The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-04-09
TRAMP P2IE rERS.


its ranks ~ tbluy wand -r-l'> a. tii a-.
typographical Every printing -ofiirr has
/ its legani- a. their coming and going
Two year, 40 died az Bucyru-, OHIO,
Thomas Wallace, who was a composito-
in Des Moines twenty-five years before.
Prior to that he WIS at Iowa City, a4d
! srt type on the Journal of the first Ter
! ritOrilI legislature lie had workal. at
the time OF his death, in ,, 100 different
/ o;ii;.s. and went to the printers reward
at the rip- age of eighty years. hs an
evidence Of the different a"-s ia which
he piled his art, he pulled a ktmage
press in 1921, and in 1870 set type for
Petroleum V Nasty, in Toledo, O.
" Mltchat"-if he ever had any other
nam,, 10 one this side of his christen-
ing fount was ever able to discover it
commenced his career in Scotland IN
1920. Tie first year the Legislature was
in session in DaS Moines, ''Matchet" ap-
pearrd here rs an actor, ia the first the
atrical performance given an this city
He had but one eye, aud, like most of
the tramPS, hal an uubounded capacity
for benzine. lie was a composition in
equal parts of printer, actor and vaga-
bond, and excelled in each character
Ten or twelve years after lie trod the
boards in Des Moines he came back, the
last time travelling on n pass on the dirt
oh I,a F.. G.. I..I- Of
w.Ierewith to pay stage fare. The sec
oni time he appeared az Il printer, and a
good one he was, too. He worked on
the old citizen until he had accumulated
twenty dollars. Then he started for
Georgia, intending to tramp the entire
distance. Two years ago an old, grfzzled
and wrinkled man entered the Register
composing about midnight. With
easy nonchalenee he introduced himself
"a "Old Mltchet." The next day he
WI, given work, aud the next being
Sunday, he s1uandered his days wages
ia forty rod whisky, au1 that night he
slept in the press room. He estimated
that the aggregate miles of his tramps
exceeded sixty thousand. One trip was
from Fort Leavenworth to California.
He was about seventy years old when he
left Das MOines, and set fine type with
ont the aid of spectacles. His fayorite
expression, when offered ride or when
asked why he Travelled afoot, was that it
hurt his feet to ride"
Jack Harrington is another travelling
typographer whose fingers have been
pied in the printing offices Of every
State. His first exploit in life was to
spend twenty thousand dollars left him
by an accumulative but short-lived pa
ternaI ancestor. Then lie commenced
TO tramp and soak himself with the
WHISTLES OF all points of the compass
He has probably borrowed half dollar
of every jour printer in the Union, and
when he dies will attempt TO g stand
off " with his undertaken.
Singletary is a most remarkable tramp.
Born In Ohio, lie worked at his trade
until he had accumulated one hundred |
dollars. Then he started out to see
Mexico, which he did in company with |
Zach Taylor. The close of the war |
found him at New Orleans, and from |
there he started with the expressed pur-
pose OF visiting every State and Terri |
torial capital. Ten years ago his mis- |
sion Was completed. Des Moines being |
the last, where he worked on - State |
work to raise money to carry him home |
in Ohio. Nearly all of his tramping was |
done afoot. He Sept in a press-room in
preference to a hotel, and in the sum
mer time was happy while slimbering in |
a friendly hay smow. Like most of those |
old style tramps, he was an excellent
workman, and could have accumulated |
a handsome property had he not been
under the influence Of the Genius of
Unrest.
Jack Alien is yet in the land Of the
living, Just coming TO the close Of life
that has stretched out three quarters of
a century. Unlike most tramps, he has
always been strictly temperate He has
probably seen more and seen better than
any tramp in the country. Yesterday |
he left the itegister Office, where he had
abored for Il week. He came here from
Austin, Texas, having walked all the
way except strip of about one hun
drel miles through the Indian Territory,
and worked more or less ia almost ev-
cry newspaper town between here and
the Lone Star State lie left here en-
route fpr Duluth, which, lac said, was
the only town OF seven thousand inhab-
itants in the United States which he had
not visited.
Jack Alcnrn has wllk ii until his feet |
are spread out as fat as a pancake. He |
has counted the ties of half OF the rail |
roads in the Union. When he was fifty |
years old he found himself ct Richmond,
Virginia, working at his trade. The
rebellion commenced, and Jacks senti- |
ments told him to go North. The gov
ernment of the Confederate States
wanted his skill in the Government |
Printing Office, and lie remained at |
Richmond, a gray-coated Ccnfed. guard |
ing his door to see that lie did not
escape. Six months of this life was "A |
dull dose, and one evening the tramping |
printer was among the missing. The |
next time he saw Richmond he was |
swinging a saber in Sheridans cavalry.
At the close of the war he again took |
the rold, and last winter, his head white
with age, but with a step as light as |
thirty years before, the unconquerable |
Jack came marching into Des Moines on |
the ties of the Valley road. 4 short |
period of labor on State work satisfied |
lin, and he left en- route for New Or |
leans.
It's a conundrum what becomes of
old tramps. Wallace is the only one of
them that has been known to die; the
others are still on the go, and give no
symptoms of relapse into either the
grave or quiet. If they should die,
they wouldn't be satisfied in the other
world unless there was some corner of
it that they hadn't visited
-4.
BENEFITS OF NEWSPAPER ADvERTIs-
ING.-NewspaPer advertising, says one
Of our exchanges, offers such facilities
for addressing all classes, from which
customers would be likely to be attract
ed, that it is now recognized by business
men, having faith in their own wares. as
the best of all possible salesmen-oDe