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Our Club Bulletin Committee recently asked me, as Club Historian, to research the history of our newsletter. This has been a challenge because of gaps in our Club’s materials from almost 100 years ago. Here’s what I’ve found so far.
 According to a former Club Historian, Hollis B. Rayn, in a 1969 letter, "The Duluth Club’s first publication was our Roster, issued in May 1912, which carried a Masthead showing the Scale … " Apparently our club had no publication in 1911, the year we were chartered.
We do have a May 1, 1912, Roster in our archives, which shows the scale logo, the same logo used on the program cover of the 1912 Rotary National Convention held in Duluth. The scale is a Rotary balance wheel, weighing "Rotary Advancement" with "Civic Progress." We do not have this 1912 Rotary convention program in our archives, but one can be viewed at the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center at the UMD library. If anyone has a copy to donate to our Club archives, it would be appreciated.
 Historian Rayn continues in his 1969 letter, "In 1913 we started our first club publication, known as ‘The Spokesman.’ " We do have in our archives a one and only issue of the 1913 Spokesman, dated December 8, 1913, Vol. 1, No. 4. The editor, Charles H. Mackintosh, states in his editorial that this is the first issue with the new name, Spokesman. Does that mean another publication existed before, perhaps Numbers 1, 2 and 3?
Here’s part of Mackintosh’s editorial (poem?), introducing the new emblem – a man at the wheel of a Lake Superior craft – and the new goals and staff of the Spokesman. Keep in mind that writing styles of that day were different than they are today:
INITIAL DROOL FROM THE DAMAGING EDITOR
"… Now first our noble Secretaire has asked us to declaim that with this issue we have changed our emblem and our name. We sorter figured, Bates and us, that the above would make a better allegory for the City of the Lake than any little last-year’s foot from off an autobill: but anyhow it’s up to YOU to keep it or to kill. Next thing we want to introduce our partners in crime of putting Bull in Bulletin and printing it on time. First BATE of Bradstreet’s takes "What We Did Last" to be his text; and VOSS, the dean of dynamite, tells "What We Will Do Next." Then thirdly comes OUR PRESIDENT, with wide and bulging brow, to tell us what we OUGHT to do and why we ought and how. Lastly, since minus silver wheels our craft must come to grief, please note that CHARLIE OPPEL is our Advertising Chief … "
Historian Rayn adds that, "We used this name (Spokesman) from 1913 until May 1915, when, according to our minutes, the publication was discontinued due to World War I."
Our club archives include many issues from 1913 to 1915, but we are missing September to December 1914 and later, January to May 1915. Please help if you can add to our archives.
So when did the Gimlet replace the Spokesman? My best guess is October 21, 1920. The editorial for that issue states:
HEY!!! YOU!!!!
"We don’t like to say anything about ourselves – BUT –
The Gimlet is going to be good – brimful of jokes, jobs and jabs.
It’s a Rotary Almanac, a pre-digested, concentrated, concatenated compendium of most that is and a lot that ‘ain’t.’
It’s the advance agent of cheer, the dispeller of care. It gives a mail order course on when to laugh and offers a sure cure for the pip in bachelors, married men’s yap and the blues, and is the housewife’s friend.
It teaches you how to behave when lonesome, how to forgive and forget, to think big, talk little, love much, give freely, pay cash and be kind to dumb animals and humans – both dumb and otherwise.
In short to be better Rotarians and to grab a stranglehold on the good things of life.
Its weather forecast is never anything but ‘fine,’ with pleasant airs and refreshing breezes.
If you’ve got an idea – use The Gimlet!
If you haven’t got an idea – READ The Gimlet!!
Now that we’ve established when and why the Gimlet started, the next pursuit is to find out why the name Gimlet was selected. Stay tuned. Civic Progress Rotary Advancement |
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