Macon County, Missouri - Chapter 7, 1910

Tue Printing Press - Saturatory or First Macon County ParER - Reminiscences or Caprain Lacy, Macon's First Eprron - Tug Mvr- LIGAN Guarps - Some OF THE PIONEER Papers - Magor Frank M. Daviron - Macon PAPER Awarpep MEDAL FOR SUPERIOR TYPOGRAPHY - 'Tur Max Who SuBsckigED ror 500 Parers - I. Jerr Buster, WHo INTRODUCED Country CORRESPONDENCE - EUGENE FIELD's Own Crus - IMPROVEMENT IN Country JOURNALISM - 'STORIES OF A COUNTRY Docron," sy Wiruis P. Kine, M. D. - ''Love vs. Law," By Mary ANDERSON Marruews - A Circuir River's Quaint BooK - OLDEST Bisre 1X Stare Owsen BY Macon County Max.

til December 26, 1848, the official publications of Macon county had to made either in the old Missouri Republican, founded in 1808, r "The Missouri Intelligencer and Boone's Lick Advertiser," because

The paper with the long name was the first one issued in Missouri west of St. Louis. Its first number came out April 23, 1819. The publieation was at Franklin, which at that period was the most thriving town west of St. Louis. "There was a land office there and the first land sales west of the Mississippi river were made at that point. The paper was published weekly, the subseription price being $3 a year in advance, or $4 if paid at the expiration of the year.

The Intelligencer was the official newspaper for a large scope of country, and was published at Franklin until 1823, in which year it was moved to Fayette, the county seat of Howard. In 1834 the plant was taken to Columbia by Mr. Nathaniel Patton, who started a publication called "The Patriot." In 1843 this paper was succeeded by ''The Missouri Statesman," Colonel William F. Switzler and John B. Williams, editors.

The press on which the paper was printed was a small concern, with a wooden frame, iron bed, joints and platen. It was known to the printers' craft of the period as ''the Ramage press." After its days of usefulness were long past, Colonel Switzler presented the old Ramage to the Mercantile Library Association.

journalism. They got together a plant and started the Bloomington Gazette in December, 1848. The first issue bears the date, December 26, and contains the following salutatory :

"With this issue we begin the publieation of the Bloomington Gazette, the first newspaper venture ever atempted in Macon county. Today, with many misgivings, we launch our little newspaper boat on the broad, tempestuous sea of journalism, with a eourge, nevertheless, born of an honest purpose and lofty ambition, to so conduct our paper as to be most helpful to our little new town and community, morally, materially, socially and intelleetually. While we disclaim any purpose to make our paper a 'party organ,' in any sense of that term - while we shall use our utmost endeavors to give our subseribers a clean, newsy, independent paper, we will advocate at all times such measures and support such men for publie positions as, in our judgment, will best subserve the general good of our town and county, regardless of party advocacy or party affiliation. We will always be found advocating every good and worthy enterprise; whether of a moral or material character, caleulating to help our struggling town.

** We will be glad to have a reliable correspondent in every neighborhood in the county, and will be glad to have our friends call at our office and give us any items of news calculated to make the Gazette interesting to its readers. Our terms are $1.50, invariably in advance. Advertising and job printing rates made known on application.

The prospectus of the Gazette was printed in Quincy, Illinois. Mr. Love stated that they had great difficulty in getting out the first number of the Gazette. The type was purchased at St. Louis, and through some oversight of the shipping clerk the lower case g's were not ineluded, so the Gazette printers had to use the figure 9 as a substitute for the lower ease g. "The Gazette started out with a subseription list of about 500. For many years after its birth the Gazette office was a very interesting place to the country people who eame to old Bloomington to get their mail and do their trading. They would always drop in to see the editor and listen to him explain that wonderful art called typography.

Soon after the town of Macon was established Captain Alexander H. Laey, a printer of Hannibal, came over and started the ** Macon Herald," which afterwards became "The Republican." While in Macon,

**T had been working for Orion Clemens, 'Mark Twain's' brother, who published 'The Union. Hudson and Macon were rival towns here, and we were constantly hearing great stories about how they were booming. So I eame over here and started the Herald, first at Hudson and later moved it to Macon. The first publication was got out in the freight depot; it was a modest affair, but I saw millions ahead and was willing to put up with a little discomfort while waiting for them.

