Page:History of Warren County.djvu/291

 ability as an effective author, preacher and writer. He wrote a temperance book which was published in an illustrated edition by Shepard & Co., New York, and had an unprecedented sale in this country and Europe, receiving high commendation from the press. He was an easy and vigorous writer, and started the Messenger as a paper "devoted to subjects of a moral and religious character, with the intention of having nothing to do with politics except so far as they may have a direct bearing upon the destinies of the great brotherhood of man." But being a strong temperance and anti-slavery advocate, the paper in a few months naturally drifted into the support of the Republican nominee for president, John C. Fremont. Since that date the Messenger has been an unwavering Republican paper. In the issue dated April 8th, 1858, Mr. Milne, in a valedictory, stated that "feeble health has admonished lis for some time that our labors as a publisher and editor must cease," and introduced L. A. Arnold as the future editor, who had associated with him Norman Cole, to superintend the mechanical part of the business. Arnold acted as editor and Cole as publisher. It was announced Nov. 25th, 1863, that Norman Cole had purchased Arnold's interest and assumed the duties of both publisher and editor. On the last day of May, 1864, the paper was greatly crippled and its office completely consumed in the great fire which swept so disastrously through tbe village. It immediately sprang from the ashes, but did not emerge from the dark war cloud, which at that time hung over the land, nor did it appear in its full proportions until the 16th of September, when its new cylinder press arrived and the arduous work of publishing and editing so large a country newspaper was fully resumed. Not an issue was lost, however, although the copies intervening between the last of May and the 1 6th of September were of a smaller cast and different form. A copy of what was called the "Phoenix Edition" of the Messenger, which is herein printed, explains itself, and illustrates the condition of the village after the fire of 1864; the difficulties which the publishers encountered in continuing the publication without the loss of an edition, and the style of the paper itself The copy is as nearly as possible a facsimile of the original. That issue was printed from type borrowed of the Sandy Hill Herald office, on a little hand press saved from the Messenger office during the fire, the work being done in the editor's corn-house.