I
aper
- :
(Formerlv Trie Fbol-Kuler)
Pearson s
A.
Volume XII.
Boomer, North Carolina, January, 1923.
Number 8.
Pearson's Paper
PUBLISHED MONTHLY
;
James Larkin Pearson - - - -Editor
BOOMER, NORTH CAROLINA
even my fool stuff, all of which
tended to broaden and educate
Being naturally of a studi-
me.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Single subscription, one year, 40 Ct3
In Clubs of Four or more, 25 cts
Entered as second-class matter
March 3, 1916, at the postoffice at
Boomer, N. C, under tiie aa of
March 3, 1879.
Please bring( me a ton of paper ture. Such a result would seem
and a bucket of ink. I'm hto- very natural. But now as I look
srrv as a bear." And that al- back over it all I see that the
ways settled it I couldn't re-very reverse has happened. 1 1 ous and inquiring mind, I found
sist such an appeal, and there- discover that my esthetic tastes, j myself picking up information
fore The Fool-kiiler kept right 1 instead of being lowered, have .and training of many sortsHhat
imrhp'iirahlv heightened hadn t so much as entered in-
Vi O I w - '
j and refined. Somehow there
I want to make it plain right has come to me very gradually
here that the trouble hasn't been
lack of income or lack of interest
among the readers. The people
a new standard of values, and I
am better able to appreciate the
really worth-while things in life
have just been crazy oyer The and literature and every -other
to my calculations at first.
sjs
Fool-Killer since the day it start
ed, and they have been more
Lloyal to it than I could havedar-
ed to hope. The . trouble has
been with me. It has been very
difficult almost immpossible
for me to do my part. Sickness
INSTRUCTIONS
When you send 4n clubs it is not
necessary to write long letters. A
correct list of names and addresses,
same, is enough. It is best to use my ; has been against me. My back-
printed order blanks, a supply of which
Wjill be- sent on request.
woods location has been against
me. And all the conditions sur
rounding me have conspired to
make it more and more difficult
If you have something important to
say, condense it all you can and write
it on a separate sheet of paper.
T" T T ' 1 3 Sj.
jvememuer 1 am very ousy, ana S f Hr rnv rmvt in crptHno
takes lots of time to read long let- tor me t0 ao m Part 111 getting
ters, to say., nothing of answering it out. Consequently it was not
them, r would like to write personal j to be expected that the people
letters to all of you friends every lit- it fi x. -j. j. x
tie bit, but it is impossible. would rally to its support to any
If you fail to get the paper within great extent when it was not be-
a reasonable time, let me know but j ing attended to properly at this
do it in a friendly way. Don't kick , - , r
field of human activity. In oth-
The upshot of it all is that the
paper that has made me what I
am has made me too critical to
longer endure the crudity and
coarseness of The Fool-Killer.
... mi jf -i t . j j
er words, my experience with mats wny i now consign it to
The Fool-Killer has learned me j the limbo of things that were,
wr fr fhinV anil, rp&ktm ahoul; i and start this new year with
things.
There is more than one way
another name just simply
"Pearson's Paper." I am doing
that in order to identify the pa
in which The Fool-Killer has' per with myself, to make it as
and raise
ver
vert I can
fcr I am doing the
helped to bring about this re
sult First and foremost, it gave
me enough money to surround
myself with the best literature.
I had always hungered for good
much as -possible the vehicle of
my own personality, my changed
and refined personality, if you
please. My name is now suf
ficiently known all over the Unit-
books and magazines, but had ed States to enable it to stand
never had money to get such j on its own merits, so to speak,
things. But when The Fool-Kill-j So it is to be just "Pearson's
er began to be a success ( and it Paper" from now on, and 'it will
certainly did prosper for awhile) be just a record ot my thinking
JAMES IARKIN PEARSON
Boomer, - - - North Carolina.
MY LETTER TO YOU
Well, here we are at another
'parting of the ways." This i&
a world of continual changes,
and everything that mortal man
can engage in must come to an
end some time. So this is to an
nounce that our old friend
"The Fool-Killer," is dead and
gone. It lived a good deal longer
than I had any idea it would live
when I started it thirteen years
ago. Its journey through this
troublesome world I has been a
lif e-and-death struggle from be
ginning to end. I ami sure that
no other paper ever did exist and
live for any length of time un
der quite such trying conditions.
