A Local Political Feud
A scathing editorial attack on a local rival editor, accusing him of paranoia and claiming he sees imaginary plots to destroy his newspaper.
Papa Holton is getting worse with the creeping on of old age. He has always been a subject of queer fancies and hallucinations but of late these have taken a more fantastical turn. For several weeks past his paper, the Republic, has portentously rumbled and grumbled about its being boycotted or 'done up' by somebody or something. There has been a plot—a deep, dark plot—and this plot had for its object the downfall of the Republic. The conspirators as nominated by Papa Holton were Edward Whitson, John C. Boyle, H. J. Snively, J. B. Reavis, and E. M. Reed. What a fearful combination. Their names alone would convict them in any court of justice were it not for the fact that the object of the commission of crime is generally enquired into and in this case no object could be conjured up for doing away with anything so harmless as the Republic.
“Their names alone would convict them in any court of justice were it not for the fact that the object of the commission of crime is generally enquired into.”
This reflects the hyper-partisan and often vitriolic nature of 19th-century local journalism, where newspapers functioned less as objective observers and more as weapons in political turf wars.
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