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tant problem we're faced with," Scott acknowledged one cold tique, Scott Newhall still likes to tell of surviving that perilous
morning in January, shortly before his 75th birthday. And for a horseback ride across Mexico, a steamship transit across the
brief midwinter moment, the Newhall family's golden boy re- stormy Atlantic, the proposed duel with a rival newspaper edi-
flected every one of those 75 years. tor, even the foiled attempt of a hired killer and the burning to
the ground of his graceful mansion, which the Newhalls rebuilt
onths later, one day in May, Scott Newhall abruptly
even lovelier than before.
M against the impress of time. "Don't get to be my age and start a
But even a life so rich in experience cannot defend itself
walked away from his upstart newspaper, in the town
named for his great-grandfather, finally accepting that
his proudest hopes, his vainest ambitions and much of newspaper," Newhall warns, "Just don't." He takes a moment
his wealth had been consumed by age and the flames of for himself, then sighs, 'The future has nothing to do with us."
passion. The proud phoenix that rose from The Citizen's mast "At my age, you can't think of the future or make any prom-
descended again into ash. "We decided that after a six month ises," continues Ruth, whose narrow shoulders remain the iron
start-up period, we could detect the flavor of success or failure, bedposts around which Scott drapes himself. But if the Newhalls
and read the omens of the future," the grand old editor de- appear somehow uncertain of themselves now, not entirely con-
clared in his farewell. "Well, after six months the omens were vinced of their rightful places on the rugged western skyline, all
not favorable. Yet as a matter of pride we carried on for two they need do is look back at Santa Clarita's brilliant 20th cen-
more months .... But today, ifwe continued, pride would have tury, which they themselves have chronicled. Until the very end,
turned to simple vanity-and vanity is not an attractive virtue." the Newhalls played leading roles in that great pageant. And
For Scott and Ruth, who have withdrawn to a picturesque even at the end, they did not go out without raging against the
Victorian mansion amid the surrounding mountains and dying light.
orange groves, the prospects are less certain. Dressed in a finely
tailored blue serge suit that could be, and probably is, an an- Elliot Blair Smith is a contributing editor.
When Scott Newhall's son Tony resigned as publisher of The Signal, it was a watershed for the community. The end of an era.

Julyl989 I CALIFORNIA BUSINESS 25