**Qoal had but recently been discovered at Bevier and the very atmosphere breathed prosperity and ducats. I got in on the ground floor with my paper. I recall a few business men. Jim Bagwell ran a store here; Dave McCord, who. afterwards got into trouble with the law, operated a saloon; Sam Kem was in the tobacco business. Tobacco raising was the great industry of the period. Every farmer raised it, and there were any number of large buildings here called factories, where the leaf was handled and sold.

* George Bebee and Al Horton were the lawyers. Bob Bevier, afterwards the colonel of a Confederate regiment, and for whom the town of Bevier was named, was our representative in the Legislature. There were five saloons, but I don't recall any churches. Business was good. I daresay that we obtained in those days as mueh job printing as the offices here are now getting.

"In looking over Macon now I can hardly realize it is the same village where I started my little 2x4 newspaper. You have improved it until it resembles a regular city."

Captain Lacy sold the Herald to Colonel Abner Gilstrap, and afterwards ran papers in various parts of the state, finally returning to Hannibal about the beginning of the war. He served three years in the Third Missouri Cavalry, and while out recruiting came over to Macon and swore in a detachment of the Mulligan Brigade, which he found here, and which was christened ''The Hell-Roaring Guards." They were all Irishmen, and a brave lot when there was any trouble on. After completing his time with the army, Captain Lacy entered the railway postal service on the run between Quiney and St. Joseph.

" After leaving the Hannibal Union in 1852 I went to Macon, and from there to old Bloomington, which was a thriving town then. There was a court house and four stage eoach lines running to the town. Business was very lively; traffie on the stage lines was heavy. James Love was running the Gazette, the first paper printed in Macon county. Abner Gilstrap started a paper, and I took employment with him as head printer at $12 a week. After working a while I went over to Quiney and was married. When I returned to Bloomington Mr. Gilstrap eut my wages to $10 a week, on the theory, as he explained it, that two could live cheaper than one. I couldn't demonstrate the success of his arithmetie, and so I left Mr. Gilstrap, and Tom Howe and I bought out the Gazette. The circulation of the Gazette was only 200, but we got $2 a year for it, taking the pay in anything from tombstones to eradles.

"The editor and the printer in the country newspaper office at that time were about the same. The editor always set up most of his own copy, because, as some looked at it, it was safer to do that than to trust such important matter in the hands of a printer who might make mistakes. Even today (1909) I follow the old habit of gathering news around town and then going to the type case and setting it up 'out of my head.' >

After leaving Maeon eounty Major Daulton went to Illinois and in 1856 reported the Lincoln-Douglas debates for the Quiney Herald. He became well aequainted with the two great statesmen. Major Daulton said a peeuliarity of Lincoln and Douglas was that they rarely discussed polities except when they were on the platform. They traveled together, told funny stories and were, apparently, the best of friends.

In 1854 Rufus C. White launched the Messenger, a Democratic paper, at Bloomington. Thomas B. Howe and James E. Sharp commenced the publication of the Bloomington Journal (Democratic), in 1855.

D. E. H. Johnson published ''The Register'' at Macon in 1861. The First Iowa Infantry arrived at Macon in June, and took possession of the printing office. Johnson, whose sympathies were with the South, left town. C. L. Fowler, a member of the Iowa troops, was appointed editor, and the soldiers published one issue of ''Our Whole Union," dated June 15, 1861. It was the first paper of the Civil war published by soldiers at the front. Following is a descriptive story taken from the paper:

"Tt is not often that one enters a printing office conducted under precisely the circumstances of the one in which 'Our Whole Union' is now being issued. Men in uniform stand at the cases, a row of gleaming muskets are stacked before the door, with a sentinel on guard. The editor's table is ornamented with a revolver, two bottles of - well - something to sustain a drooping spirit; in short, the only resemblance to a printing office is the click of the type and the music of the press."

