USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 47
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 47
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 47
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In 1874 there was a paper called the "Abington Journal," edited by Arthur P. Ford, and another in the south part of the town called the "South Abington Times," the editor of which was Arthur W. Sher- man. South Abington is now Whitman. It is represented in the journalistic field by the "Whitman Times," which also issues from the same plant the "Abington Journal." Samuel Burleigh is proprietor, publisher and editor of these papers and in 1926 began the publication of an edition for East Bridgewater.
The "Whitman Times" and "Abington Journal" were for many years owned by the late Rev. Leonard B. Hatch, D. D. Much of the editorial and reportorial work was delegated to George A. Dorr, who also became the Whitman correspondent of the "Brockton Times," when the "Times" was started, and has continued in that capacity ever since, more than thirty years.
Many people recall William H. Marden, for many years a news- paper man on the South Shore. He died in Plymouth in October, 1924. He was born in East Weymouth in 1855. In addition to his work as a newspaper correspondent, he served as court officer of the East Norfolk district, also as bail commissioner.
Some District Men and Good Fellows-A newspaper man who was known personally by nearly every prominent citizen of Massachusetts and by hundreds of people in the South Shore and Old Colony districts, and well-liked by everybody, was Walter Cobb. Mr. Cobb was cor- respondent for the "Boston Herald" for many years and covered the district from Quincy to Middleboro on both lines of the railroad, Boston to Cape Cod and Boston to Plymouth. Much of the prepara- tion of his copy was done with a lead pencil while riding on the trains, and he always had a good showing for his trips in readiness to be laid on the editor's desk when he arrived at the "Herald" office. No more .conscientious, accurate or thorough news-writer ever handled copy. He was not a volumnious writer but had a faculty of telling much in a few words and no piece of news was too trivial, providing
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it would be acceptable to his newspaper, to set him on a most pains- taking quest, not satisfied until he possessed every essential detail.
Harvey H. Pratt is much better known in this section as a former district attorney of Plymouth and Norfolk counties, a brilliant law- yer, member of the famous Sea Serpents' Club and generally good fellow, than a newspaper man, yet he was for a considerable time cor- respondent for the Associated Press and did other newspaper work. A story is recalled of one occasion when Mr. Pratt failed to secure the elusive news item which the Associated Press expected in ad- vance of publication in the Boston newspapers, and was informed that his services would no longer be necessary to the success of the A. P. In those days many of the Associated Press correspondents telephoned their news and were seldom seen at the Associated Press headquarters. Pratt took his discharge in good part but asked if he might recommend "a bright young fellow in Scituate as his succes- sor." Granted this favor, he recommended Harvey Hunter, and in- structions were sent from the Associated Press to Harvey Hunter for several weeks before it was known that he had merely brought his middle name into prominence and kept on the job.
Among the bright young fellows who secured their early training on the "Brockton Enterprise" was Edwin Reynolds, son of the late Enos Reynolds of Brockton. He possessed a delightful sense of humor and used it to the best advantage in all his newspaper work, with a certain turn and twist hard to imitate but easy to enjoy. For a few years he was a member of the staff of the "Boston Herald" and, during one of the periodical shifts in management and staff personnel, went over to the "Globe." He fitted into the "Globe" scheme of things as one born to the job. Soon a "So They Say" column was a regular feature on the editorial page and one of the first features to which many people turned after buying their "Globe." It showed Reynolds' special gift of humor, and after he was lent by the "Globe" to the United States Shipping Board, during the World War, no one attempted to keep up the column. It was in a class by itself and Reynolds was the only one who could keep it at the head of the class.
Edwin Reynolds was a victim of exposure to weather conditions and unusual strain in his conscientious duties for the Shipping Board, went to California in an effort to stay the ravages of tuberculosis and put up a brave fight, characteristic of all his work, but passed over to the instruction of the Supreme Editor of Divine Mind in the veritable Sanctum Sanctorum.
