An Infernal Machine on the Editor's Step
Someone left a dynamite bomb at the office of the Springdale Reformer. It was spotted before the mechanism could be tripped — and Editor Burrows shrugged it off as a joker's prank.
An attempt was made last week to dynamite the office of the Reformer at Springdale. An infernal machine containing dynamite was left on the steps of the office, but the machine was discovered before the mechanism was started. Editor Burrows thinks that some joker tried to scare him, but it did not work. — Chewelah Independent.
“Editor Burrows thinks that some joker tried to scare him, but it did not work.”
A working bomb left at a country editor's door is a reminder that the small-town press of 1908 was not a safe or decorative institution, and that the men who ran it made enemies over land, liquor, politics and railroad franchises. Nobody was charged and Burrows treated it as a prank, but the image of an unexploded device on a newspaper's steps has not aged at all — intimidation of journalists is a live story in 2024, not a period curiosity.
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