**Johnson, wherever you are - whether lurking in the dim woods, hunting your eow, or a fugitive on the open plain, goodbye! We never saw you, never expect to, never want to, but for all that, old fellow, we won't be proud. So, Johnson, goodbye. We drank some poor whiskey out of your bottle. You won't forget us, Johnson, will you?''

C. L. Fowler, who edited **Our Whole Union," is now staying at the National Military Home, Kansas. He was so pleased with his newspaper experience at Macon that he went into the business after the war and became quite noted as an editorial writer and publisher.

As far as known, there are now but two copies of ''Our Whole Union" in existence. One is in a glass case in the State House at Des Moines. Another is the valued war relie of a soldier in Muscatine, Iowa.

In 1865 Colonel Clark H. Green, a man of considerable newspaper experience, established the Macon Times, and continued the publication up until his death, in the fall of 1871. The paper was then sold to W. C. B. Gillespie, Hez Purdom and John N. Howe, who published the paper until 1872, when Gillespie purchased Purdom's interest.

Gillespie & Howe ran the paper a few months. In the winter of 1872-73, T. A. H. Smith associated himself with Mr. Howe, and they purchased the interest of Mr. Gillespie. After operating a short while, the Times was eonsolidated with the Macon Demoerat and ealled the Demoeratie Times, and passed into the hands of James M. Love and Edward C. Shain, who published it until the fall of 1874. In that year it was sold at trustee's sale to B. F. Stone and Walter Brown. Not long afterwards Mr. Stone purchased Brown's interest. In August, 1875, there was a wholesale eonsolidation of the Macon newspapers.

The Democratic Times, the Macon Daily Pilot, by Baxton Greene, and the Maeon Journal, by John M. London, were amalgamated into one concern, and the Examiner Printing Company organized, with a capital stock of $10,000. In this combination Mr. Stone held the controlling interest, and a written contract that the paper should be continued as a Demoeratie journal. For a while a daily and weekly were published, but later the daily was discontinued. The Examiner was an early advocate of the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden for president on the Demoeratie ticket. When Tilden was nominated the paper was so active in his support that the county gave a Democratie majority of over 1,000 for the ticket. Before the elose of the campaign the entire stock of the paper passed into Mr. Stone's hands. In the summer of 1877 Mr. Stone sold the establishment to Purdom & J. A. Hudson. In February, 1878, Mr. Hudson sold his interest to I. J. Buster, one of the first eountry correspondents in Missouri. Purdom & Buster published the Examiner until the office was sold in the spring of 1879. Afterwards, the business, good will, and what was saved of material, were sold to W. C. B. Gillespie & C. H. Steele. The name of the paper was changed to the North Missouri Register. Gillespie Steele sold to J. A. Hudson on the 1st of February, 1883. Mr. Hudson reorganized the office, putting in steam presses, and restored the original name of the paper, the Macon Times.

Mr. Hudson was one of the most energetic newspaper men the county ever had. He was an important figure in all the press associations and in polities. Being a practieal printer, and knowing the business from the ground up, he brought the Macon Times up to a standard whieh resulted in its being awarded a fine gold medal for being the best printed paper in Missouri. It is a fair assertion that the Macon "Times aequired greater cireulation and influence under the management of Mr. Hudson than it ever had before. When the eampaign of 1896 eame on the Macon Times was non-committal on the gold standard issue until its editor had thoroughly digested the problem. He spent almost all of his time in searching through St. Louis libraries and everywhere he could find information on the subject of the two metals, gold and silver. The party in the west was clamoring for free silver. Mr. Hudson, as a result of his long and painstaking investigations, came to the conclusion that his party was wrong on the issue; that the gold standard was right, in order to maintain the prosperity of the country. He sueceeded in bringing quite a number of prominent Democrats around to his views, but the vast majority of his constituents favored William J. Bryan, the Democratic nominee for president, and free silver. Mr. Hudson could not support an issue which he considered wrong, and he disposed of his paper to a company. For some time it was operated by Joseph Heifner, Ben White, Ben Eli Guthrie and R. A. Guthrie, the editorship being vested more or less in each of the gentlemen named. Mr. Hudson removed to Columbia, Missouri, and purchased the telephone system there, which he greatly developed and still operates.

