Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/551

 the large libraries of the state to make a fascinating book, in robust record of the creative side of Oregon editors for 75 years. T. T. Geer first learned to write as a columnist for the Blue Mountain Sentinel over the signature of Ram Pant. A column at Albany ran regularly once a week for 35 years and intermittently for another eight years, and is still going. A column from a small town in Eastern Oregon has been quoted more than 500 weeks over a period of years by a national eclectic magazine that features a department of such shorts. In the Rogue River Valley "Ye Smudge Pot" of Arthur Perry reaches more eager readers than many a magazine, and, at Yoncalla and down at Elkton and far and wide in Douglas County, "Prune Picking" used to give the population of the Umpqua Valley a feeling of companionable unity. For any day or any week the news might fail to be important or greatly interesting, but these columns dependably came into the households with cheerfulness and in satisfaction of a literary need.

In this chapter from the whole bright abundance available, are given eleven examples: Orange Jacobs in the Jacksonville Sentinel, Harrison R. Kincaid in the Oregon State Journal at Eugene, George J. Buys in the Eugene Guard, Fred Pike Nutting with "Misfits" in the Albany Democrat, Merle R. Chessman with "The Weekly Bulldogger" in the Pendleton East Oregonian, Dean Collins with "Nescius Nitts of Punkindorf Station" in the Oregonian; Arthur Perry with "Ye Smudge Pot" in the Medford Mail-Tribune; Clark Wood in the Weston Leader; Elbert Bede in the Cottage Grove Sentinel; Bert Bates with "Prune Pick-