Middletown transcript., 1881-08-19

! CoSNNS-N~------
young and inexperienced. Besides, L
was the only heir to vast estate and
if anything should happen to me, /
thought, it will be more than the estate
can stand. The estate to which | refer
was vast landed estate. never
came into possession of it. Another
man had one on top of it and always
refused to move it off. A great many
young men who often speak of their
vast estates are worried in this manner.
But to return to the editor: After
he had examined my credentials | was
turned over TO the foreman. The fore
man in a printing Office is an august
personage-I may say an August and
September parsonage, if that will make
it any stronger. He towers a head or
two above all else in the office and
bows his will to none-unless he's
married. Next in Importance to the
foreman in country printing office is
the youngest journeyman,. called
"iour,'' = for short, otherwise known as
the graduated DEVIL He always
instructs the new apprentice in the
mysteries of "the art preservative of
all arts" teaching him particularly
how to put ink on the type Of the hand
press, with big roller, and also where
to carry the papers of the town sub
scribers, which was the custom some
years ago.
The graduated devil who took me in
charge said he was going to be an edi-
tor some day. lie was cultivating a
bald head and had already written a
local beginning e Yesterday our usual
ly quiet town was thrown into an in
tense state Of excitement, ETC., etc.,
etc. He gave me the big linking roller,
and l never before saw a boy so glad
to part with anything. The parting of
a man from his motherin-in-law is no
comparison to it. He almost wept
when he handed me the roller; and
when felt the weight of it I almost
wept, too. 1 saw then what the editor
wanted with muscle. l said to my
self, " if this is the way newspapers are
printed I have been grossly deceived.
Here is an instrument Of torture called
hand-press, behind which must
stand for five hours twice a week, dab
this roller in the ink, distribute it and
smear it on the types every time a
paper is printed" [ told the gradu-
ated devil that he knew all about this
business of mixing type he had been
doing it for some time and had got into
the hang of it and [ never was mean
enough to take job out of boys |
hands when he had got to like it. 1
would do something else, I said /
would fold papers, or edit the paper,
in fact, was ready to do anything that
came handy except ink the types. I
was not averse from the work, but 1
was not used to the smell Of printers
ink, and I was afraid it would make
me sick. But that base boy declined.
He only laughed, and said, "now is
the accepted time to get used to it," I
commenced, but 1 laid up malice
against that boy, and if l saw him
to-day running for the Legislature
would not raise a hand to save him.
In the morning of publication day he
went around with me to show me
where to leave the papers for the town
subscribers. We walked three miles to
distribute seventy papers. He said he
would 60 with me until learnt the
houses-and he did. never learnt
the houses. said if the houses wanted
to be learnt they could get some other
boy to learn them. Besides, loved
company, and the only satisfaction
had in crawling out Of bed at five
O'Clock of a winter morning and start
ing off with disappointed stomach, to
walk three miles with bundle of
newspapers under my arm, was that
the graduated devil had to go with me
to keep me from getting lost. He was
mean enough to have left me go alone,
which shows that he did not possess
my rare social disposition. One morn
ing he insisted that [ should go alone,
and that morning sixty-nine subscribers
missed their paper, and sixty-nine peo-
pie who were not subscribers got their
town paper for once without borrowing
it. The one subscriber who did get
his paper lived next door to the Office.
1 always remembered where he lived.
Another had yellow dog that bit me
on the leg the first morning 1 left a
paper at his house. always remem-
bered where he lived, too, and 1 kept
away from there. D
1 completed my apprenticeship in two
months and five days. was a won
derful boy to learn. The foreman said
they had never had a boy like me be-
fore-and he hoped they never would
again. There was almost constant
trouble between us, the foreman and
myself. L couldn't stand everything,
so one day when there were hot words
between us, 1 fell back between two
type cases, pulled the foreman on top
of me, and punished him severely. l I
held him down 50 long that the gradu-
ated devil had to come and help him
off. My face was scratched little, 1
had damaged eye, and there were
some finger marks ON my throat and
the foreman was terribly used up, too.
There were three buttons off his vest. ]
A week or so later, he forgot his recent
punishment at my hands and came at
me again. | was about to wash the :
big inking-roller at the time. 1 threw
it up as sort Of shield. 1t was full of /
ink, and it struck the foreman just
,o,.oss 4lo ox1no aYd -oIIad 1orryy, ,,,o ~ :, |