A quarter of a century has rolled by since Frank H. Perkins was correspondent for the "Boston Globe" in Plymouth and vicinity and did considerable writing as a side line on the "Plymouth Free Press,"
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which was conducted by the late Daniel W. Andrews for several years at the county seat. The "Free Press" was an iconoclastic paper, Democratic in politics and, especially when Mr. Perkins had a hand in its writing, a paper good to read for entertainment as well as for information. Mr. Perkins had been employed on the "Boston Globe" previous to locating in Plymouth. He had the gift of a sympathetic touch with humanity and a beauty of expression which made his newspaper writing as well as his courteous bearing and brilliant per- sonality win him numerous friends. Hundreds of people felt his pass- ing a sad, personal loss when he died suddenly a few days after leaving Plymouth to take a position on a newspaper in New Hamp- shire.
Mr. Perkins possessed considerable histrionic ability and whenever he took part in theatrical performances the announcement of his being included in the cast had much to do with filling the Davis Opera House in Plymouth, in which he made numerous appearances. Ed- ward E. Rose, playwright, theatrical manager and actor, urged Mr. Perkins to take up a stage career and, during the summer Mr. Rose had his school of acting at Marshfield Hills, the Davis Opera House was used for the production of several plays with Mr. Perkins in the leading rôles.
There have been many newspaper men who got their early training on the "Old Colony Memorial," Plymouth's newspaper of considerably more than a century existence, but the man who wrote "What We Know About Town" thirty and forty years ago, when Avery & Doten were the publishers, and still continues to dish up the Plymouth local news in very creditable style, the man who knows every nook and corner, historical fact and dream of the future about Plymouth, is Charles Monroe Doten, a gentleman and scholar, every inch a newspaper man, a worthy son of a revered father, Captain Charles C. Doten.
The first newspaper in Kingston was established in 1889 by Elroy S. Thompson, then a student in the Kingston High School. It was called the "Kingston News" and was published from the office of the "Bridgewater Independent" in Bridgewater until, through financial difficulties on the part of the publisher of the "Independent," the "Kingston News" omitted a few issues. The Kingston weekly paper then appeared under the name of the "Kingston Press" and was published by Elroy S. Thompson until 1895. Later, for a short time, another Kingston weekly paper was published by John Parks.
At the same time the "Kingston News" was flourishing, the "Dux- bury Breeze" was also published, under the management of Elroy S. Thompson. Duxbury had at that time another weekly paper, one of a chain of South Shore weeklies, called the "Duxbury Pilgrim."
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There has for many years been such a chain of weekly papers on the South Shore and at times more than one, with changes in make up and in names for the various towns.
The "Plymouth County Farmer" is a newspaper which appears monthly from the offices of the Plymouth County Extension Service in Brockton, and is devoted to the agricultural interests of the county and vicinity. It is conducted jointly by Gardner C. Norcross, County farm agent; Miss Mary S. Dean, home economist; and Stanley L. Freeman, County club agent. It is recognized as one of the best county papers issued by the agricultural interests in the State and enjoys well-deserved popularity.
One of the most readable weekly papers of the county is the "Wareham Courier," edited by Lemuel C. Hall, a representative citizen of Wareham. Other weekly papers, covering towns in the vicinity with their own editions, constitute a chain of newspapers issued from the same office. Mr. Hall has also been editor of the "Cape Cod Mag- azine," devoted to Cape Cod interests. He served in the Massachusetts Legislature, beginning in 1926.
Even the town of Halifax with its small number of inhabitants had a weekly newspaper a year or more, starting in 1887. The "Halifax Record" was printed at the office of the "Bridgewater Independent" and the local editors were C. Morton Packard and George Orrock. The paper gave the town news, advocated improvements, and in ev- ery way was a credit to the enterprising town which it represented. There was, of course, little advertising patronage available in a town with a population of about five hundred and so when the two en- thusiastic young men who started it moved out of town, the paper was discontinued. The first issue of the "Halifax Record" contained an interesting story of the incident of riding the Tory tavern-keeper, Daniel Dunbar, on a rail out of town, in the days just before the Revolutionary War. In addition to the local news, some story of his- torical happenings appeared in each weekly issue.
