(This is the eighth in a series of articles as the Log Cabin Democrat reaches its 100th anniversary as a daily newspaper.)
For a hundred years, the Log Cabin Democrat has been delivered into the hands of its readers by three methods - carriers, mail and by news racks or coin boxes. Yes, there is a fourth avenue that has arrived in recent years, the Internet.
The carriers, so many of them down through the years, have been the key ingredient of this office to reader transmission for the Log Cabin. The carriers themselves have changed through the years.
Once they were kids, almost entirely boys and ranging from very young to the early teens. Then motor routes came into being, replacing the mailing of the newspaper to subscribers living outside of Conway. Some carriers lasted only a short while, and others delivered the paper for a number of years.
Frank Robins III commented, "For many years, most of our carriers were Catholic boys. There was a simple reason for this. The Catholic boys were good workers. They were dependable, and a lot of them came from big families where the kids worked."
All over the nation, carriers are essential to newspapers and to newspaper readers. Years ago a crusty old editor expounded: "We spend huge amounts of money to pay reporters, editors, photographers, all the production people. We buy expensive and complicated machines and huge presses. And whether or not you read this product, the newspaper, comes down to if a 12-year-old kid brings it to you."
One change for the Log Cabin in relatively recent times was when the newspaper went to morning publication. The former familiar sights of carriers delivering the paper by bicycles or on foot disappeared. Now, most readers don't see the carriers who work under dark of night - or in the wee hours of morning to be precise. This night work meant carriers tended to be more than 12 years old. Many are adults now. Some deliver the newspaper on foot, some on bicycles, some in cars or trucks. They have a number of common characteristics, one being reliability and another the fortitude to function under different and challenging conditions.
Think about it. You wake up early, stretch in bed and listen to a wind howl or rain patter on the roof. Several times a year you may peek out the window at a white landscape or you may hear a faint crackling - sleet falling. Your newspaper carrier is out there with the weather - good weather, bad weather, in-between weather. He or she is bringing the Log Cabin to you.
This carrier may put the paper on your porch, toss it wrapped in protective plastic on your driveway or slip it into a tube mounted on a pole. You walk out, pick it up and perhaps scan the front page headlines while you head back to pour a first cup of coffee.
By this time, the carrier is probably back home washing up, changing clothes and getting ready for a school day or a work day.
Log Cabin carriers, past and present, can tell stories. They encounter deer occasionally, some right in Conway. Coyotes pop into view once in a while, and a couple of times carriers have had a quick look at a bears, young male bears, wildlife biologists say, that are roaming around looking for a new home.
One Log Cabin carrier came across a house on fire. He didn't hesitate to bang on the door and wake the woman who lived there. It was at night, or early in the morning, and she was sound asleep. She wasn't injured, but the house was destroyed.
Another Log Cabin carrier helped deliver a baby in early morning hours.
Newspaper carriers are business people, even the 12-year-olds. They are not Log Cabin Democrat employees. They buy the papers then resell them to you, the customer/reader. For convenience, you can choose to send a payment check to the Log Cabin, and the carrier will receive the credit.
If you don't pay, if you are late, if you move off and forget to pay or skip out on the payment for the paper, the carrier is the one who is left holding the bag. He or she pays the wholesale price for your paper anyway.
Newspaper carriers are independent contractors at the Log Cabin and at most American newspapers. In bygone years, they were sometimes called "little merchants," misleading since many carriers are fathers, mothers and even grandparents. They are not on the Log Cabin's payroll, but they must follow the deliver guidelines of the newspaper for the most effective means of getting the paper to you on time, every day, every week, all year.
For young carriers, it is often a starting point in making a life. Conway and Faulkner County is sprinkled with citizens who once carried a Log Cabin route - some bankers, some public officials, some retail business owners - and many, many reliable, dependable people in all sorts of vocations.
That's one lesson, perhaps the most important lesson, that carrying a newspaper route teaches - dependability.
The Log Cabin has depended on these carriers to deliver its product for a hundred years. The thousands of readers depend on these carriers to get the newspaper to them.
