Lancaster County at the time, especially the isolationist usually associated with the Midwest United States by historians. As one newsman phrased it, "These people, ideas, and moods went there from here. It was all here in Lancaster County first." Probably the closest "stethoscope" to the pulse beat of the

through the eyes of the county seat's news writers. As one glances at a County map, the city of Lancaster takes on the image of the hub of a wheel with its spokes being the villages around it. This geographical position is im- portant in the influence which Lancaster exerts upon her "serfs." The local