Milford chronicle., 1883-08-03
An Engineers Yarn.

AL h4Il2lIl901 = L arm
am a practical mechanical engineer
, Let me see. It was sixteen years ag
this summer that came to New Yor
in search of employment. 1 had bee
running an engine in a big tannery i
i the western part Of the State, and doin
= first-rate till the company failed, an
was thrown out of work. So wa
looking about town for something to do
Money-gauge so low that I was read,
for anything after fortnight of search
ing and waiting. I happened to b,
walking through a down town cross
street, when I saw placard in the win.
dow of paper-box factory: Engineer
wanted; good salary"
"That's just me" says I. So I went
into the office and asked if I would do.
The manager said he would try me. He
did try me, and it seems I must have
satisfied him, for he told me to stay.
Now, it is about this manager and this
paper-box factory that my story, such
as it is, will be; and to make things all
straight and plain "a sort of oiling up at
the START, let me attempt to describe
them both.
First, then, the manager, Mr.. Samuel
Hardness, also sole owner of the factory.
This Mr.. Samuel Hardness was the
greatest villain ever came across. He's
dead now, poor man, and hate to speak
i'll of those who are gone, cause, you
see, its much the same as chinning be-
hind mans back; but he was n villain
all the same. Not one of your story
book Williams, either I have read lots
of novels, romances and such stuff lately,
but 1 haven't seen anything about their
villains that applies to my villain. Theirs
are invariably thin, dark men: of 1.-THE,
serpentine motion; with yellow faces,
straight black hair, and deepest inquisi-
tive eyes. Something of the Evil One
cropping out CT every point. iWhy, Lord
bless you, you'd recognize this kind of
villain soon as ever you clapped eyes on
him, just as you would a patent machine,
with every bit of metal labeled. NY
villain wasn't tall, wasn't dark at all; |
was tolerably stout, in fact, and well-.o-
do looking; didn't squirm bit; and, to
cut this description short, was Just like
most anybody else you meet. When I
engaged under him, of course I didn't
know anything about his villainy. How
He wasn't labeled.
And now for the factory itself. 1t was
a somewhat dilapidated five-story brick
Engine in cellar (most every
had his own power then,
of just betting on to the one big
engine of the block as they do now; Of
ice and samples, first floor; clipping
md folding mac ines, second floor; girls
'asting, sorting and trimming on the
took Of all sorts on the fourth and fifth.
We used to turn out an immense deal of
york with very few hands. There were
bout twenty-five or SO girls, the man.
ger, his clerk and Office boy, man to
oist and do odd jobs, the fireman and I
nyself Except when stock was taken
4, q work sent out, there was nobody =
lse in the building.
1 generally kept to my own business >
nd staid down in the cellar, nursing the 81
Id engine. She sadly needed it, being Il
s rickety and patohed-up a contrivance "
) one cares to stay alongside Of. She .
ways reminded me of some old people .
on see, who are always in need of pee 81
'ral for a cough, or a iniment for II
or something or other. st
his engine of mine was in such a state
lat she always wanted ease somewhere,
rivet here, plug there, new stufing, p
ore felting, or band around the whole HI
oiler. From boiler to fy-wheel she was W
ckety, rickety. But there was no pres al
1t danger to be apprehended; all was W
fe enough with proper care and atten- m
on. There was the rub. Ihad to exer- IL
Sc that same proper care and attention o'
the time. But if I was so occupied, n
could not help meeting the girls now h'
ID then in the passage But there m
as one little, pale-faced girl took to be
raight Off She wasn't bit like the hI
hers, and seemed as nice and quiet and "
ly-like as they were noisy. As said, or
took to her, aud she-well, she didD't if
together snub me. We got to be fast be
ends soon, She told me the tale other it