Show pyyrryfi Off the f Tri p Wasatch r — y t ?1 A war of words r v1 Utah’s 4 h By By Roger Baker Staff writer politically correct holiday greetings for me County Register the Sanpitcher the Mt Pleasant Pyramid the Mt Pleasant Call and the Gunnison Gazette These are but few of the names of newspapers that graced the dry goods stores the smithy shops and the everyday businesses and homes of the of my most surprising Christmas experiences happened on the Wasatch Front This means I’ll have to say something good about the land up north even though it is never pleasant to admit that there is intelligent life north of Fairview It happened in a convenience store a place where we can be inconvenienced by a request for a cosigner in and early 20th century central Utah Before radio telephone and pei haps even the telegraph people craved the latest news and gossip on and off the Wasatch Front book found in An order to completely fill the gas tank But my experience should not have been a surprise After the the obligatory Diet Cherry Coke from the cooler and the ritual Visa card swipe the sales clerk looked me right in the eye and said something I think I’ve missed hearing in retail establishments for years: “Merry Christmas” It wasn’t a defiant “I’ll show the politically correct crowd what kind of greeting I give” It was as simple as “Have a nice day” or "Watch for deer driving home” But she looked me right in the eye when she said it and the greeting had a sincere tone and feel Best of all it made me feel good even while being inconvenienced The Merry Christmas greeting at the most inconvenient of places stopped me and then took me back to my past when the greeting was routine in every store from Thanksgiving to December 25 decided to listen better and to offer my own greetings this season In listening I found the greeting at Ace Hardware and other shops here off the Wasatch but it was absent from the big box stores In spite of the season it was ” You know the rest As I offered the still “Welcome to greeting I detected no offence Mostly people smiled and re- °tfer Ephraim’s first newspaper was born in 890 when the town barely had 2000 residents A neighboring paper stated that this new publication was a “new ‘Ephrum’ paper which will sail under the glaring headlines of County Register We do not know why the first name is used but suppose it is only a joke on the county” This remark reflected the fact that Manti was and still is the county seat of Sanpete County Within a year Ephraim's second journalistic endeavor ap- peared: “Ephraim Enterprise early news days The character of that journalistic era is captured in the book’s subtitle: “A Half Cen- Wednesday September 6 89 Murray and Goddard publishers takes the place of the Register" One Utah newspaper of the Warfare Waged by the West’s Most Militant Press” In contemporary times people may think that we have warring news agencies littering the waves of radio and television with pithy commentaries We witness running battles between superstars of radio talk shows and television ratings wars driven by sheer weight of personalities This all pales compared to the real wars waged in early Utah journalism In the introduction to his book Alter ex- plained “The pioneer editor considered himself a weakling MANTI HE11ALD he did not stand positively ZMT EMTeii the press in their hands learned swiftly to their sorrow of its responsibilities and gave up their ideal surrendered their liberty and forfeited their precious presses (As proof consult the index for ‘bankruptcy’ ‘trials in court’ ‘jailed’ and so forth!)” Alter continued “Gunshot wounds broken bones coats of tar and feathers blazing duels imprisonments conflicts and Nature’s ItwHU WriUj M tf ArftN£f Unit ft t It it'll Yty ltn1: Yr— t IwlflMtlP UtdwhlitFlliJ I Witt U iwtrwut itWItu ii lUiWaL "T TT fti 14 tl ( diy if tt Hill t4t tf BUw tdn t Imj trw Vii fWltto wu - Pr k rllvk r (Im f4 in lit ti ini tvir ti n 4 lltl 7irtt try it h ' tiru Ri NOROy mivimA Uit mt boiitm IltMl n2i b '' ki inti ty MuPKiylm fU SAKTETE H7 iCVNO fill tt ' rrJrjllY llVintL vb hl fti?k fill nlj y A'' -- a ‘'"'-- SUiiiVdF Couruvy T The Manti Herald was one of Sanpete’s earliest newspae page pers The paper was handwritten on one lisher He was still its publisher when Alter’s book went to press 9 years later Meanwhile back in the north end of the county on Dec 6 890 the Mt Pleasant Pyramid appeared Editor AB Williams described his to stale that as a citizen we have been a letter with his quill” The Sentinel Vol I No appeared Friday April 24 1885 This was Manti’s first mechani- stance as follows: essary Liberal as the editor oi this Journal we propose to lay our prejudice aside and enter into the spirit that desires to make Mount Pleasant the Metropolis of Sanpete County” Altcr’s book also talks about Manti’s newspapers in particular the Manti Herald the Home Sentinel and the Manti Messenger “Manti $150 Robinson No Herald FC Editor and Publisher January 31 1867 All It consisted of one page legal size divided into three columns a large art heading being drawn” Within two months the name Vol handwritten system- - - If there is an outage phone our call center and you'll be connected to our Easy outage reporting enhanced interactive voice response (IVR) system which will alert our local crews The immediately system can also give you accurate updates on how the restoration process is going It's fast and efficient handling as many as 15000 calls an hour your copy of Getting Ready for Mother Nature our booklet with tips to help prepare for an outage and to see what we do to restore power visit utahpowernet us at to our subscribers for the of the Herald last “Gieetingit may be nec- editorial Alter was improved to the Manti HerA San Pete Advertiser stated message to subscribers “We feel that an apology is due ald and week and by way of explanation may say that the ‘type’ we had pieviously used pioved defective and we concluded to wait until we could get a fiesh supply!” Some humor Alter writes given that “the editor drew each - you or call Nature UTAH POWER ft wm kruit (tMMlkA k kmis (ms 4d iti — J Cecil per year According to the American Newspaper Directory of 1900 the editor and publ isher was an N Gledhill " kll 14 fct throw everything she has at us this winter That's why we work year round pruning trees and investing