In August, 1901, there was another eonsolidation of the Macon newspapers. The Macon Times and the Democrat were acquired by a company and consolidated under the name of the Times-Demoerat, with Joseph J. Heifner as editor-in-chief. At the same time the Macon Republiean aequired the Macon Citizen, leaving only two papers in the town. In 1909 the paper was purchased by W. E. McCully, Fred H. Tedford and others, and is now being operated under the name of the Macon Publishing Company, with Mr. Tedford as editor and general manager.

The Macon Republican was established on March 2, 1871, by General F. A. Jones and Major S. G. Brock. General Jones died January 7, 1882, and the paper eontinued under the management of Major Brock until its sale to Mr. Philip Gansz on January 1, 1890,

Under the management of Mr. Gansz the Macon Republican has been developed into a great newspaper and its printing department does work for large concerns in various parts of the state. While it is Republican in polities, yet its fair, conservative poliey has won to its support numerous Demoeratie friends. "The paper's aim has been to print all the local news in a non-partisan manner, and this has been one of the strong features in extending its circulation.

Both of the Macon papers are models of country journals. They are well-printed, contain a larger amount of reading matter than the usual country publication and are all-home print.

The Messenger of Peace, a primitive Baptist publication, was founded at Macon by Elder J. E. Goodson, Sr., on November 15, 1874, and soon became one of the leading publications of its denomination in the United States. For some years it was printed in a local printing office, and afterwards the contraet to publish it was given to the North Missouri Register. Not long after starting the paper Elder Goodson's son, J. E., Jr., became associated with him in the enterprise. Both men were ordained preachers and did a great deal of traveling among the Primitive Baptists, who subseribed freely for the paper. During its existence in Macon, the Messenger of Peace had a wider and larger eirenlation than any other paper in the town. It was made up mostly of the experiences of those who had been *'ealled."" Elder Goodson,

Jr., died August 19, 1890, and Elder Walter Cash, a Primitive Baptist minister, became associated with Elder Goodson, in the publication. 'Two years after his son's death Elder Goodson answered the summons, leaving Elder Cash in sole control of the paper.

Elder Cash continued the Messenger of Peace at Macon for a short while, and then moved the publication office to Marceline. Later he removed it to St. Joseph, and still continues the publication with success.

The Messenger of Peace enjoyed the distinction of receiving at one time the largest amount of subseription money ever paid to a Missouri publication, having had $500 bequeathed to it by a wealthy Montana man. The entire sum was to be used in sending the paper to those who were too poor to pay for it.

I. Jeff Buster, who claims to have been the originator of the system of country correspondence, lived in Morrow township when Colonel Clark Green was running the Macon Times. One night a literary was held at the district school, and Mr. Buster read a humorous paper, reciting the doings of the neighborhood. It took well with the crowd and several persons urged him to send it to one of the papers over at the county seat. Mr. Buster sent it to the Times, which paper promptly turned it down. A few weeks later Mr. Buster was in Macon and he called upon Editor Green.

** We got your stuff, all right, Mr. Buster,"' said Colonel Green, **but it was too inconsequential. You had a whole lot of tommy-rot in it about George Jones painting his barn, and the Smith girls visiting down by Hammock's Mill, and a play party over at the Widow Fitzgerald's. This is kind o" childish, you know. What the people want is good editorial writing, and the news from Jefferson City and the National Capital. They don't care about that little neighborhood gossip."

* every week containing this stuff you call tommy-rot I guarantee that at least half of the township will take your paper, and perhaps before long I can make it unanimous."