Its life has many times hung
by a thread, and a mighty weak
thread, at that. The first time
I gave it up to die was in 1914,
just after the war started. But
it didn't die. It didn't even miss
an issue. Not then. It has
missed a number of issues from
first to last." At least once a
year since 1914 1 have fully made
up my mind to let it die. But
in spite of all I could do to help
it " shuffle off, it just wouldn't
die. Just about the time I or
dered its coffin and picked out a
place to dig its grave, it would
suddenly open its eyes and sav.
r r
lo, Pearson, I ain't dead yet.
mi
end of the line -But in spite of
all my poronai failures and
short-comdngs, the readers and
friends that I found all over the
country have stood by the little
sheet in a most loyal and faith
ful manner. If I could only have
done my part here at 'this end
of the line I am sure The Fool
Killer might have xeached a mil
lion circulation.
But for the reasons stated, The
Fool-Killer has just dragged
along from year to year until I
have become entirely disgusted;
with it. I wanted it .to amount
to something, or else give up and
die, one or the other, and it did
not seem to have any notion of
doing either. So here at the
beginning of 1923 I have decided
to just put it out oi its misery
for good, and let something bet
ter take its place. As I said,
I have become very tired of the
name. It doesn't appeal to me
as it once did. That name used
to seem very appropriate for the
kind of stuff I wrote. I select
ed the name in the first place be
cause it seemed to fit my style
better than any other name I
could think of. But that was
away back in ancient times in
1910. During these thirteen
years that have come and gone
sinfce The Fool-Killer was born,
my mental processes have been
going through a gradual change.
There were times when I feared
it was injuring my mind des
troying my teste for the more
refined things in life and litera-
Iwas able to at least partially
satisfy my hunger for books
and literature. I began to buy
books rather freely and sub
scribed for several good maga
zines and papers. But I didii't
buy as many books then as I
might have bought, and that is
one of my great regrets today.
Books were cheap then. A dol
lar of book-money would go twice
as far then as it will go now.
And I want to kick myself ev
ery time I think of the book
bargains I failed to grab while
they were in reach. However,
thejbooks I did buy were well
selected the classics, history,
essays, biography, poetry, and
some goo4 fiction. Books of real
solid worth they were, for the
most part, and I have lived a
mong these books for so many
years that they have become a
part of my life. Something of
the culture they hold has pene
trated through my rough ex
terior and made me a finer-grain-
f roan, month to month. Here
tofore I have not been able to
make it an honest reflection of
my thought, for the reason that
I was under the constant strain
of trying to be a monkey or a
clown. I was trying to keep
up my reputation for being
"funny." But now the "fun"
can go to Halifax if it wants to.
When a man acts the monkey
for thirteen years he surely has
earned the right to quit being:
a monkey and try to be a man
the rest of his days. Hutt's;
the way I look at it now. Funx
is all right in its place, but;
enough of anything is enough
and I don't find it as easy to
keep in the funny, frivolous
mood as I used to.
3
This is a sort of introduction
to the new paper, but I can't
give you any exact outline of
what the future issues will be.
It may be possible that I will
take up one important subject
ft
ed and cleaner and better man eacn month and devote practi-
than I was thirteen years ago.
u
When I started The Fool-Killer
thirteen years ago I had no
other object in view except to
tickle the folks with my fool gab
and perhaps make enough money
to buy some bread and milk.
That was -all. I had no parti
cular creed nor ism that I want
ed to root for. It was just a
case of rooting for myself
"root, hog, or die."
But I had to read and study
a good deal in order to write
fS O I 1 IT
the nit re paper that issue
to. the one subject. That was
the plan on which Elbert Hm1
bard conducted his "Little Jour
neys." He wouldi make a trip,
either in fact or in imagination,
to the home of some noted per
son, and then he would write
sketch of that noted person, Uk
voting each separate issue to one
subject only. It proved to be a
good plan, and Hubbard's "Lit
tle Journeys" have taken tkeir
place in the permanent literature
of the age.