The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 182/212

"I should tell you that I have taken you at your word entrusting me with

the entire charge of your interests here, and I had the store-room

adjoining the office put in shape, and offered it to the telegraph company

for half the rent they were paying in their former quarters over the

post-office. They have moved in; and this, in addition to giving us our

despatches direct, is a reduction of expense.

"Mr. Watts informs me that the Standard's offer is liberal and the terms

are settled. The boom is not hollow, it is simply an awakening; and the

town, so long a dependent upon the impetus of agriculture or its trade, is

developing a prosperity of its own on other lines as well. Strangers come

every day; oil has lubricated every commercial joint. Contracts have been

let for three new brick business buildings to be erected on the east side

of the Square. The value of your Main Street frontage will have doubled by

December, and possibly you may see fit to tear away the present building

and put up another, instead; the investment might be profitable. The

'Herald' could find room on the second and third floors, and the first

could be let to stores.

"I regret that you find your copy of the paper for the 29th overlooked in

the mail and that your messenger could find none for you at the newspaper

offices in Rouen. Mr. Schofield was given directions in regard to

supplying you with the missing issue at once.

"I fear that you may have had difficulty in deciphering some of my former

missives, as I was unfamiliar with the typewriter when I took charge of

the 'Herald'; however, I trust that you find my later letters more

legible.

"The McCune people are not worrying us; we are sure to defeat them. The

papers you speak of were found by Mr. Parker in your trunk, and are now in

my hands.

"I send with this a packet of communications and press clippings

indicative of the success of the daily, and in regard to other

innovations. The letters from women commendatory of our 'Woman's Page,'

thanking us for various house-keeping receipts, etc., strike me as

peculiarly interesting, as I admit that a 'Woman's Page' is always a

difficult matter for a man to handle without absurdity.

"Please do not think I mean to plume myself upon our various successes; we

attempted our innovations and enlargements at just the right time--a time

which you had ripened by years of work and waiting, and at the moment when

you had built up the reputation of the 'Herald' to its highest point.

Everything that has been done is successful only because you paved the

way, and because every one knows it is your paper; and the people believe

that whatever your paper does is interesting and right.