DE VOLKSVRIEND
"THE PEOPLE'S FRIEND"

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    When the writer of this accepted the editorship, a good harvest had been reaped (after the grasshopper plague), but the people were not yet on top. Also the population was not numerous yet, and trading and buying did not blossom as it does now. Mr. Hospers had begun with about 120 subscribers, and in 1881 this number had increased to 400, but that number was indeed too small to make the paper into a good, robust organ. Besides, there was very little to advertize, and there was not enough competition to make this necessary. And the payment, in that time, was not always prompt. When the writer was already editor for several years, he needed money. In the fall he sent someone out to collect. The man could not do everything on foot, so he took a horse. Ten days he traveled around and visited more than one hundred families or persons. If everyone would have paid him, he should have taken home more than $200. He came back with not even $36. This man earned $1.25 per day, and the rent for the horse was $1, which amounted to $22.50 for those ten days, and the editor had barely $14 to show for.

From this fact it can be surmised how difficult it was for DE VOLKSVRIEND to he "in good gear"; and indeed, if the editor had not believed firmly that God had placed him in this position, he would have run from his post. Because he felt he should persevere for God, he saw it through with the tenacious patience of, as one could say, a stubborn Fries.