The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-03-14
Newspaper Characters-Gems from a
Printing Office,
THE GARRULoUs PRINTER.

THE GARRULoUS PRINTER.
Best known in every office to every
one, from the managing editor to the
boy, il the garrulous printer, who is not
always man Of full Of accurate infor-
nation, Indeed, he is very frequently
an individual possessing no information
at al worth listening to. But To talk.
and to talk loudly, is apparently the
chief end Of his existence. So he clat-
ters away from the moment he enters
the Office till he leaves it. He chatters
while he distributes he fluently rolls
up sentences while setting up he dis
courses at the copy-hook F; n prates over
the galleys and becomes bewilderinglv
eloquent when the welcome announce
ment is made that there is II lat take on
the hook The garrulous printer is in
variably IL good-natured man he talks,
as the bird sings, from innate force of
his nature. He has no opinions to adj
vance, no doctrines to defend, no notions
to urge He does not even care wheth-
er any one listens to him. SO that his
tongue has its full amount of dailyneed-
ed exercise he is happy.
THE CAUTIOUS PRINTER.
This individual is, perhaps, the nm
happiest of his class surrounding HIM
self, rs he does ut al times and on all
occasions, with an atmosphere of misery,
bending all his energies to the task of
rendering himself, and rs far as posi-
BILE, all those about him, extremely I'M
comfortable Handwritings are his pet
grievencies. No copy gives him salts
faction. If it is bold and round he pro.
nounces it school-bOy's scrawl If neat
and lady-like, pert miss scrawl II
staid and formal, he deprecates it as a
collection of pot-hooks and hangers ;
if scratchy and illegible-as most of the
copy furnished to the compositOrs on
the dailies unfortunately is-he swears
loud. deeD, and often. He is never sat
isfied with the policy of the paper.
True, it is no concern of his, but then
it furnishes him with pleafor fault-tind
ing. His foremen are, by singular
coincidence, one and all, the most unmit-
igated donkcys that ever lived. The
composing-roOm is either too hot or too
cold, too wide or too narrow, too deep
or too shallow. The foundry from
whence his type came, he feels quite
pig lead. His stand was botched by a
bungler, and his cases are but 50 many
cunning devices 10 bother him in his
work.
THE INCOMPETENT PRINTER.
This unhappy waif on tine typograph-
zeal sea, like most other OF the unlucky
dogs of this world, has mistaken his vo-
cation. He should have been anything
on earth but a printer; and this bunglel
among the typos is by all his bretheren
STYLED shoemaker. The incompetent
makes his debut in I'll Offices as " sub, -
and in wonderfully short space Of time
say about long enough to set three
/ takes-his true standing in the craft j.
discovered. This poor wight has been
/ known to set up the frequently recurring
word Washington rs wash-tub :
"'bulls and bears" he has been known
/ to render "quods and slugs. Once
/ upon Il time one of these incompetents
when hands were scarce, was given by &
! foreman, who knew his capacity from
bitter experience, Il piece of printed
copy. 1t was set up 50 thickly strewi
with errors that 1t required twice the
/ time to correct that it did To compose it
On being rated soundly for his dirty
work, ne rejoined with the air of an in
/ iured innocent Sir, am not reprint
! hand :" That foreman elevated his eye
brows, clasped his hands, and was silent
! He was an irasci BILE man, and coulC
swear soumdly on most occasions bu
afterwards confessed that he had Nc
knowledge of any oaths that could dc
/ Justice to the man SO very unaccustomeC
to setting up printed matter.
4 "shoemaker" in the composing room
of the New York dailies recently had tn,
following lines printed in bold letters
and placed over his case by a heartles'
wag
am the elow, the beautiful SLOW,
Setting less typ ;hau thu rcst, know;
Setting il drtIer-shortualcr style
But setting it steady, and saving pill.
Talking,
Botching
Crushing away,
Picking MP much fewer type every d4t.
PRINTERS (ivcUldr