Martinsburg Daily Gazette

How Prentice Got His Passes.

I was an apprentice on the old Louisville Journal—George D. Prentice was the editor and Paul Shipman was the man of all work. There were no city editors nor managing editors in those days ('47-'56). James Guthrie, of Kentucky, had been secretary of the Federal treasury; and probably learned a lesson or two in economy. When retired he came home to Louisville and was elected president of the Louisville and Nashville Railway company. His first order was to prohibit all passes except to employees. There was to be a joint discussion at Bowling Green between Lazarus W. Powell and Archibald Dixon. Mr. Prentice told Shipman to go and report it, and wrote a letter to Mr. Guthrie for a trip pass out and back. The request was refused. The next morning the leading editorial paragraph in The Journal read as follows: "Wanted—Any man or woman who has a complaint against the Louisville and Nashville Railway company to write it out in full for these columns." By night that day The Journal office had a bushel of communications. The next morning Mr. Prentice had me bundle them all up and sent me to Mr. Guthrie with the following note: "Hon. James Guthrie, president L. and N. R'y: Herewith find divers and sundry letters touching the management of your road. Send me three annual passes in blank or I'll print every d---d one of them. The Journal does not ask passes for what it prints, but for what it suppresses. Yours, G. D. P." I carried the bundle and the passes back.—Phocion Howard in Chicago News.