WILL MAUPIN'S WEEKLY
THE WAGEWORKER
WILL M. MAUPIN, Editor
Published Weekly at Lincoln, Nebraska, by The
Wage worker Published Company.
Application made for entry as second class matter at the post
office at Lincoln, Nebraska.
1HAVE been gratified with the recep
tion accorded Will Maupin's Week
ly. It did not set the world afire when
it made its initial appearancebut, hon
estly, I did not ex
pect it to start much
of a conflagration.
I am well aware that
in this day and age
of dollar dailies and
free farm papers and
subsidized magazine
publishers it is diffi
cult for a "different"
newspaper to get a foothold. But I am
sure that there are enough cheerfulmind
ed people in Nebraska to accord a good
ly support to a paper that looks on life
cheerfully, believes that most people are
honest, and that it is possible to have
differences of opinion without descend
ing to bitter personalities. It is to such
that Will Maupin's Weekly will make
its appeal. Honestly, people, I would
rather be the author of a state-wide smile
of good cheer than to detect some pub
lic official in the gentle art of grafting.
Not because I would hesitate to ex
pose a faithless public official, but be
cause I do not want any dishonest pub
lic officials, and I prefer creating smiles
to "muckraking." I have some pretty
well grounded opinions of my own on
questions that are being publicly discuss
ed, but to date I have not reached the
stage when I am thoroughly convinced
that those who differ from me are thieves
and robbers and tools of special inter
ests and emissaries of Satan and all
that sort of thing. Having been born
what some people are pleased to term
a "Campbellite," I am quite well con
vinced in my own mind that baptism
by immersion is the proper mode, and
that all other modes are wrong. In
deed, I am ready to prove it to my en
tire satisfaction. But for the life of me
I am unable to believe that those who
hold sprinkling or pouring to be equal
ly efficacious are doomed to eternal
punishment for their lack of good judg
ment on this question. Of course there
are those who so believe, and contrawise
there are those who would burn me at
the stake if by so doing they could de
monstrate the rightfulness of their posi
tion; The other' day a man charged me
with being "a tool of the whiskey ring"
because I did not believe as he did on
the question of how best to deal with
the liquor problem That amused me,
for I have yet to cast my first vote for
license. That man is one of many be
lieving that all who differ from them are
doomed to hellfire. Well, maybe even
hellfire is preferable to a heaven peo
pled by that class of narrowminded be
ings. Will Maupin's Weekly is not going
to waste its time nor the time of those
wise enough to become its subscribers,
by trying to solve all the vexed problems
that confront us. Jt recognizes its own
limitations, as well as the peculiar brain
formation of the average man. There
fore its mission will be, chiefly, to make
happier the passing hours by cheerful
comment and earnest effort to promote
human happiness by spreading the gos
pel of smiles.
The easiest thing in the world is to
stir up trouble and strife, and there are
too many who engage therein. The
next easiest is to criticize and find fault,
and many there be engaged therein.
And the world is given, to strewing flow
ers upon the grave of the dead, after
long neglecting to put a single posy in
the hands of the living. All the flowers
that Will Maupin's Weekly has to dis
pose of will be handed out while the re
cipients are alive and able to enjoy their
colors and their odors. The best things
said about men have been carved on
their tombstones. Will Maupin's Week
ly will say its good words of men while
they are alive to enjoy them, leaving the
task of carving epitaphs to the tomb
stonemakers.. Old John Miller, a miller in the lit
tle old home town back in Missouri, was
a philosopher. A bunch of men sat
around his mill door one summer after
noon and discussed all the problems of
religion and politics. The subject of
hell came up and Uncle John said:
"I believe there is a hell where we
are punished for the evil deeds we done
here, but I don't believe it's a place
where we just burn and sizzle forever
and ever. Why, we just couldn't stand
it!" What's the use of discussing hell
and how to escape it when there are so
many opportunities of discussing heaven
and how to gain it? What's the use of
looking for evil to complain about when
there is so much of beauty to see and
enjoy? What's the use of putting in so
much time figuring on a glorious here
after that we neglect to live a life of use
fulness in the now? .
: There is so mych good in the world
to talk about and especially in Nebras
kathat Will Maupin's Weekly expects
never to exhaust the subject. There is
so little of evil, comparatively especially
in Nebraska that Will Maupin's Week
ly is not going to waste time hunting it
up for the purpose of grumbling about
it. There's an easy chair and a warm wel
come awaiting in this office for every
apostle of optimism and good cheer, but
the office atmosphere will be chilly for
the pessimist and the chronic kicker.
The other day a well-meaning strang
er dropped into the office and asked me
if I had considered the question of my
soul's salvation. I admitted that I had
given it some thought.
"May I not talk to you about it, my
friend?" he asked.
"Well, not right now," I replied. "I
am figuring on how to meet the payroll
tomorrow, night. If you can interest
the printer and the pressman in that
subject to the extent that they'll forget
to ask for their pay envelopes, then 111
have more time to listen to you."
Then he tried to show me by liber
al Biblical quotations that I was short
sighted, but he was soon convinced that
I knew a thing or two about the Good
Book myself.
The now the right now is worry
ing me considerably more than the here!
after.
Will Maupin's Weekly is of the new
school. It is going to offer the remedy
of good cheer, wholesome humor, kind
ly comment and good fellowship for all
the evils that the grouch, the knocker
and the pessimist have thrust upon us.
Want to join the school? Cost you
just a dollar for one year's treatment,
and the course is guaranteed to cure
the worst case of grouch and pessimism
known.
Printing
UST the kind you want
WHEN you want it
Auto 2748.
Wageworker Publishing Co.
