The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-06-22
The Travelling Type-Setter.
Palestine (Teras) AdU0cdte.


he walked silently in. We knew him the
moment we raised our eyes and saw him
standing there. In fact, we had been ex-
pecting him; he nearly always comes when
we are In just such 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 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 waistband, and
his new paper collar is the only fresh, white
thing about him, and 1t 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 sleeping or
eating, and he must have come thousands of
miles and been coming ever since he was .
boy. His starting point was so far away and
so long ago that he has almost forgotten
when or where it was; but We have an idea
that 1t must have been when his mother but
toned his little blue shirtband around bis
white, boyish throat, put on his little straw
hat, and sent him barefooted TO look for a
place to work in the printing office. How
proud lie was when he went home that first
night and showed his new brass rule, aud
tells his mother he has learned all the boxes
and has free ticket TO the circus next
week, and the editor gave him big piece of
wedding cake, part of which he has brought
home for the baby, and If he sets up a col
umn in one day next week he can 20 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 us: "What's the show for |
a sit?" We give case, and by and by he |
says he feels faint, and asks us If We can't |
lend him quarter-he haint had any break
fast yet. We know his weakness, and, as we
need his work, we 60 down with him and |
order some breakfast for him at the nearest |
restaurant. When he comes back he looks
happier 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 cir
culation and amount of business of every
paper in the State, and just why the Dispatch
suspended and why the Adpance sold out to
the Courier. He is well acquainted with the
unknown editor of the Thmderer, and has
friends on the editorial force of all the lead
ing journals of the country. BY and by he
whistles low an air from an Italian opera,
and in reply to a question answers with
Latin quotation. He stays with us a week,
and we grow to like him more and, more ev-
cry day; he has read everything, from Shaks-
peare and Ruskin to Mark Twain and Bill
Arp; he knows more about our laws, nation
al and state, than the best lawyer in the city;
nc is well acquainted with the lives of every
eminent person Of the age, and is a perfect
of current events; but we can
not afford to keep him any longer, so wepay
him of and he again starts on his long road
that leads-not to home, for he has none;
not to the society of intelligent people like
himself, for outside of ths printing Office he
is unknown; maybe back to night-work on
some city daily, or If too old and worn for
hat, rapid descent from one country office
10 another, with whisky and laudanum for
to an unmarked grave by some
lonely wayside.