has in his possession a copy of the f1rst page of the first issue that went through the press. The paper, indeed, was printed one 6×9-inch page at a time, making the most of limited press facilities. The Argus appeared irregularly for several weeks—and the irregularity was attributed by a contemporary of the publisher to Gabbert's unwillingness to let his throat get dry. The paper finally brought its owner $10 in a sale to W. J. Wimer, who was then publishing the Courier.
J. H. Stine, who founded the Grant's Pass Courier April 3, 1885 (the town name had the apostrophe those days) had similar tastes in beverages to those of Gabbert, and tragedy overtook them both. Stine already had started the Heppner Gazette (1883), first paper in Morrow county, and during his career started several, one might say many, country weeklies. He was shot and killed near McMinnville in 1897. Gabbert's last bit of newspaper work, after a lifetime of wandering, was done in Anacortes, Wash., in the early years of the twentieth century as a reporter on weekly papers and correspondent for a Bellingham daily, the Reveille (which also is dead now—"another story"). His body was recovered from the bay at Anacortes one day in 1905.
Amenities between editors in the eighties are illustrated by the compliment paid by Dr. Gabbert of the short-lived Argus in its issue of April 23, 1885, to Stine, editor of the new Courier:
That pious editor of the Courier tries to hide from the Robertson letter by whining for protection from the Sunday school. What has the Sunday school got to do with his and Robertson's personal matters? We suppose he was mad be cause Robertson would not divide the stolen money as he was an ex-preacher. So becomingly gloriously intoxicated he fell where he lay in the gutter with two canines barking themselves hoarse until Robertson and Jim Moss appeared on the scene and lifted up his angelic form.
We, even to this day, have a kindly remembrance of those who lugged us home after swallowing copious draughts of the ardent and becoming paralyzed.
But he is too low down in the scale of infamy to appreciate a kind act. We suggest that he again demolish the crockery ware in his kitchen, make another attempt at suicide, and tell how he left a certain town in Colorado.
This, bad grammar and all, appears rather definite as to how Brother Stine stood with Brother Gabbert.
Stine's Courier was a seven-column folio. It was ably edited, in the opinion of Mr. Voorhies, who has studied what copies he could find. Mr. Voorhies notes that of all the six publishers who conducted the Courier between 1885 and 1897, Mr. Wimer, who carried on for a year, was the only one who kept a file. Within the first five
