fighting editors was Alvin S. Peek, who once boasted that he "had run newspapers in nine different states and territories, had shot eleven men who took exception to his editorial opinions, but had never been compelled to swallow a single opinion which he had uttered in his newspaper thanks to his ever-loaded pistol." He finally died "with his boots on" at the age of fifty- one. Another such editor was Albert Tyson, of The Rising Star X-Ray, of Texas, who announced himself in print "Lying and Fighting Editor." At the top of his editorial column he printed his motto, "Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You, and Do It Fust."
These weeklies were what might primarily be called one-man sheets. One of them, The Yampa Leader, of Oregon, enlarged upon this fact in the following editorial notice:
The great city papers think they are smart in having a large staff, and, although we have not published ours before, we shall do so to take some of the conceit out of the city brethren. The editorial staff of The Leader is composed of: Managing editor, V. S. Wilson; city editor, Vic Wilson; news editor, V. Wilson; editorial writer, Hon. Mr. Wilson; exchange editor, Wilson; pressman, the same Wilson; foreman, more of the same Wilson; devil, a picture of the same Wilson; fighting editor, Mrs. Wilson.
In the struggle for existence these pioneer editors duplicated the experiences of the colonial printer. The editor of The Gem, of Flagstaff, Arizona, printed an editorial notice very similar in subject-matter to what Peter Zengler once published in The New York Journal. Though slightly different in its phraseology it read:
Have you paid your subscription yet? Remember even an editor must live. If the hard times have struck your shebang, don't forget turnips, potatoes, and corn in the shock are most as welcome as hard cash at the Gem office. Also hard wood. Our latch-string is always out, or same (i.e., the turnips, etc.) can be delivered to our wife, who will give receipt in our absence.
The society news was found in such Western journals and was just as interesting as the "tommy-rot" of metropolitan dailies. The following is taken from an account of a wedding printed in The F airplay Flume, of Colorado:
