its whereabouts seems only to be known to a few F.E.G.S.'s) announces in a paper before me, that, " Owing to the market being bare of paper of the usual size, we shall be compelled to appear in a reduced form until the arrival of the mail steamer Active with a supply." Again, the same paper on one occasion appeared with one side blank, accompanied by an explanatory note that, " Owing to an accident, the composed mat- . tor got disarranged, and as there was no more time to set it up again, our readers will please excuse the blank page." Letters to the paper are not addressed as in England "To the Editor of ," but " Editors Stump City Gazette," and commencing "Messrs. Editors." Some of these papers are edited by women, and in the controversy about women's rights it is worthy of remark that the feminine editorials are not the least truculent of the literary efforts ; especially in times of political contest, when one of the sterner sex ventures to raise the lady's virtuous indignation. A female editor announces that, " Being a woman, she cannot take satisfaction of the low-lived hound who wrote the article in our contemporary over the way, but she has a little boy who will clean him out handsomely in about two minutes." Generally, just before an election contest fresh papers are started to advocate particular views, and it is • then that the western paper is seen in all its glory. It is rampant, and scatters slaughter on every side. On the whole, I think that the most objectionable feature I observed in the western newspaper system, is the custom of "dead-heading," that is, of the editors going free on railways, steamers, stages, and even paying their hotel bill and liverystable keeper by praising " the gentlemanly and high-toned proprietor." I know that many papers will not permit of this system. The New York Legislature passed an Act for abolishing and forbidding the " deadhead" system as far as possible. Taking them all in all, though the western papers may be rough in their language, yet, with rare exceptions, they are always decent. They may be rude in their humour, but their rudeness differs as much from the double entendre of the low class of city papers as much as the honest clay of their own prairie lands differs from the slime of the street. On the whole, they work for good ; and if their literature be not very refined, neither are their readers. So if it do not civilise them, neither does it suffer them to remain barbarous — as they would be very apt to be in the rude society of the remote far western glens.