**See here, Jeff," returned the editor, ''you and I are good friends, and I don't want to hurt your feelings. I am willing to try that stuff awhile, but, remember, you must let me print your name to it. I don't

Mr. Buster went back home and told some of his friends of the eurious wager he had made with the editor over at Macon. They became very much interested in the matter and lent a willing hand in getting up the news and also solieiting subseribers. Inside of a month the Macon Times had nearly every man in Morrow township on its subscription list; and its editor was writing to people in other townships trying to induce them to do in their locality what Mr. Buster had done in his. From that time on the country correspondence has been reckoned as a most valuable asset by every enterprising country newspaper in the land. It happened on one oceasion that a sensational murder oceurred right near Mr. Buster's home, and his description of that affair was as accurate and interesting as anything that ever appeared in a newspaper. Mr. Buster eontinued to act as correspondent for the Times as long as he lived in Macon county.

In the early 70s the Missouri Press Association met in annual session at the old Wabash hotel, in Macon. Eugene Field was a prominent member and he made lots of fun for the editors. Other prominent men attending the association were Joseph B. McCullough, editor of the St. Louis Globe-Demoerat; Colonel William F. Switzler, of Columbia; Judge John W. Henry, then on the Cireuit Bench of this distriet, but later of the Supreme Bench of the state; Colonel John F. Williams; Major W. C. B. Gillespie and many others. All of the men mentioned are now dead.

Tt was during the meeting here that Field organized the Owl Club, which afterwards was established as a "musical" institution at Columbia, with branches in all the towns where Field visited or stayed long enough to organize one.

The Owl Club sang the old-fashioned songs. The only qualification for membership was an excellent set of lungs, and a thorough willingness to use them on any and all occasions. After Field had the youngsters pretty well drilled he started them out in town singing at the top of their voices. Then he slipped through an alley, hunted up a policeman and told him to arrest the crowd for disorderly conduct. In vain the young editors told the vigilant watehman that the mayor had given them the keys to the eity, with full liberty to use them. The watchman reported that the mayor had used the term figuratively; that he had seen no keys and that his oath of office required him to lock people up when they made too much noise. So he took them around to the eooler and put them in. "There they discovered that Field was missing. They told the arresting officer that if he would hunt up Field he would explain who they were and make the matter all right. Finally the guardsman consented to look up Field, and, of course, he didn't have much difficulty in locating him, as the future great newspaper man was found standing on a eorner shaking his sides with laughter. Field accompanied the officer to the prison, was let in and peered through the bars as if he were studying some curious specimen of wild animals. The prisons elamored loudly for Field to explain the situation and get them out. After a careful scrutiny, his face as con posed as marble, Field turned to the officer.

As he passed out of the jail Field complimented the officer upon his faithful attention to duty and said he did not doubt but that if he would look up his list of erooks for whom rewards were offered he would likely find two or three in the erowd.

Before the night was over, however, Field relented. He returned to the hotel, notified the older editors there about the menagerie down in jail and led them down to take a look. Of eourse explanations were made and the prisoners released. The mayor was profuse in his apologies, but Field kept out of sight the balance of the meeting.

While he was president of the Missouri Press Association, Mr. Philip Gansz, editor of the Macon Republican, spoke concerning the improvements in country journalism as follows:

"Those who have witnessed and taken part in the development of Missouri during the past quarter of a century should eatalogue among the state's expanding enterprises, the country newspaper. The change for the better in country journalism is as marked as that of any other important enterprise.

"Within the easy memory of most of us the belligerent editor flourished. It seemed to be his idea that the fiercer he was the greater was his influence. He believed his readers rated his editorial ability according to the strength of the vitriol he poured on his disesteemed contemporary down street. Every issue was, to use a phrase of the street, 'a red-hot number.' Sometimes the intensity of the language provoked a personal encounter, but more frequently it was passed by ar 'newspaper talk.'

"That class of writing nowadays would excite more than a sensation. Even the crossroads' papers do not indulge in it. I think the change was largely brought about by the readers, who became tired of so much warlike talk, without any funerals. They demanded of the editors more sincerity and less fussing and scolding. The editors were keen to scent the change. In fact, the better class of them welcomed it gladly. Newspapers became more dignified and their statements were made with a greater degree of care.

