sion; and had on when he left a white wool stovepipe hat and buff vest. He preaches temperance and moral reform sometimes, but he is fond of whiskey and tobacco, and swears profusely.
Perhaps these examples will illustrate Mr. Bush's ideas on how to conduct an editorial battle. There were many such, and other editors' little journeys into this type of thing also were not uncommon.
Dryer of the Oregonian could dish it out himself with the best of them. August 5, 1855, he delivered himself of the following:
Strayed, stolen, lost, absquatulated, mimeloosed or run away, one....formerly editor, proprietor, printer, compositor, pressman, roller boy, extra seller, libeler, item gatherer, affidavit maker, slanderer general, and "pimp" generalissimo of a small, cheap paper called the ....
He may be recognized by the brand of "our honest gaze," stamped by his Maker on his face, similar to that of any other "felon." Sometimes seen peeping through the bars of state prisons, penitentiaries, &c. . .
When he was in good form, Bush could take care of himself in any kind of exchange of personalities. He shows up to poorest advantage, perhaps, in his vitriolic attacks on the Whig Governor Gaines, which show real, venomous hate and are full of fighting words, unrelieved by the least semblance of "smile." Occasionally a faint gleam of humor relieved this sort of thing, as when Bush commented:
The editor of the Spectator don't [sic] like to be called "bullet-head," "blockhead," etc. He should blame Nature for giving him a thick skull, and not our correspondent for making mention of the fact that he has one.
There was no discounting Bush's political influence. It was, very likely, stronger than that of any other editor of his immediate period. H. S. Lyman[1] credited him with having "largely controlled the politics of Oregon territory." Hubert Howe Bancroft (Frances Fuller Victor) wrote:[2]
As a party paper it (the Statesman) was conducted with greater ability than any other journal on the Pacific coast for a period of about a dozen years. Bush was assisted at various times by men of talent. . . During the first eight years of its existence it was the ruling power in Oregon, wielding an influence that made and unmade officials at its pleasure.
Leslie M. Scott, authority on Oregon journalism history, charac-
- ↑ In History of Oregon, IV., 291.
- ↑ In History of Oregon, II, 147.
