OLD DESK IN THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE - 1937

BLYTHE, LINCOLN, HATTON, HARLAN, GEAR, BENTHUYSEN, PAYNE, SPAULDING, KOPP, JONES

Posted By: Pat Ryan White (email)
Date: 1/11/2018 at 17:32:28

OLD DESK IN THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE - 1937

We are writing these notes at a desk with a history. A desk which has been bruised and abused and landed in the loft, ready for the kindling pile. And then sentiment saved it for, we hope, many years of usefulness. How old the desk is no one knows. Certainly it was used in the office of the “Mt. Pleasant Journal” in Civil War days, and in constant use until the Journal was purchased by the writer. Since then it has been in the discard.

The old desk is solid black walnut with bronze hardware, each drawer with its solid brass lock. It is just back from the hands of Bill Blythe, who got a lot of fun rehabilitating it for use again.

Robert Lincoln has argued over the broad face of the double desk. Postmaster General Frank Hatton worked at the desk when he owned the old Journal. Senator Harlan wrote many an article and corrected proof on it. Governor Gear was in many a conference about the desk. In the old days the party newspaper office was the head and center of all political activities, and in the old Journal office gathered from time to time, the big men in party politics. What history the old desk could tell of the political enterprises projected from around its hardy old top.

The great Van Benthuysen, who rose to the top of the newspaper profession, knew the desk well. G. Logan Payne, who, too, went a long ways in the newspaper game, and died too soon, worked over the desk when he was part owner of the Journal. So did Dr. Spaulding, ex-president of Wesleyan and so did Congressman Kopp, when a partner in the paper, and here, too, Uncle Bill Jones of Jackson wrote his memorable articles on the tariff. Good old desk, may its old associations and participations with big men and in big events, still influence who ever may work with it in the future.

[The Bystander’s Notes, “Mount Pleasant News”, January 14, 1937, Page 1]