Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-08-27
4 PRACTICAL MAN

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looked over our shoulder at the new
copy of the Scientific american, which,
fresh from the press, was receiving our
final scrutiny, and requested the loan Of
the paper for a moment when we had
finished. He glanced at the first page,
skinned over the middle, and peeped
into the inside. + ~
Il suppose that paper interests a
great many people. he remarked.
We modestly signified our assent.
"Wall, it don't me- he interrupted
sharply. eft doesn't take no books or.
papers to learn me my business, you
know. Never learned nuthin' from
books IN my lite. Didn't have but a
quarters schoolin', and then went in
to the shop. Served my time with old
Pete Reynolds, Of Boston. You know'd
him, mebbe aead~now. I: Was, bis fore
man; now I'm boss of my own works
in this city, am, All yer hollergeys
and hosserphys may do we'll enough to
write about, but they amt no .sort'er
use in the: shop. They just git inter
men heads and set EN- thinkin
about other things than their work,
and then they git inventin', and that's
the last of EN-. Why had likely
young Teller who used to buy that pa
per and read on it dinner heur;3 Some
times he'd stick it up on his lathe, >until
I stopped that, mighty sudden. Wall,
one day l caught him scribblin' with a
/ piece of chalk on bit of board; then
/ know d the invention fit had got hold
of him, and that he was a goner. A
few weeks after he comes to the Office,
and says he: 'sBoss, I've got little
arrangement here that1l make the old
lathe do better work, and he out with
one of them regular printed paytents,
and showed me new attachment for
making gearins, and sieh." ..'WaH,"
says I, to humor him like, "sonny,
says l; ''you can. go make yer masheen
and set it up on the lathe, if yer wan
ter" But the ungrateful villin began
to say something about royalty and
shop rights, and told the book keeper
to pay him right off and let him clear
out. Blow me if he didn't go over to
Smiths, aevost the street, and rig his
affair there, and the fret thing l know'd
Smith was tnrnin' out work at half nay
prices. Then | had to 60 find that
Teller, and pay him his blamed royalty,
and a heap it was too.
'Now, there was good hand just
spilled by a-readin' if he'd let that
ere paper. Of your'n alone he might
have been good, stiddy man. glttin
| bis three dollars day comfortable and
regular, Now they say he's maxim
stamps by thousands, but he's spilled.
Won't be worth nuthin ever fer work
agin. Where'qd | have been if Id
pegged away at books and noozepapers
chg
Our practical friend did not wait for
an answer, for while. we were
cogitating a suitable response, he
suddenly made a bolt out of the car
and rushed down side street, toward
a di]apidated>lookipg edifce, which, we
conjured, was none other than the
s'works.
Our acquaintance carried, off our pa
per. He honestly mailed it back to US
the other day. We smiled as. we saw
the thumb marks on all the pages, and
opposite an engraving there was pen
ell note of Il know better plan than
this. Perhaps after all latent idea
in his brain has been aroused, or has he
taken the invention fit Should he see
this, he will promptly scout the idea
that our humble efforts have awakened
him, for cit doesn't take no papers to
learn me my business, you know"