"What stands out most prominent in a comparison of the Missouri journals of today with those of twenty-five years back is the intelligent acceptance of responsibility, a broader and more tolerant spirit and higher ideal as to the mission of the press. The editor would no sooner tolerate vulgarisms in his columns than he would in his home. It is true that he aspires to give advice on most every subjeet within the domain of reasoning, and he generally gets up some pretty good reading on any subject, whether he knows anything about it or not. Nothing is too big for him. He is supposed to have views on all subjeets, and he has them. His very audaeity along such lines is developing him. Like the discerning lawyer suddenly called into a big ease, he feels his way, and takes advantage of the educational features along the route.

"A strong element entering into the efficiency of rural journalism of today is the editor's thorough acquaintance with the publie men and with the character and resources of his state. He generally knows intimately the United States senators, and always the various congressmen in his part of the state.

"He can give you from memory the majorities for congress in his distriet for ten years back, without referring to the record. Without consulting a report of any kind he can accurately deseribe the main features of production in over half the counties of the state.

"He acquires this sort of information naturally in the course of business, and retains it without effort. About once a month, or perhaps oftener, he makes a journey to one of the larger cities of the state to select new machinery or supplies of some kind. These trips are generally gauged to occur simultaneously with the advent of some important convention or meeting. Or perhaps during the engagement of a great actor. In consequence, when writing of the city life he is able to speak with greater authority than some metropolitan editors do about the corn raising districts, which they rarely condescend to visit.

tors are found working together nowadays upon any enterprise promising good to the town, county and state. This millenial condition is mainly due to the growth of culture and intelligenee among the people of the country. They demand of their editors a higher grade of dignity and discernment than was thought sufficient in many of the embryonie towns a couple of decades back.

"The country press is loyally appreciating its responsibility in developing the state. It watches closely each turn of the industrial wheel, which may add to the prestige of Missoüri. This loyalty is shown today in the general support given to all enterprises, no matter in what part of the state they are instituted. Northern Missouri papers, far from the river, advoeate appropriations for the benefit of navigation. The river papers speak in terms of praise of those sections more dependent upon the railroads. And so it goes; the press is broadening out and talking more and more for a great nation, a great state and a great people. And it is best that this is so. No community which lives for itself alone ever becomes important. The press is one of the strongest means of keeping up fraternal relations with our neighbors, and its work is having a mighty influence in the uplift of the nation."

"Stories of a Country Doctor," a well-bound and highly interesting little volume, which has had a general circulation in Missouri, is the work of Dr. Willis P. King, a native of Macon county. Dr. King was born here December 21, 1839, and lived the life of an ordinary country lad until the age of fourteen, when he ran away from home to get an education. He died in Kansas City, in 1909. In his exciting little book, Dr. King presented a great many rural ineidents, the material for which he gathered in this county.

"Love vs. Law," is a novel by Mrs. Mary Anderson Matthews, wife of Otho Matthews, an attorney of Macon. The book is an interesting love story, the main character being a young woman who is ambitious to rise in the legal profession. Having entered upon her eareer, she becomes an earnest exponent of woman's rights, and makes a very eapable presentation of her ease to Congress. After winning all the laurels possible for her, the young woman yields her ambition for the sake of her love, and becomes a dutiful and affeetionate wife. The book was printed by an eastern publishing company and has been run through two or three editions. The author is a legally enrolled attorney, having served as city attorney of Palmyra previous to her marriage.

Elder J. W. Cook of Elmer has recently published a little book of peeuliar interest, entitled **Forty-five Years a Minister." "This work was reviewed by a writer for the New York Sun and the Post-Dispatch because of the curious incidents related. The author does not pretend to be a man of great learning, but in his forty-five years of clerical labor he has seen much of life, and he tells it just as he saw it. While engaged in his ehosen profession Elder Cook earned his livelihood by plowing, ehopping wood and hauling. Sometimes he would hire out to a neighbor as a common laborer for fifty cents a day. During his long serviees as a cireuit rider, or country pastor, Elder Cook says that his yearly income for all his pastoral duties combined didn't average $20 a year. Sometimes he would travel long distances through snow and ice and his only compensation would be his meals. At other times he would be given a pair of gloves or some socks. Had anybody presented him with a $5 bill he would have been wonderfully surprised. The elder kept a record of his work, which he presented in his book as follows:

Sermons preached, 5,784; miles traveled, 35,840; weddings performed, 780; miles traveled to officiate at weddings, 15,600 - all on horseback or on foot. Funerals preached, 936; miles traveled for funerals, 18,720. .

