The Town's Sharpest Pen-War
A local editor takes aim at a critic, claiming his rival is a man who has lived in Aberdeen for four years without working a day.
The Herald's criticisms of the blatherskite who is the Aberdeen correspondent for the Economist has brought H. F. Coles to his defense. In last week's issue, Coles signs his name to the correspondence and asserts that the correspondent is not lazy but is a hard-working man, and that his neighbors will so testify. We have great respect for a hard-working man, but this correspondent has the reputation of having lived in Aberdeen four years and never been known to do a day's work—except perhaps with his jaw—and in leading honest toilers on wild-goose chases to the advantage of his own pocket. This man Coles does not like the Herald because it refused to help him bamboozle the people last fall; in fact, he has no use for any paper that he cannot use to further his own interest.
“We have great respect for a hard-working man, but this correspondent... has the reputation of having lived in Aberdeen four years and never been known to do a day's work—except perhaps with his jaw.”
Small-town newspaper feuds were the social media of the 1890s, where public accusations of 'laziness' served as proxy for deeper political and class conflicts. The biting, personal tone remains a hallmark of local civic discourse, proving that even a century later, nothing mobilizes an audience quite like a public grudge.
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