Mightier Than The Pen

The Harrison & Reid Club at Zenobia, the Cullum Rally at Virden—the presidential campaign of 1892 was heating up and patriotism and love of country was in the air that fall. Incumbent President Harrison would be defeated come election day, November 8th, by Grover Cleveland who became the only person to be elected to non-consecutive presidential terms. However, to those of us who enjoyed the perfect drills of the Zenobia club as they came through the area, that election event was unimaginable. Truth be told, we were more concerned locally and about the day-to-day life our neighbors led and with our visits to and from the homes of relatives and friends. And, quite often simply stated, I reported all I knew or was told.

One of my favorite puns was to write about myself  in the third person—not always in the kindest way—but rather as one would taunt a brother or best friend.  This column exemplifies this as McGinty reports J. L.’s return to Illinois and his current trip to Sorento.  McGinty also wishes J.L. fair, cool weather to not only ‘thaw him out and melt the frost off his back,” but also “gentle breeze to make his coat-tail play whip-cracker around his legs and cool off his sweating brow.”

Whip-cracker! Now there’s a term you don’t hear too often nowadays. I can only hope that in future columns I can dazzle you with more of my inspired adjectives and phrases of yore that helped give my stories and reports more colorful substance.

It is Father’s last pension voucher. It’s cash in date was set for April, 1892, but ironically it stipulated his certification that he had not been employed nor paid by any service of the United States from the 4^th day of January, 1892—the irony being that is the day Father died.

Now that I was in my mid-twenties and both my parents were deceased, I was on my own, ready to carve my niche in the world, to sow my wild oats, as it were and I was not yet ready to settle down to start a family.  A glimpse at how I spent my bachelor years will be this Chapter’s focus as I continue my Sigley family chronicles.

You will read that however else I supported myself, the one constant was my writing for local newspapers.  As I revisit those years by sharing with you the worn clippings that remain of my contributions to several Central Illinois dailies, I recall those times, my family, my friends and our lives. Going back in time with me, you will learn how we worked hard, but also led lives full of camaraderie and simple joys.

The most difficult part of this research has been the dating of these articles.  So much is assumed by writers—almost as much as what is taken for granted. When I was a correspondent, I correctly assumed that the people I mentioned were familiar to my readers and I took for granted that those facts I reported did not require a dating reference. By way of example, when I mentioned that “W. A. Lyman has lost his grip at farming and has gone to painting” I cannot tell you what he used to farm nor what he then painted. I simply assumed at the time that my readers knew those answers and, fighting redundancy, omitted those facts that could make our story now so much more vivid. Working around those limitations I will do my best to stay on course and get us all to the next epoch.

I have chosen to introduce this chapter with a look back as our country found itself on a new platform No quite through reconstruction, the United States faced the threat of the Spanish American War while looking ahead to the turn of the century. It is not my intent to chronicle The Spanish American War but rather to point out its significance because it not only established the United States as a world power, but it helped to mend relations between the north and the south after the Civil War and Reconstruction.