Imitators of The Hagerstown Almanack Part 4
BUY THE GENUINE ACCEPT NO OTHER
Otho Swingley clearly intended his new Union Hagerstown Almanac to compete with Gruber’s. Swingley had learned from the Robertsons not to have a cover that resembled the original, but the inside front cover and the title page of his almanac are exact imitations of those pages in Gruber’s. The "Notice” on the title page gives an example of Swingley’s prose style:
NOTICE,—The publication of THE UNION HAGERSTOWN ALMANAC will be under the business management of O. SWINGLEY, . . . the object of its publication being a matter of self-defense and a public necessity for a Hagerstown Almanac in every respect equal to any ever published and at greatly reduced prices. . . . Swingley’s claim that he initiated his almanac out of "self-defense” indicates that the break-up of his partnership with Berry was not happy. Why he found it a "public necessity” to publish a Hagerstown almanac "at greatly reduced prices” is difficult to say, but Swingley’s language often bore only a loose relationship to the facts. Swingley did, however, publish his new almanac at a list price of five cents, half that of the almanac he was imitating.
After Berry’s death, his role as publisher of the almanac was assumed by Wilfred H. McCardell, a Hagerstown merchant, but because of Berry’s contract with the Gruber heirs, his name continued to be used as the publisher of the almanac until 1895. With that edition of Gruber’s Almanack, publication was assumed by the Gruber Almanack Co; which continues today. On 25 February 1896, Frederica C. Gruber died at the age of 81; for some 30 years, she had been the active—and very forceful—representative of the family in the publication of their venerable almanac.
In 1887, McCardell was faced almost at once with three imitations of Gruber’s. He quickly distributed a flyer with a reproduction of Gruber’s cover on the top, followed by:
The above is a TRUE COPY OF THE [cover] of the genuine J. GRUBER HAGERSTOWN TOWN AND COUNTRY ALMANACK, which you and your ancestors have been using for nearly one hundred years. It was originated by John Gruber in Hagerstown, Md., in 1796 [sic], and has always been considered the most reliable Almanack published. This circular is written to warn the trade against the several Almanacks which are now being published as the "Hagerstown Almanack,” as they are only intended to mislead and deceive the purchasers, neither the owners or publishers of which reside in Hagerstown or adjacent country.
McCardell also began including a statement in Gruber’s warning purchasers against the imitations. Swingley published a short response in the 1890 edition of his almanac, ending with "Ask for [his almanac], and be no longer deceived by imitation screamers.” Otho Swingley, however, was the only one screaming.
Swingley frequently published rants against Gruber’s. In 1891, he published a long diatribe in which he expressed outrage at what he said was the implication that his publication was not a "genuine Almanac,” although McCardell had said that Gruber’s was the only genuine Hagerstown almanac. In 1902, Swingley obscurely compared the claim of the Gruber almanac to be genuine to that of oleomargarine to be genuine (the logic is obscure but the insult is obvious). Except for its general warning against imitations, Gruber’s Almanack ignored Swingley, which doubtless infuriated Swingley even more.
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