Perhaps the most interesting literary relie in Macon county is a Welsh bible owned by Squire W. D. Roberts of New Cambria. This work was printed in 1588, and is the oldest book of any sort in this state. It was the first printed translation of the bible into Welsh, but a translation of the New Testament had been printed a few years print On the flyleaf are these words written in Welsh:

The old volume looks its age on the outside, but the printing is clear and the paper well preserved. There are elaborate seroll marks at the beginning and ending of the book. One of the backs is gone, but the other pine board, covered with leather and held in place by stout rawhide, yet remains. Squire Roberts is unable to name the original owner of the ancient volume. It fell into his great grand-father's hands in the eighteenth century, and passed down to Squire Roberts through the succeeding generations.

The Atlanta Express, by A. C. Howlett, and the Gifford Gazette, by the Gazette Printing Company are among the newcomers to Macon eounty journalism and both are lusty and enterprising newspapers.

The Church Herald; edited by J. F. Watkins and J. A. King; **Organ of the People designated as the Church of God," commonly called the Holiness people; was established at Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1890 and was moved to College Mound, Macon county, in 1904.

Believing an association for the cultivation of literary tastes, the acquisition of knowledge and the general improvement of its members io be in the highest degree beneficial, fifteen ladies of Macon met at the home of Mrs. J. F. Williams, in the month of November, 1885, and organized the Anti-Rust Club.

At this first meeting the following officers were unanimously eleeted: Mrs. Williams, president; Mrs. L. A. Smith, first vice-president; Mrs. John Scovern, second vice-president, and Mrs. A. C. Longden, secretary.

Two eommittees were appointed; one to formulate a constitution and bylaws, the other to select the course of study. In December these committees made their reports to the fifteen charter members, who were Mrs. J. F. Williams, Mrs. Louisa A. Smith, Mrs. John Scovern, Mrs. A. C. Longden, Mrs. Julia H. Clements, Mrs. E. Talbot, Mrs. E. B. Clements, Mrs. Joe Patton, Mrs. M. H. Hubbs, Mrs. F. Baird, Mrs. F. Williams, Miss M. F. Thomas, Miss S. A. Moulton, Miss Evelyn Smith

The limit of membership was placed at twenty. The rather unusual name the club selected originated in the motto adopted, ** Better to wear out than to rust out."

The first meeting for active work took place in January, 1886, the course of work being of an historical nature. This club being composed of busy home-makers, the first meetings were literally held in fear and trembling, but the timid ones gradually grew accustomed to the sound

During 1892-1894 Mrs. L. A. Smith served the organization as president. The club was adjourned for a period of four years, and resumed its meetings in 1898, since which time it has met continuously. From the period when the work was resumed until 1904 the club had the good fortune to have Mrs. Williams as president. Upon her departure for St. Louis to live, she was made honorary life president, and a worthy successor was chosen, Mrs. Kem, who still serves as the elub's president.

During the twenty-five years this club has been organized the educational results of its systematie and regular study have been incaleulable. Whatever subjects have been chosen the club has considered it worth their best efforts.

Their punetuality, faithfulness, and willingness to undertake whatever duty was assigned, have been good examples for the community. Year-book programs have been prepared by much painstaking study. The members have always been chosen with the view of their being loyal, not afraid to work, and not willing to waste their time on trivial subjeets. The study of the cl has been the club's ideal. The meetings have been characterized by a spirit of enthusiasm and looked forward to with pleasant anticipations.

Not only has the elub been a real benefit for the sake of its influence. but also for the lectures and lecture-courses brought here through its efforts.

. The literary club and woman's club movement have been called the **People's University." It is not a meaningless phrase nor an overclassification. They aspire to an intellectual paradise along the lines of serious and earnest thinking, and results will surely follow. *'It is not what stays in our memories, but what has passed into our character that is the possession of our lives!"