This unlucky newspaper was a thorn in the side of every patriot of Carlow
County. It was a poor paper; everybody knew it was a poor paper; it was so
poor that everybody admitted it was a poor paper--worse, the neighboring
county of Amo possessed a better paper, the "Amo Gazette." The "Carlow
County Herald" was so everlastingly bad that Plattville people bent their
heads bitterly and admitted even to citizens of Amo that the "Gazette" was
the better paper. The "Herald" was a weekly, issued on Saturday; sometimes
it hung fire over Sunday and appeared Monday evening. In their pride, the
Carlow people supported the "Herald" loyally and long; but finally
subscriptions began to fall off and the "Gazette" gained them. It came to
pass that the "Herald" missed fire altogether for several weeks; then it
came out feebly, two small advertisements occupying the whole of the
fourth page. It was breathing its last. The editor was a clay-colored
gentleman with a goatee, whose one surreptitious eye betokened both
indolence of disposition and a certain furtive shrewdness. He collected
all the outstanding subscriptions he could, on the morning of the issue
just mentioned, and, thoughtfully neglecting several items on the other
side of the ledger, departed from Plattville forever.
The same afternoon a young man from the East alighted on the platform of
the railway station, north of the town, and, entering the rickety omnibus
that lingered there, seeking whom it might rattle to deafness, demanded to
be driven to the Herald Building. It did not strike the driver that the
newcomer was precisely a gay young man when he climbed into the omnibus;
but, an hour later, as he stood in the doorway of the edifice he had
indicated as his destination, depression seemed to have settled into the
marrow of his bones. Plattville was instantly alert to the stranger's
presence, and interesting conjectures were hazarded all day long at the
back door of Martin's Dry-Goods Emporium, where all the clerks from the
stores around the Square came to play checkers or look on at the game.
(This was the club during the day; in the evening the club and the game
removed to the drug, book, and wall-paper store on the corner.) At supper,
the new arrival and his probable purposes were discussed over every table
in the town. Upon inquiry, he had informed Judd Bennett, the driver of the
omnibus, that he had come to stay. Naturally, such a declaration caused a
sensation, as people did not come to Plattville to live, except through
the inadvertency of being born there. In addition, the young man's
appearance and attire were reported to be extraordinary. Many of the
curious, among them most of the marriageable females of the place, took
occasion to pass and repass the sign of the "Carlow County Herald" during
the evening.