100 years ago in The Saratogian
Tuesday, Oct. 9, 1917
As The Saratogian’s Corinth correspondent, Charles F. Atwell rarely reported front-page news and most likely never had a byline. Atwell makes frontpage news, however, by dying at his desk this evening.
Atwell reported Corinth news for the Saratoga Springs paper for the last fifteen years while contributing to the town’s weekly newspaper, The Corinthian. The proprietor of that paper, Rev. C. H. Wyman, finds Atwell on the floor of his office around 6:30 p.m.
The reporter mailed his final report to The Saratogian earlier this afternoon, returning to the Corinthian office to do more writing. “Evidently he was ill at the time, but refused to quit his work,” another reporter writes, “it was found he had slipped a sheet of paper into the [typewriter] and had written one line, which proved to be an unintelligible jumble of letters.”
Atwell dies in Wyman’s arms of an apparent apoplexy before a doctor can arrive. At age 59, he was “one of the oldest newspaper men in northern New York.”
A Greenfield native, Atwell moved to Victory Mills with his parents and did his first Saratogian reporting there. After moving to Corinth, he worked for the International Paper Company before resuming newspaper work.
“I had rather earn a few dollars at newspaper writing than a great deal more money at any other business,” Atwell often told friends.
“Although in his later years he had lost some of the physical sprightliness of youth his unfailing courage never faltered, and he kept to his task in spite of physical handicaps,” the reporter recalls. “His friends could see that he was rapidly growing worse, but did not realize that death was so near.”
A lifelong bachelor, Atwell is survived by cousins in Amsterdam, Old Chatham and Mechanicville. “No newspaper had a more loyal employes than did The Saratogian in Mr. Atwell,” the reporter notes.
Liberty loan drive
Someone takes Atwell’s place immediately to cover tonight’s mass meeting at First Baptist Church opening the Second Liberty Loan drive in Corinth.
The U.S. government raises money for the war against Germany through the sale of Liberty Bonds, which will be repaid with interest after the war. Corinth has been assigned a goal of $155,000 in bond sales for this drive.
“America must win,” Albany attorney Bertram Aufsesser tells tonight’s gathering, “therefore money has got to be raised to carry on this war.
“Be fair with your government; your government is fair by you…. If you do not act fairly you will have to pay a heavy indemnity [to Germany] which from a business standpoint would show a lack of clear thinking.”