that was not alleged against it by its enemies;
scarcely a hostile device that was not undertaken to put it down and
drive it out.

Its constituency represented an unknown quantity. In any event it had to
be created. Meanwhile, it must rely upon its own resources, sustained
by the courage of the venture, by the integrity of its convictions and
aims, and by faith in the future of the city, the state and the country.

Still, to be precise, it was the morning of Sunday, November 8,1868.
The night before the good people of Louisville had gone to bed expecting
nothing unusual to happen. They awoke to encounter an uninvited guest
arrived a little before the dawn. No hint of its coming had got abroad;
and thus the surprise was the greater. Truth to say, it was not a
pleased surprise, because, as it flared before the eye of the startled
citizen in big Gothic letters, The Courier-Journal, there issued thence
an aggressive self-confidence which affronted the _amour propre_ of the
sleepy villagers. They were used to a very different style of newspaper
approach.

Nor was the absence of a timorous demeanor its only offense. The Courier
had its partisans, the Journal and the Democrat had their friends.
The trio stood as ancient landmarks, as recognized and familiar
institutions. Here was a double-headed monster which, without saying
"by your leave" or "blast your eyes" or any other politeness, had taken
possession of each man's doorstep, looking very like it had brought its
knitting and was come to stay.

The Journal established by Mr. Prentice, the Courier by Mr. Haldeman and
the Democrat by Mr. Harney, had been according to the standards of
those days successful newspapers. But the War of Sections had made
many changes. At its close new conditions appeared on every side.
A revolution had come into the business and the spirit of American
journalism.

In Louisville three daily newspapers had for a generation struggled
for the right of way. Yet Louisville was a city of the tenth or twelfth
class, having hardly enough patronage to sustain one daily newspaper
of the first or second class. The idea of consolidating the three thus
contending to divide a patronage so insufficient, naturally suggested
itself during the years immediately succeeding the war. But it did not
take definite shape until 1868.

Mr. Haldeman had returned from a somewhat picturesque and not altogether
profitable pursuit of his "rights in the territories" and