Nearly all of the Plymouth County towns have had weekly news- papers bearing the names of the towns, either a paper originated es- pecially for each separate town or one of a chain of papers, regard- less of the small number of inhabitants. Hull, the smallest town, has the "Hull Beacon," and for several years the "Nantasket Breeze" was published weekly in the summer months when that popular resort was densely populated with summer residents. There has been a commendable pride taken in the papers which have represented the towns and, in most instances, it has been justified. Plymouth County people have always had much of interest and importance to tell each other and to tell the world. The county newspaper men have been
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good examples of the journalistic profession and many of them have risen to high positions in literary attainment.
"Nothing But Newspaper Talk"-At a banquet twenty years before the Civil War, one of the speakers responding to a toast to the press, said: "The newspaper is the intellectual spring into which everybody dips his bucket, whilst few thank the fountain for its supply." There is truth in every word of that, yet journalism has its rewards as well as its trials, like any other profession. These rewards are akin to those which come to any other teaching profession, for the newspaper is the world's greatest educator, from the time one first learns to read until the undertaker is called. There is no profession which calls for greater loyalty, devotion, personal sacrifice, intelligent and resource- ful efforts, knowledge of human nature and fearlessness. The pro- fession in Plymouth County has always been supplied with men and women who have possessed these qualities. In this county as else- where, there have been people connected with the profession who brought no credit to it and reflected none of its real characteristics, but with them this volume has no concern. On the contrary, it is a pleasure to pay tribute where honor is due.
The newspaper man knows his community as no one else knows it. To him alone every fact concerning everybody is a part of his busi- ness, not necessarily to broadcast, but to file away in his memory for the bearing it may have on other facts and events which will some day appear as copy. The newspaper man secures so much inside in- formation that it is impossible for him to stand in awe of any man. Before him is paraded every day the weaknesses, the foibles, the vani- ties, as well as the strength, nobleness, honesty and faithful devotion on the part of common citizens of which the world-at-large knows little. Such first-hand knowledge dispels illusions but makes en- during confidences. The newspaper man more than any other man penetrates the mask of wealth, influence and arrogance and tries to hide his amusement behind a poker face when he sees the average citizen groveling or becoming servile in the presence of unworthy assumption.
History must concede to the newspaper workers much credit for keeping the public right with the world. When Will Rogers says all he knows is what he sees in the newspapers, he is the representative of a tremendous army. The newspaper is the sole source of in- formation for a vast multitude and, while newspapers contain inac- curacies, even careless newspaper reports are usually more authentic than the statements of casual eyewitnesses. The newspaper man is trained to observe things accurately and impersonally and check up first impressions. Some one once said: "O that mine enemy would
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write a book." The newspaper men are writing books continuously and they are being reviewed mercilessly by all sorts and conditions of readers continuously. There is no other worker who invariably lays his cards on the table for everyone to see, and plays his game under a spotlight.
The shallow thinker reads his newspaper and says worldly-wisely : "That is nothing but newspaper talk." "Newspaper talk" is all they know about anything outside the little microscopic orbit in which they resolve and receive impressions from the antenna of their five deceitful senses.
A generation ago, President Mckinley wanted someone to find General Garcia in Cuba, and a man was found who received a wonder- ful amount of credit because he started on his mission without ask- ing questions but exercised his resourcefulness and found his man. The man, Lieutenant Andrew S. Rowan of the Secret Service, was a success, but it was not what he did but the way in which Elbert Hubbard wrote the story that brought him fame. Many years before that James Gordon Bennett of the "New York Herald" wanted to get a message to Livingstone, somewhere in "Darkest Africa." Finding Garcia in Cuba in 1898 was a picnic compared with the task of finding David Livingstone, somewhere in Africa in 1869, but Henry M. Stanley, an American newspaper reporter, received the assignment, and he located Livingstone in Ujiji, in spite of the Manyema and the devil him- self. It was merely "reasonable service" in the interest of his newspaper.
