THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
Kalorxil M mcondtl»*» ra»ll*r. Jan» 1,
10ЯЗ,
*1 III» I’oMofflc* »i Rnlfieh. Norlh
Carollu». under lb» Acl »f Mereli 3. I @79.
Vol. VII. No. 16 September 16, 1939
R. Don Laws
lie is known as **The Yellow
Jnekefl Wan." null in a liiflle low n
of 200 people he Inis eslalilislieil
;i new . spai per lliaif is reaitl in every
township in I he lulled Stales.
By Kl\ NeNEIL
PKKIIAI'S there i* no more vitally
interesting :unl unique Iif«- story
of nn editor Mini publisher in
rlw Stale of North Carolina than that
of
I». Пои
I, aw*, of Moravian Kails,
editor and publisher of the Yellow
Jacket. The story of his own life ami
that of his pajier are so closely inter¬
woven that the two become one novel
tale of how a country l*>v made pood
and stuck to the country. Here is
the story of the man who put Mo¬
ravian Kails, a village of 200 people,
on the map.
Was Reared on a Farm
If. Don Laws’ boyhood days were
spent on a small farm in the moun¬
tain section of Wilkes Comity, where
he was born on August 22. ISOS.
His parents were poor farmers. Im-
eause of which fact he was unable
to attend school more than one or
two months during the year. Hilt as
did Abraham Lincoln, yonng Laws
studied by the light of a dickering
night tire after working hard in the
cornfields during the daylight hour'.
His father was the instructor at these
nightly vigils by the fireplace. Re¬
sides his regular studies, in which he
excelled, he evidenced a desire lor
things of a literary nature. Very
early in his life he began to write
stories and other composition*. Hi*
parents were amazed at his aptitude,
and he himself hardly realized the
budding of a unique literary talent
iliut was to make his name known
to |M>op|e in every township in the
I 'tilled States.
The future editor of the Yellow
Jacket wa* also mechanically in¬
clined. When he was only thirteen
years old he made a small wooden
•гем
from scraps of plank about hi*
at her’* farm. He had never seen an
actual press, and so didn't know the
principles involved in even the sim¬
plest type, but his construction wa*
evidence of a creative nature. It
worked, too. With a font of wooden
type, curved with his pocket knife,
Publisher Law- printed his first com¬
position oil this press, using the ex¬
tract of white walnut roots n* ink.
Until the press and the framed sam¬
ple of printing may he seen in his
editorial office today.
His Start as an Editor
In 1895 Laws married, and he and
hi* young wife settled down oil an old
farm not far from the village of Mo¬
ravian Falk In June 189.1, in the
cellar of that humble farm home, R.
Don Laws unloosed his desire to h.
come
и
one-horse editor. The J ellow
Jockd was the result of his efforts. It
«■nine out in its birth-month a* a
-mull, four-page, three-column «licet
to Ih> published at ten cents a year.
The initial issue of this stingiligly
named pn|K*r was not the least hit
bashful, and it boldly announc'd that
its aim was to “swat liars and leeches,
Editor Laws, standing in front of
his print-shop at Moravian Falls.
hypocrites and humbugs, demagogues
nn«l dastards” from one end of the
continent to the other. The complete
cost of hi* little foot pres* and other
equipment was not more than forty
dollar*. He did his («litorinl and
printing work at night by lamplight
after a day of toilsome labor in the
fields.
The first copies of the Yellow
Jacket were carried to the postoffieo
in the coat |iocket@ of the •••litor. He
had gathered a list of available name*
at random, and to all thc*c he sent
out a sample copy of the paper that
neighbors laughed at. And it began to
look like the neighbor* were right, for
the 1 ettair Jacket w :i - a dead loss the
first three or four years. In the midst
of conditions that would have downed
many people, K. Don Laws duck I"
the pump-handle of hi* little publica¬
tion, and during the fourth year the
receipts for subscriptions liegan to ex¬
ceed the cost of getting out the Yellow
