Mr. Biggers had a lot to say

I was looking for something, who knows what, in the Texas Tech online digital world, when I came across a publication called The Lone Coyote, published in 1908. I couldn't make out what it was about, even though it purported to be "The Official Howler for Fisher and 247 other counties". The office location was reported as being in the first dugout, south side of Double Mountain Canyon.

After reading several articles and realizing it was all tongue in cheek, I saw the name Don H. Biggers listed as "by". A little searching revealed that Biggers was the publisher of the Rotan Advance 1907-1909, as well as many other undertakings, which is putting it mildly. He was a prolific writer of west Texas life and politics. He owned, wrote and published several newspapers, and was the author of many articles and books. He was also a farmer and a Texas House Representative.

What caught my eye in this second issue of The Lone Coyote was his definition of a newspaper, thus follows:

"If I were writing a dictionary for academic and family use, and came to define the modern daily newspaper, I should endeavor to briefly cover the subject about as follows: 

"A medium the chief mission of which is to declare dividends, disseminate accounts of degrading crime, demoralizing scandal, and shocking casualties; a panderer to the stupid mental cravings of mankind; the champion of partisan politics and a producer of prejudice; a plaything for plutocrats and a stranger to principle; a debaucher of morals; an advertising directory of frauds; the apex of folly and the parade ground of vanity; the product of brains; the output of peons and the servant of scoundrels; a revealer of infamy and a concealer of sin; the megaphone of demagogues; a saint in pretensions and a hypocrite in performance; a reeking, putrid mess of mankind's filthy conduct, paraded without shame as the triumph of enterprise; the moulder of men's nations, yet a meddler rather than an agency; a fusion of facts, fiction, falsehoods, folly and indigestible bombast; the cheapest excursion route for busy people to migrate to uttermost realms of ignorance."

I wonder what he would have thought about presidents, governors and law makers "tweeting" and the loss of gravitas in those high stations? He may not have been surprised.

Biggers was a clever satirical writer and many of his works, serious articles as well, can be found in the Texas Tech University Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.