Chapter 214: The Missouri Valley Trade Emporium

Editor: nnpdad

The postal contract meant more to the town overall than most of them realized. I knew the stipulations regarding newspaper delivery and I fully meant to take advantage of that rule. I wanted our newspaper in every fort, town, village and burg up and down the Missouri river. There had been an old wooden printing press in one of those lots I bought (or sold myself) at auction. I hadn’t thought much of it besides that it came with a bunch of cheap newsprint and ink; I thought those two would be useful and bid the entire lot based on that. It was a cheap purchase either way.

As part of this gambit I would be spinning up a local newspaper. This would be one of my private businesses: every smart dictator owned the news media outright, and I would get to decide which lies we told. I had some of the equipment; now I just need the right team to run it. I didn’t plan actually on being a dictator. The idea just seemed like too much work. I thought the idea of being the revered, old wise man of Rulo sounded a hell of a lot better, and less stressful to boot. Just imagine it: you would be sitting in your comfy rocking chair while the younger folk with ‘responsivities’ showed up with their current problem. You send them on a simple quest: good warm supper and excellent whiskey. When they return with their offering you reward them with sage advice which is actually more questions than answers. They leave to study your sage advice while you enjoy your warm meal and excellent bourbon. That is the life for me.

Reflecting on these and other thoughts that I’d had earlier on my long journey here alone, I turned to the committee and started. I began the conversation on an upbeat note.

“First of all, after reviewing it carefully, I’ve decided to accept the offered contract to provide mail delivery service for the U.S. Postal Service, or whatever they’re calling it these days. We will vote on this after I’ve delivered my entire proposal. This contract offers us an opportunity for growth, a whole lot of growth.”

“To do this we will leverage the interest we have in the companies we’ve created here. More importantly we will grow these companies and extend their reach, allowing us to market to everyone from St. Louis to Fort Atkinson.”

I expanded the idea from there, “We currently have one steamboat. It’s small, but fairly fast by comparison: perfect for mail delivery. We also have a lead on more steam motors down in New Orleans, so we can create additional fast boats. I will invest a part of my rapidly diminishing treasure hoard to create more boats. Our engineers are looking at the designs trying to figure out easy changes to increase reliability and power output; that’s about the best we can hope for with our current situation.”

“With every delivery run we will deliver newspapers, as stipulated in the contract. Included will be the ‘Missouri Valley News’ which I am founding, starting tomorrow. That newspaper will offer up the freshest regional news ... but also advertising. Rulo advertising. Everything we can make or sell will be in there – shoes, for example. Every little village or settlement from Atkinson to St. Louis will be buying Rulo goods because we can and will deliver, and deliver quickly.”