On June 9, 1890, Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote an indignant letter to Charles Faber about an unsatisfying business arrangement. Paul was 17 years old and a student at Central High School in Dayton. After selling subscriptions to a newspaper that Faber published, Paul didn't receive the compensation he expected.
After having worked the circulation of your paper up to sixty, fifty having been agreed upon, and having placed the paper in a condition to increase steadily its circulation, I find that you willfully and persistently fail to keep your part of the agreement. Whether your action is either honest or gentlemanly is not for me to say. Suffice it to say that your action, added to the fact that I have accepted the editor-in-chiefship of the High School Times, causes me to resign. Make what use you please of the sixty subscribers which you, to use a very polite word, induced me to get. Six weeks was rather a short time to wait for my promised wages but I could not afford to walk and wear out my shoes for nothing, although by the middle of my June vacation I could have run the circulation of the paper up very high as in my hands your little Democratic sheet was becoming popular.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Charles Faber, June 9, 1890. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
Charles Faber was Secretary of the Board of Police Commissioners in Dayton and was also active in politics. In 1886, Faber and other Democrats began to publish a weekly paper called The Monitor. The following year it became a daily paper and it grew in size and popularity. The pages of The Monitor were densely packed with local, national and international news, but it had a political bias in favor of Democrats. Each issue typically provided readers with a list of party-endorsed candidates to vote for.
Today, Messrs. Galen C. Wise, J. E. D. Ward and Charles Faber began the publication of an evening Democratic paper. Messrs. Ward and Faber are to present solid Democratic doctrines in the editorial and news departments, while Mr. Wise it to hold up the business end of the new enterprise. It is reported to us that the paper is to receive official Democratic endorsement.
The Dayton Daily Herald (Dayton, Ohio). October 5, 1887. Page 2.
A Democratic daily, the Monitor, has made its appearance at Dayton.
Springfield Daily Republic (Springfield, Ohio). October 7, 1887. Page 2.
The company that is running the Daily Monitor, the new Dayton Democratic paper, was incorporated a few days ago, with a capital of $25,000. The Monitor is a bright, newsy paper, ably edited, thoroughly and unselfishly Democratic, and deserves unbounded success.
Democratic Advocate (Greenville, Ohio). November 24, 1887. Page 4.
Ohio's Republican Senators showed their asses' ears, and now the party all over the State are he-hawing. The bolting Ohio Senators take high ground. They declare their action was had for the good of the country and the glory of God. We suspect they are right, for did not Democrats assist?
Dayton Daily Monitor (Dayton, Ohio). January 7, 1888. Page 2.
The Monitor Publishing Co.
C. W. Faber, Manager.
J. E. D. Ward, Editor.
The circulation of the Monitor is guaranteed to be more than double that of any other Democratic paper in Montgomery County. The columns of the Monitor are open at all times to those who have anything to say affecting public or party interests. Of course, all communications must be within bounds of courtesy.
The Ticket.
For Governor, James E. Campbell, Butler County.
For Lieutenant Governor, W. V. Marquis, Logan County.
For Judge of Supreme Court, Martin D. Follett, Madison County.Dayton Daily Monitor (Dayton, Ohio). September 28, 1889. Page 2.
The Saturday edition included an illustrated section of feature stories and literary items that may have been of interest to Paul. The Monitor was eventually purchased and merged with another paper. A few years later, Faber was the editor of a newspaper in Richmond, Indiana.
The Monitor was started as a weekly paper in 1886 by G. C. Wise, C. W. Faber, and J. E. D. Ward. In the following October the Daily Monitor was started, the intention being to run merely a campaign paper. At the end of three months, however, such had been the success with which the enterprise had been crowned that a company was organized under the name of the Monitor Publishing Company, with a capital of twenty thousand dollars. The paper is Democratic in politics, aims to be a good newspaper, and on Saturdays has a special literary feature which renders it a very popular publication.
History of Dayton, Ohio, with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Pioneer and Prominent Citizens, by Harvey W. Crew. United Brethren Publishing House (Dayton, Ohio). 1889. Page 582.
Mr. Charles W. Faber, editor of the Richmond Independent, and his wife and children, are the guests of relatives and friends here.
"Personal." The Dayton Evening Herald (Dayton, Ohio). September 19, 1891. Page 7.