Mark Twain Tradition : Newspaper’s Sense of Humor Fails to Tickle Everyone

Hoaxes and wisecracks printed by new owners of the famed Territorial Enterprise have netted them the same suggestion Mark Twain got for such writing as a young Enterprise reporter:Get out of town

But publisher Tom Grant says the Twain tradition, carried on by flamboyant Lucius Beebe who owned the paper in the 1950s, will persist in the Territorial Enterprise despite the gripes and outright threats in a few cases.

In his autobiography, Twain claimed he left town rather than be prosecuted under a law barring dueling. Grant, however, says he has no plans on giving up the paper or Beebe’s old home, also bought by the new Enterprise owners.

Grant, who goes by the name “M. Jidough” in the Enterprise, adds that he’ll try to work with tourism-dependent locals who fear his printed exaggerations will scare off business.

Ken Foose Sr., a local merchant serving on a newly formed Chamber of Commerce committee hoping to negotiate with Jidough, says one problem with the paper’s hoaxes is that some people apparently believe them.

Sent Condolences

Foose said he got a letter from a friend in Missouri who subscribes to the Enterprise, expressing his sorrow that the entire town was being torn down to make way for an open pit mine. Foose said the first time he saw the article he checked with a local mining company to see if the story was true.

In a more recent edition, Foose said Jidough caused more aggravation by referring to Virginia City as “a quiet and insignificant little tourist trap.”

That line was in a mock letter to the “Russian Military High Command” asking that Virginia City be spared from a nuclear attack. Jidough said commitment from the Russians might bolster his efforts to silence the ear-piercing noon blast of a local air raid siren.

The paper also published irreverent articles on biblical references to “unclean” men and women and on the origin of man--an article that concludes that “man in all his incredible and complicated glory descended from the dough of an anchovy pizza.”

Other articles complained about the old mining camp’s shabby appearance and the poor treatment that tourists got from merchants.

Some shop owners are so irate they won’t even read the paper, have pulled advertisements and have refused to allow its sale on their premises.

Fred Garrett, owner of the Ponderosa Saloon, said he won’t read the Enterprise because “it could have the best articles in the country, but with those jackasses writing it I wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”

Garrett also said he thinks the Enterprise crew “will bring more gays in. That’s the story anyway.” But Jidough says there are no plans by the Enterprise to advocate homosexual causes, only “openmindedness.”

The publisher also says he’s not dependent on local advertising because the paper is being carried by another corporation venture, a line of humorous greeting cards.

“They ran Mark Twain out of this town. And we were told in a letter we ought to leave like Twain,” he said. “It’s the same mentality, the same hostile attitude. But it’s just a handful of people who have threatened us.”