Betrayal in the Press Room

In pursuance of an arrangement secretly made between an apprentice in this office and a number of others, not residents of this place, but under the strongest conceivable obligations of good faith and fidelity to the publisher of this paper, all work on the Star ceased just one month ago. The publisher, with his family, was away from home for the holidays, and had left the paper in the hands of its most true and trusted friends. The local, 'so long, boys,' was the signal agreed upon by which this friend informed his fellow conspirators that he had obtained control of the office and secured the stoppage of the paper. All work had ceased for nearly a week before any intimation of the plot was conveyed to the publisher. The first he knew of it was the shameless boast of one of the conspirators of the success of the scheme upon his return home from the Skagit. Financial matters had little or nothing to do with it, except that these plotters hoped to bring such a pressure to bear upon the creditors of the concern that they would prevent its resumption. The paper itself was more than self-supporting from the start. Other matters had resulted in an indebtedness which left the paper subject, in a certain degree, to the control of its creditors, provided they could be induced to take advantage of such treachery. Fortunately, they could not be induced to do so. The whole scheme was a carefully contrived plot to effect the financial ruin of the publisher, and use that as a means of breaking up his family and destroying his social happiness. It is now on a firm basis, with little to fear from either secret or open enemies.