In 1885 the Gazette was purchased by a stock company organized for that purpose by Maj. VanZandt, Walter Huffman, Morgan Jones, W. G. Turner, W. L. Malone, B. B. Paddock and others who wanted to have a good morning paper in the city. The ownership finally passed into the hands of Mr. W. A. Huffman, who during his lifetime kept it up at great financial sacrifice and loss. But its high standard never faltered. It was a good paper published every day in the week. After the lamentable death of Mr. Huffman, his widow essayed to continue the publication of the paper. It was still conducted at great financial loss. After the panic of 1893, Mrs. Huffman realized that she could no longer stand the strain incident to its publication and she sold the paper to Capt. B. B. Paddock. He had neither desire nor ambition to continue in the business and was only actuated by a wish that the paper should not suspend. He proceeded to organize a stock company to take over the property. He associated Mr. W. L. Malone, then out of business, Mr. E. G. Senter, who was publishing an afternoon paper called the Mail, Hon. Barnett Gibbs, Mr. Sawnee Robinson, Mr. O. B. Colquitt and some others and turned the plant over to them. It proved not to be a very happy family. With the most harmonious effort its success was not a certainty; with discord in the management, it was doomed to disaster. Mr. Paddock transferred his interest to Mr. Malone in order to give him control, hoping thereby to bring about a solution of the trouble. Soon thereafter Mr. Malone died and with his death the paper was doomed. Mr. Senter had associated with him his cousin Selden Williams, who came from Tennessee, to engage in the business. They could not make it a success. In the late summer of 1897 they sold the Associated Press franchise and the subscription list to the Dallas News and suspended publication without a word of warning to the people of the city. It was the most dastardly piece of disloyalty to a town ever perpetrated. For a long time thereafter Fort Worth was without an organ or an advocate in the way of a daily newspaper. It felt the loss keenly, but there was no one to step into the breach and assume the responsibility of the publication of a paper. There had been such a fatality attending every effort that men hesitated to put their money into another venture. A man by the name of King finally came along and proposed on certain conditions to start a morning paper. The people wanted a paper so much that the conditions were eagerly accepted and Mr. King started the Herald. It lasted about a month. The promoter pocketed the money that had been advanced him and hied himself to new and fresher pastures. Thus the second time the public were betrayed.