Risen from the Ranks: Harry Walton's Success

FLETCHER’S OPINION OF HARRY WALTON.

In two weeks all the business arrangements were completed, and Ferguson and Harry became joint proprietors of the “Centreville Gazette,” the latter being sole editor.  The change was received with favor in the village, as Harry had, as editor pro tem. for two months, shown his competence for the position.  It gave him prominence also in town, and, though only nineteen, he already was classed with the minister, the doctor and the lawyer.  It helped him also with the weekly papers to which he contributed in Boston, and his pay was once more raised, while his sketches were more frequently printed.  Now this was all very pleasant, but it was not long before our hero found himself overburdened with work.

“What is the matter Harry?  You look pale,” said Ferguson, one morning.

“I have a bad headache, and am feeling out of sorts.”

“I don’t wonder at it.  You are working too hard.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do.  You do nearly as much as I, as a compositor.  Then you do all the editorial work, besides writing sketches for the Boston papers.”

“How can I get along with less?  The paper must be edited, and I shouldn’t like giving up writing for the Boston papers.”

“I’ll tell you what to do.  Take a boy and train him up as a printer.  After a while he will relieve you almost wholly, while, by the time he commands good wages, we shall be able to pay them.”

“It is a good idea, Ferguson.  Do you know of any boy that wants to learn printing?”

“Haven’t you got a younger brother?”

“The very thing,” said Harry, briskly.  “Father wrote to me last week that he should like to get something for ——.”

“Better write and offer him a place in the office.”

“I will.”

The letter was written at once.  An immediate answer was received, of a favorable nature.  The boy was glad to leave home, and the father was pleased to have him under the charge of his older brother.

After he had become editor, and part proprietor of the “Gazette,” Harry wrote to Oscar Vincent to announce his promotion.  Though Oscar had been in college now nearly two years, and they seldom met, the two were as warm friends as ever, and from time to time exchanged letters.

This was Oscar’s reply:—­

  “HARVARD COLLEGE, June 10.

“DEAR MR. EDITOR:  I suppose that’s the proper way to address you now.  I congratulate you with all my heart on your brilliant success and rapid advancement.  Here you are at nineteen, while I am only a rattle-brained sophomore.  I don’t mind being called that, by the way, for at least it credits me with the possession of brains.  Not that I am doing so very badly.  I am probably in the first third of the class, and that implies respectable scholarship here.

“But you—­I can hardly realize that you, whom I knew only two or three years since as a printer’s apprentice (I won’t use Fletcher’s word), have lifted yourself to the responsible position of sole editor.  Truly you have risen from the ranks!

“Speaking of Fletcher, by the way, you know he is my classmate.  He occupies an honorable position somewhere near the foot of the class, where he is likely to stay, unless he receives from the faculty leave of absence for an unlimited period.  I met him yesterday, swinging his little cane, and looking as dandified as he used to.

“‘Hallo!  Fletcher,’ said I, ’I’ve just got a letter from a friend of yours.’

“‘Who is it?’ he asked.

“‘Harry Walton.’

“‘He never was a friend of mine,’ said Fitz, turning up his delicately chiselled nose,—­’the beggarly printer’s devil!’

“I hope you won’t feel sensitive about the manner in which Fitz spoke of you.

“‘You’ve made two mistakes,’ said I.  ’He’s neither a beggar nor a printer’s devil.’

“‘He used to be,’ retorted Fitz.

“’The last, not the first.  You’ll be glad to hear that he’s getting on well.’

“‘Has he had his wages raised twenty-five cents a week?’ sneered Fitz.

“‘He has lost his place,’ said I.

“Fletcher actually looked happy, but I dashed his happiness by adding, ‘but he’s got a better one.’

“‘What’s that?’ he snarled.

“’He has bought out the paper of Mr. Anderson, and is now sole editor and part proprietor.’

“’A boy like him buy a paper, without a cent of money and no education!’

“’You are mistaken.  He had several hundred dollars, and as a writer he is considerably ahead of either of us.’

“‘He’ll run the paper into the ground,’ said Fitz, prophetically.

“‘If he does, it’ll only be to give it firmer root.’

“‘You are crazy about that country lout,’ said Fitz.  ’It isn’t much to edit a little village paper like that, after all.’

“So you see what your friend Fitz thinks about it.  As you may be in danger of having your vanity fed by compliments from other sources, I thought I would offset them by the candid opinion of a disinterested and impartial scholar like Fitz.

“I told my father of the step you have taken.  ‘Oscar,’ said he, ’that boy is going to succeed.  He shows the right spirit.  I would have given him a place on my paper, but very likely he does better to stay where he is.’

“Perhaps you noticed the handsome notice he gave you in his paper yesterday.  I really think he has a higher opinion of your talents than of mine; which, of course, shows singular lack of discrimination.  However, you’re my friend, and I won’t make a fuss about it.

“I am cramming for the summer examinations and hot work I find it, I can tell you.  This summer I am going to Niagara, and shall return by way of the St. Lawrence and Montreal, seeing the Thousand Islands, the rapids, and so on.  I may send you a letter or two for the ‘Gazette,’ if you will give me a puff in your editorial columns.”

These letters were actually written, and, being very lively and readable, Harry felt quite justified in referring to them in a complimentary way.  Fletcher’s depreciation of him troubled him very little.

“It will make me neither worse nor better,” he reflected.  “The time will come, I hope, when I shall have risen high enough to be wholly indifferent to such ill-natured sneers.”

His brother arrived in due time, and was set to work as Harry himself had been three years before.  He was not as smart as Harry, nor was he ever likely to rise as high; but he worked satisfactorily, and made good progress, so that in six months he was able to relieve Harry of half his labors as compositor.  This, enabled him to give more time to his editorial duties.  Both boarded at Ferguson’s, where they had a comfortable home and good, plain fare.

Meanwhile, Harry was acknowledged by all to have improved the paper, and the most satisfactory evidence of the popular approval of his efforts came in an increased subscription list, and this, of course, made the paper more profitable.  At the end of twelve months, the two partners had paid off the money borrowed from Professor Henderson, and owned the paper without incumbrance.

“A pretty good year’s work, Harry,” said Ferguson, cheerfully.

“Yes,” said Harry; “but we’ll do still better next year.”