Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-10-06
THE TRAVELLING TYPE SETTER.

He walked silently in. We knew
him the minute we raised our eyes
and saw him standing there. In
fact, we had been expecting him; he
nearly always comes when we are In
Just such a strait and needing him.
He always wears the same style OF
clothes-coat of one kind and pants
of another; he hasn't any vest; his
shoes are worn out and run down at
the heels and his hat is battered and
dusty. There are spots OF ink about
his shirt, which hangs over his waist
band, and his new paper collar is the
only fresh, white thing about him,
and it looks as though he had just
put it on with soiled fingers. He is
pale. weak-eyed and prematurely
gray haired; he looks as though he
had never known regular hours.
either for eating or sleeping, and he
must have come thousands of miles,
and been coming ever since he was a
boy. His starting point was 80 far
away, and 80 long ago, that he has
almost forgotten when or where it
was; but we have an idea that it
must have been when his mother
buttoned his little blue shirtband
around his white, boyish throat, put
on his little white hat, and sent him
to work in the printing Office. How
proud he was when he went home
that first night and showed his new
brass rule, and tells mother he had
learned all the boxes, and has a free
ticket to the circus next week, and
the editor gave him big piece of
wedding cake, a part of which he had
brought home for the baby, and if he
sets up q column in one day next
week he can 60 fishing on Saturday.
Yes, somewhere about there was the
commencement OF his long journey,
and here he is now, perhaps two
thirds on the way. He asks: whats
the show for a sit2" We give him
case, and by and by he says he feels
faint, and asks if we can't lend him
a quarter, he hasn't had any break
fast yet. We know his weakness,
and, as we need his work, we go down
with him and order some breakfast
for him at the nearest restaurant.
When he comes back he looks hap
pier and better able to work. In the
evening, when he goes to distributing
his case, he recounts the history of
his late places of employment. He
knows the circulation and amount ct
business of every paper in the State,
and just why the Dispatch suspended
and why the Advocate sold out to the
Courier. He is we'll acquainted with
the unknown editor of the Thunderer,
and has friends on the editorial force
of all the leading journals of the
country. By and by he whistles low
an air from the Italian opera, and in
reply to a question answers with a
Latin quotation. He stays with us a
week, and we grow to like him more
and more every day; he has read
everything from Shakespeare and
Ruskin to Mark Twain and Bill Arp;
he knows more about our laws, ma
tional and State, than the best law
yer in the city; he is well acquainted
with the life of every eminent person
of his age, and is perfect encyclo-
pedia of current events. But we
cannot afford to keep him any longer,
SO we pay him of, and again he starts
on that long road that leads--not to
home, for he has none; not to the
society of intelligent people like
himself, for outside of the printing
Office he is unknown; maybe back to
night work on some city daily; or, if
too worn and old for that, rapid
descent from one country Office to
another, with whisky and laudanum
for companions, to an unmarked
grave by some lonely wayside.-
Palestine (Texas) Advocate.