The newspaper is the Archimedean lever of intelligence which moves the world another day ahead every twenty-four hours in common knowledge and understanding. It is the persuasive voice of commerce and transportation. It creates desires for better things which leads the world on to a more abundant life. It prevents more crimes than the police and brings to justice more criminals than the de- tectives. It makes hygienic watchfulness and preventive medicine a condition and not a theory nor a prescription. It does much to dispel ignorance of the law and does not excuse it, even in a lawyer. It assays the pretensions of explorers, discoverers, clergymen, politicians, and prizefighters and leaves mere assumptions as naked as a rain- washed bone. The newspaper is the greatest bargain in the world, the livest thing in the making and dead the instant it appears, for some- thing newer has occurred while the ink was being spread. It is only "newspaper talk" to be sure but the public itself is the tail of the journalistic kite, just a little behind, can't let go.
Sometimes the newspapers have printed a hoax and how successful have been such delusions! Two or three generations believed the Chicago fire resulted from the playful action of Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
FLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
conse ci the configration confessed that Mrs. O'Leary's com, if she ever had one, never kicked a lantern. I: as more likely she kicked the boder and wóded to the Chicago bezi supply.
Many Men Owe Their Recognitic ame to Reporters-1: was Michael Aber, the las: s wiho covered the great Chicago Ert. T 's Jong-believed iske, after
with the Chicago Ere half John English and James
Ermaie usel w. The Ere started in the
combestica, but the
O'Leary hamz.
with a cow, and in those days elec- for Eleminating barns, bor the kerosene intern. Cows Lip od sometimes Kicked over lanterns. Therefore
ory mod before he died. February 19, 1927, at . Augustine's Home for the Aged a: Chicago, aged seventy-sever. told
two reporters agreed upon the alegri explana-
re Aber was a police reporter for the "Chi-
Re
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that the stories milf by newspapers following any impor : happening are invariebir zoch closer to the facts than those told by a
7 ere is a code of ethics which goes with the sea fes- sion and it includes as its principal tene: keepin
told even a small part of what they knew
the day of chaos. Moch should be forgiven of the reporter Be prints because of wbet be knows writing.
rationde far
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attainments and capabilities, and by os which they would otherwise never
= "Boston Transcr made by President Lowell of
Fairy to Governor Alven T. Feller. It was at :
from al sides i bebelf of Sacco and Vanzet itber party took the newspaper men into
boe regarding the nature of the cal at the State House. cansel Presiden: Lowell to say "I Have nothing to say. I never talk
m itt Tears. Good day."
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Suppose the reporters should have matched President Lowell's "Good day" with "Good night," so far as making any further allusions to him were concerned. Suppose they had chosen to put the president of a great university into the position of the president who was never mentioned, what would have been the effect? Better still, suppose the brilliant, scholarly A. Lawrence Lowell had been severely let alone by the newspapers in those days when Dr. Charles W. Eliot pre- sided at Cambridge. Brilliant and able as he was, his talents had not Included those of selling himself to the public or the Fellows of Har- vard University, so that he entered their minds as the successor to Dr. Eliot. The newspapers did that for him, whether he would or no.
"Bob" Washburn some days later, in the "Transcript," included in his interesting column, regarding what he called Mr. Lowell's "epochal statement:" "Because of this statement, Mr. Lowell should not be harshly judged, although his opportunities for progress and entertain- ment are thereby materially circumscribed. For Mr. Lowell has suc- cessfully fought the disabilities of ancestry. The Cabots and the Lowells, it has been established, once chatted with the Deity and themselves only. Mr. Lowell is now known, in a democratic way, to blend with all, except the representatives of the press, or in the vernacular, the reporter. Why this exception, in days when even the silent Calvin has developed this practice, only Mr. Lowell can say, though this he will not say, that is, to the press.
"If a reporter should happen to be rowing in midocean and find Mr. Lowell clinging to a spar, would the latter then remember his prin- ciple or forget it and cry for succor? May I say, on my part, with- out heresy to my academic Mother, that I never began to live until I came into a close communion with the press. I have myself at times submitted to an interview, I confess with some shame. Some folks feel that the United States Senate runs the country. No, it is the reporters who sit in the chamber over the clock."
"Uncle Joe" Cannon, near the close of his long career in Congress, said in a speech :
I owe to the Washington correspondents' corps my reputation as a wit and critic. When I came to Washington I learned that you men possessed the magic power of making fame for men in public life. Some of your number discovered that Joe Cannon enjoyed publicity and would never repudiate any newspaper story. So, for a quarter of a century, I have been quoted on every conceivable subject. Sometimes I have been a trifle shocked by the words you have put into my mouth, but I have always "stood pat." Until this moment I have never com- plained to you, the real authors of my fame.
