“I’ve got two advertisements,” said Mr. Opp; “but I don’t intend to rest content until every man in the Cove has got a card in. Now, about these contributors from other counties?”
“I can manage that,” said Nick. “I’ll write to some girl or fellow I know in the different towns, and ask them to give me a weekly letter. They sign [p92] themselves ‘Gipsy’ or ‘Fairy’ or ‘Big Injun’ or something like that, and tell what’s doing in their neighborhood. We’ll have to fix the letters up some, but they help fill in like everything.”
Mr. Opp’s spirits rose at this capable coöperation.
“You—er—like the name?” he asked.
“‘The Opp Eagle’?” said Nick. “Bully!”
Such unqualified approval went to Mr. Opp’s head, and he rashly broke through the dignity that should hedge about an editor.
“I don’t mind reading you some of my editorial,” he said urbanely; “it’s the result of considerable labor.”
He opened the drawer and took out some loosely written pages, though he knew each paragraph by heart. Squaring himself in his revolving-chair, and clearing his throat, he addressed himself ostensibly to the cadaverous youth stretched at length before him, but in imagination to all the southern counties of the grand old Commonwealth of Kentucky.
[p93]
His various business experiences had stored such an assorted lot of information in his brain that it was not unlike a country store in the diversity of its contents. His style, like his apparel, was more ornate and pretentious than what lay beneath it. There were many words which he knew by sight, but with which he had no speaking acquaintance. But Mr. Opp had ideals, and this was the first opportunity he had ever had to put them before his fellow-men.
“The great bird of American Liberty,” he read impressively, “has soared and flown over the country and lighted at last in your midst. ‘The Opp Eagle’ appears for the first time to-day. It is no money scheme in which we are indulging; we aim first and foremost to fulfil a much-needed want in the community. ‘The Opp Eagle’ will tell the people what you want to know better and at less expense than any other method. It will aim at bringing the priceless gems of knowledge within the reach of [p94] everybody. For what is bread to the body if you do not also clothe the mind spiritually and mentally?