The Silver Kewanite - Kewanee Public Library District

The Silver Kewanite
The "Zip"
THE "Zip" is a small paper issued by the Stenographic Department of the school,
and contains material of interest to every member of the school. The fundamental
purpose of the paper was to give the second-year shorthand students
experience in operating the new mimeograph, which our department has been able
to purchase as a result of our paper campaign.
It was also felt that there was a place and a need in the school for some means
of furnishing the student body with information concerning the activities of the
school. The "Tiger" was no longer being published; then, too, the modern tendency
of schools of our size seems to be toward the newspaper rather than the more formal
magazine type. So the task was undertaken with the hope that we could serve the
student body in this respect.
There are various divisions of the paper. The "Zip" contains a number of
interesting features, among which will be found the activities of the student body;
a story or an essay containing something of a real human interest; a page of cartoons,
whose story is centered around some student or class or activity; an "I Wonder
Why" column, full of fun and laughter; and then came our jokes about different
students—if anyone came to the "ken" of our joke editor, it was sure to reach the
public in the form of a witty dialogue; and last but not least was the booster spirit
of our editors toward every activity of the school. Our advertising department
endeavored through original advertisements to encourage student interest and co-operation
in each activity. Their aim was to be constructive supporters and moulders of
student sentiment.
When we first started to publish the paper, it was agreed that the staff should
be changed every six weeks, and since this is a bi-weekly paper, each staff should
publish three issues. In order to have a trained staff for the coming 1 year, we
planned to use the seniors for the main members of the staff and the juniors for
assistants. The first editor was Carol Smith, with Virginia Dana as her assistant;
Lottie Dugger was the second editor, assisted by Helen Cronau.
Under the guidance of Miss Stewart, Miss Miller, and Miss Harper, the paper
proved quite a success and we feel that our efforts were not in vain. The paper was
also a success from the financial standpoint. We are using the money to purchase
stencils and to finance the State and Big Nine Stenographic Contests which are held
each spring.
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