We wonder if Benjamin Franklin actually answered John Hancock at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when the latter said that the signers "must all hang together," "Yes, or we shall all
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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
hang separately," or was it some other newspaper man who put it into his mouth? Did Admiral Dewey actually give the order at Manila Bay in the words: "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley?" Some of those who fought with General Sheridan say that his language, at the end of his ride from "Winchester, twenty miles away" was em- phatic, optimistic and decidedly plain but "Come on, boys, we are going back," was a mild paraphrase of the real utterance.
Days of the Tramp Printer Nearly Over-Until the typesetting ma- chines came into general use, even in the smaller towns if they were large enough to be the home of a country newspaper, the tramp printer was always going the rounds. One of the last, well-remembered in Plym- outh County and vicinity was a soldier of the Civil War named Con- way. He accounted for the fact that he was on the road, instead of a stationary craftsman, by explaining that he started marching in the war and had been marching ever since. Conway was typical of the tramp printers of his own and an earlier day. How much schooling had fallen to his lot it was hard to guess but he had picked up a workable education in his travels and, with stick in hand, frequently took the liberty of correcting the grammar of the writer whose "take" fell to his lot from the "copy hook."
Perhaps it is fair to consider Benjamin Franklin as at one time a tramp printer. Having difficulties with his brother in Boston, he left that printing office and went to New York, from New York to Phila- delphia, from Philadelphia to France and England, and always he was a printer. Whatever other things he contributed to the service of humanity he wanted to be remembered as a printer, with a printer's outlook on life. That this should be the case he composed his own epitaph, dated 1728. The original manuscript was once in the old and noted Aspinwall collection and eventually found its way in the magnificent Franklin collection of William S. Mason of Evanston, Illinois. The epitaph follows:
THE BODY OF B. FRANKLIN, PRINTER, LIKE THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK, ITS CONTENTS TORN OUT AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING & GILDING, LIES HERE FOOD FOR WORMS. BUT THE WORK SHALL NOT BE LOST; FOR IT WILL AS HE BELIEV'D APPEAR ONCE MORE IN A NEW AND MORE ELEGANT EDITION REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.
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Thomas Nuttall, who became curator of the Botanic Gardens at Harvard, author of "North American Sylva," and many other botanical treasures, started d as a tramp printer. Wherever he traveled he studied the trees of North America, even working his way, by means of the printer's "stick," to the Pacific Coast.
Whoever he was and how long he might chance to stay, no ques- tions were asked of the tramp printers when they appeared in the local newspaper offices. Usually they carried their "stick" with them and made themselves at home in the office. They took copy from the "hook," if there was a vacant place at the case, put up their "take" and left it largely to the sense of justice or generosity of the "boss" what would be coming to them at the end of the day. Usually they slept in the printing office and, if paid a little to enable them to have food and tobacco, would remain until "pay day." If the newspaper owner wanted his tramp printer to remain longer than that day, it were well not to pay him all that was coming to him; otherwise he would be missing the next morning. A five-dollar bill, all at one time, was equivalent to bidding one of this gentry "good-bye." That was sufficient to stake one of them till the next "station."
Artemas Ward, once a printer, left a large share of his property to establish an asylum for indigent printers. They were a "devil may care" lot of fellows, usually made what they were by a liking for liquors, plus a wanderlust; both habits are hard to break. They were, as a class, interesting story tellers and, unlike most itinerants, faithful guardians of confidences. They always had plenty of good stories from experiences on the road but would close up like a clam when- ever questioned concerning inside information which came to them by their positions at the case of a rival newspaper.
The old-time tramp printer is not yet extinct, although now a rare specimen, redolent of the past. Early in the year 1927 a Texas paper, the "Kyle News," told of the visit to that office of one of the fraternity, one Waterhouse. He had visited all parts of the country and might have been as far from what he might, as a matter of courtesy, call "home" when in Texas as though he were sitting on Plymouth Rock. The "News" printed its announcement of this wandering type and said :
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