Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-05-29
THE OLD PRINTER AND HIS HOME
IDEA.
By ROBERT J. BURDETTE.

There was a wife and there was a
boy. Long before any one now in the
office had a sic III news room, press
room, business office, " Sanctum, and
before the Did mar had begun to look
out at the world through spectacles aud
his figure was as straight as it was tall,
the typos and reporters used to hear "a
great deal of talk about buying a lot
and building house out on the hill,
where he could have patch Of garden
And by and by he was going to quit
sticking type aud get into something
that would let him stay at home nights
aud get acquainted with his family.
And the suit of clothes he bought in
the fall lasted long way into the next
summer, and then they came out again
in the winter, and the old man rushed
more than he ever did again while that
dream of home was inspiring him. 1t
is an old story, this struggle Of a printer
t. get hOsIe; any one OF these rest
less mariners OF the land, drifting from
port tu port and back again, l"red by
the ignis fatus Of 50 many cents more
thousand aud price and half after 2
o clock, and big bills with four or five
sights work. Never wandering jour
printer got chaucc to stand at tile Old
mans case while he was saving money
for house and lot, and the subs looked
at him with the despailing glances of
starvation. Bat it Is hard, uphill work
for printer to get Il home. His pay
is easily reduced an1 hardly raised; IL
loug strike means the road for him, and
if he has family and cant tramp, he
breaks his heart, puts dust Oh his head,
aud goes out Of the union and YEARLY
works at the bosses rates. So the old
man worked 5ravely on, as many a
printer has worked before aud since his
time, and the little plant in the bank
began to grow brighter as the old clothes
grew shabbier.
And the boy, growing into his tenth
year, used to he seen in the Office after
school, standing at his tall fathers
elbow, learning, in a very irregular,
bOyish, nafprentlced fashion. with
Cataract OF questions, t. stick type. The
old man never intended the boy should
be printer. And he was so proud of
him and his standing at sch ,ol' Aud
once the boy wrote a ten-iine account
of boy falling down stairs. that good
natured reporter sent it just as 1t came,
although it was dull day, and the
scribe wanted awfully to make it col
umn and to put on a HANGING head.
And the old man sent marked copies OF
that paper to every soul he knew in
this world
But one day an unbldden guest came
home from school with the by and
sat down by the hearthstone in the old
mans rented home. And the long days
of fever and doctors bills drew out
nearly all that little home bank account,
and one black day the old man case
was empty aud the business Office told
the undertaken that all his bills would
be paid there and he mustut take any
money from the old man And pale
aud quiet ami sad. looking old and.
worn, was the printer who came next
day and took his old place at the case,
The types didn't click very fast Ia that
alley for days after. that. Aud some
times the printers face would be lying
on the boxes in his folded arms, and how
pathetic looking the half filled stick in
the clasped hands, the composing rule
fallen out of its place, and the pied
type and leads all tulnoleJ together.
More than one printer. going by on his
way to empty his stick IN the galley,
vas long time bending down to find
the take his one followed; and more
than one, looking across at the heart
broken picture of sorrow, leaned close
down to his copy to read fair writing
that was never blurred when it came off
the hook, and grimed has eyes with an