The latter being a democrat conceived the idea of securing all the government patronage, and one fine day a paper came over to Gering out of his shop bearing the title of the Gering Democrat. He started a similar process to get the coveted business in other sections also, since the law required the publication of land notices in the paper published "nearest" the land ; but the register was privileged to designate in case there was more than one paper -- hence around the Courier shop in Gering there was gloom so thick we could almost spread it on our pancakes. At that time I was in partnership with Martin Bristol, doing a farm loan business for an eastern company. The brilliant thought struck him as a solution, and he said, "Just you run my name up there as editor and I'll go over there and read the riot act to Adams. Guess I'm democrat enough to get by." We did. and for a few brief months the Courier was a democratic sheet, a fact which my good friend E. T. Westervelt, will never let me forget, although he forgets I had probably a much "blacker" reputation then than now, and even chairman of the republican county committee at that time. But the Gering Democrat

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

expired with its issue of November 9, 1888, after the presidential election result became known.

The next newspaper enterprise in this section was the Independent Union, in which A. F. Snyder, for the period from April, 1891, to February 18, 1892, espoused the cause of the farmers alliance movement, then suspended and went to Cheyenne. In the fall of 1893, the Nebraska Homestead made its advent at Gering, Wm. A. Hale being the publisher, and selling it to Wagner brothers, Harry and Frank, in 1895.