HENRY C. MAYSE

HENRY C. MAYSE, editor and owner of the Ashland Clipper, was born on a Missouri farm, and his parents being of very limited means, Henry was given only a very meager country-school education. In 1887, together with his parents and the other members of the family, he located at Ashland, Clark county, Kansas, where he entered a bank as clerk. The stress of the early nineties closed the bank, and he was given the job of deputy in the office of the clerk of the district court. While deputy clerk he made use of his time in the study of the law, and in 1892 was admitted to practice. He was twice elected county attorney of Clark county and soon built up a good and lucrative practice. In March, 1895, he enlisted the financial assistance of two of his friends and purchased the Clark County Clipper, which then had 250 subscribers. He has since changed the name to the Ashland Clipper. Having more of a bent for newspaper work than for the law, he soon gave up the practice of law and has since devoted his time to his newspaper, which he has made one of the recognized country weeklies of the state. His originality is probably best illustrated in the fact that at the time of his taking charge of the Clipper he adopted phonetic spelling and the use of the pronoun "I" in his writings, which probably makes him one of the pioneers in the use of each. They have both been adopted since by many leading newspapers and magazines of the country. He has uniformly advocated progress, and since he became owner of the Clipper it has been one of the prime movers in every progressive endeavor of the city of Ashland. Several years ago he endeavored to have the city put in a light and water system, and when the city neglected to do so he attached a generator to his press engine, and for more than a year furnished electricity for his office, Main street and the opera house, which was one of the very first electric-light plants in the southwest part of the state. After the people had become accustomed to light, he closed down the plant and asked the mayor to call an election, which was immediately done, and the city installed a $30,000 light and water system. He has consistently kept his paper neutral in politics, locally, which seems to have been very satisfactory to the people of the city, as his has, until the past few months, been the only paper in that county-seat town.

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