in our system to cut down on problems before they start Tree maintenance - We're working on nearly a quarter of a million trees that posed a threat to your electric service Our methods keep trees healthy while helping keep your lights on Remember - near power lines you’ll have fewer outages if you trees plant y Bright Future We've invested more than $200 million in new and upgraded transmission and distribution lines and substations to help us meet the growing demand for electricity in Utah We've also improved our field employees' work process to respond even more quickly to your service requests j Dwtla haul Ml TYlijtHliitli olt r ttiuy'M((i But For l)4 Tin 1 Ihi So weVe always working on ours Heavy snow high wind and ice - Mother Nature might COPYlr r ri u (m il night-tim- e “It util lulik 14 NirtlM dill Kt If “‘U will be an instrument in the hands of its talented editor to assist in slaying the giant of error ” At the opposite end of the county in Gunnison a town with only 829 citizens the Gunnison Gazette appeared Oct 20 1899 The Gazette was an 8 by 24 inches and cost subscribers hi Uli MdVj tti writing paper” And with a touch of humor Alter reports that another local paper said of the Sanpitcher ft il f IwjiWn tW lV t nh imiDM Wfy iwh kit k4i Sanpitcher Alter relates what was said of this paper: “The paper is published in the flourishing town of Mount Pleasis done upon a sheet of ant and The Gazette closed its doors in 1919 and gave its file to its successor the Gunnison Valley News with Howard W Cherry as pub VAMBny tiU uu l(wtt (ut Bu UU “u' b ays gettin somethin g of her You can’t outwit Mother But we’re working on it (U (UiH 4 Ir M ti time carried the following: “By the Wasatch Wave of June 20 1893 The Ephraim we are informed: Enterprise has gone Democratic’” A couple of decades before the Ephraim papers appeared David Candland edited a paper out of Mt Pleasant called the press and free speech meSMI’N mmm the tenvJ t II fcj CeUHZV duels imprisonments conflicts and quarrels all in the name of a free thing monitoring the thoughts and actions of the community with the dignity and ” severity of a dictator Alter also stated that early newspaper editors who felt “for the first time the intoxicating power of APetTispn cAupsnrcT( If Itl of tar and feathers blazing if militant’ ‘West’s most Gunshot wounds broken bones coats and aggressively for or against some- Christmas” speech too freely interpreted!” Central Utah journalism was tame compared to the warring in Weber Salt Lake and Utah counties the Snow College library titled “Early Utah Journalism” published by the Utah Historical Society in 1938 and authored by board member J Cecil Alter chronicles Utah’s tury of Forensic turned my greeting with their own “Merry Christmas” The folks at Moroni Feed tell me that the traditional greeting has gone missing from the hundreds of incorrectly named Christmas cards sent to the business each year Along with “Happy Holidays” “Seasons Greetings” and other generic and heartfelt cliches Moroni Feed received exactly one card among hundreds with the greeting “Merry Christmas” Yet there is no doubt where the people at Moroni Feed stand and their annual card is exhibit A The change in our Christmas speech may not be in the It may be that we are forgetful name of political correctness or even that the language has changed First consider that Christmas may be the only holiday other than New Year’s Day that even has a unique greeting I have never heard “Have a Merry Veteran’s Day” or “Happy Valentines” or even a “Season’s Greetings” during the twin July holidays of Pioneer Day and Independence Day Another problem may be the archaic word “merry” When not paired with Christmas “merry” can carry a tone of mischief or even debauchery “Making merry” can imply tipsy revelry and in Ireland the rainy weather often “made merry” with our weekend plans In the 16th century a “merry” was a wild cherry Later “merry” was frequently associated with music Yet even if a bit clumsy and archaic with modern tones of mischief “Merry Christmas” seems to say it best It is certainly more evocative than “Cool Yule” and for me it rolls off the tongue easier than the beautiful expressions in languages other than English like “Froehliche Weihnachten” “Joyeux Noel” “Feliz Navidad” or my favorite the Irish expression “Nollaig Shona Dhuit” “Merry Christmas” is easily better than the generic greetings of Christmas cards because at the least it admits the reason for our modern celebration of the holiday And so I offer the simple phrase to Sanpete Messenger readers “Merry quarrels galore are also reported in the following pages — all in the name of a free press and a free The Manti Herald the Home Sentinel the Ephraim Enterprise Afo One pioneer newspapers were the Geoffrey Pace cally piinted newspaper Then again not everything was sunshine and roses in central On page IK) Utah journalism Alter writes: “August 5 1886: Low has ‘Dan Harrington Comedy retired from the proprietorship and editorship of the Manti Snide Sheet’” There was the running battle between certain subscribcis in the Manti area with Jim Jakeman the editor ol both thcNeplu Ensign and the Home Sentinel Alter reported this another review from “There is publication: of unusual couise m the nothing fact that one man publishes two papers but Jakeman has hit upon a daisy plan to fill the columns of his sheet: the editorials of one are For the editorials of the other running a newspaper Jakeman has a Henry Clay head on linn more clay than Henry!’’’ 893 the Then on Oct 13 Manti Messenger was bom with this subtitle: “For the free coinage of silver and protection to home industries Joel Shomaker Editor The Manti Printing and Publishing Company” Exactly one week later the Salt Lake Tribune had kind words to say about the Messenger: “lt is a new venture edIt is ited by Joel Shomaker almost the nicest of the rural in Utah it not the publications very nicest” From those beginnings today’s Sanpete Messenger has arisen the genteel press south of the Wasatch Front that reits tilth ancently celebrated niversary with its current editor and publisher Suzanne Dean And with its two editions (the “regular” edition and the Gunnison Valley Edition) nearly 3000 subscribers and annual revenues growing toward $400000 it should be around for oh at least another yeais! |