Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-06-04
TzHE OLD PRINTER.
Sketch, Of Life Behind the Scenes in
Newspaper COmpOsing-licOn,.
II Burlington Hawkeye.

II. j. Burdette in Burlington Hawkeye
Slug Nine" learned his letters right from the
boxes. and grew up and learned to set type in
one OF those mustang offices where they keep
the type in cofpc-sack and chalk cut the cases
on the floor. He wasn't even q very fast printer
lie didn't often rush. and he never ..sodercd
for the fat on the hook" but took whatever
came along with equal patience and good ma
ture, whether it was pickup or great take
OF blind copy, scrubbed in pencil on blue fools
cap on both sides Of the paper and marked solid
with never break o. para graph from A to
l.. But he would stand at that old case and
pick up tyne all night. Pc"cin,c along on
straight BREWER a. TRANQUILITY Is though he struck
a display head on every take lie always made
fair bills, and after while as the sixties began
creeping on him. the boys had q way of sol
dierlng" for him, and maybe you don't know
row hard 1t Is tor q printer not to drop coed
many type. and tumble for the boxes and let
his thumb get most aWfully sore and have to
hunt Tor the bellows and blow out his case and
study the copy very closely and find il dread
fully hard to read. and that sort OF thing. when
10y rushing little he can get n pickup" as
long as your arm and loaded take with rara-
graph to every sentence. But they did that for
the old man, and he knew it BIZ and by, and
loved The boys lis though they were his own,
every last slug CT them.
And so. year after year. ne wrought among
about tire time the rest OF the world cot nm
and he rose about the time the rest OF the world
sat down to dinner. He worked by every kind
of light except sunlight. There were candles
In the Office when he came in, then they had oil
lamps. that smoked and suffered and smpIled.
then he saw two or three printers blinded by
explosions OF canphene and spirit gas; then
Kerosene came in ard heated up the news-rQOm
on summer nights like furnace; then the Office
put in gas; and now the electric LIGHT hung
frOr no nd 1nI 7
giared into them from his copy. If he sang on
his way home, o policemen babe him :.cheese
that, and reminded him that he was disturbing
the peace, ard people wanted to Sleep But
when ne wanted to sleep, the rest of the world.
Tor whom lie had sat up all night to make q
morning paper, roarei and crashed bv t!o,rn the
noisy street under his window. with cart and
truck and omnibus; blared with brass bands.
howleG with hand-orCans, talked ard shouted:
and even the shrieking newsboy, with ghastly
sarcasm, murdered the sleep of the tired old
printer by yelling the name of his own paper
Year after year the foreman rOarCd at him to
remember that this wasn't an afternoon Daper.
editors sllrIeked down the tube to have a blind
man put on that dead mans case smart young
prooi-readers scrubbed sarcastic comments on
his work. on the margin of his prOof-slips lonn-
Windcd correspondents. leSrnUg to write and
l0ng-haircd poetswho cOuldheye learn to spell.
Wrathiuily cast all their imperfecti0ns upon his
head. But through it all he wrought PATIENTLY
ana found more sunshine than shadow in the
world ne had more friends than enemies Print
CT5 and foreman and presSmen and reporters
and editor; came and went. but he stald and he
saw news-room and saGctum filled and cmptied
and filled and empted again, and filled again
with new and strange faces.
lie was working one night. and when the
hours that are so short in the ballroom and so
long in the c0mposing-rOom drew YEARLY on
he was tired. He hadn't thrown i'm q full case
he said One Of the BOYS tired as himself-but
printer is never too tired TO be eood-natured-
offered to change places with him. but the old
T1aG said there was enough in his case to last
him through his take. and he wouldn't work
any mere tonight. The type clicked in the 81
lent room. and by and by the old man said:
IN out OF sorts"
He sat down on the low WndoW-silI by his
case. with his stick in his hand his hands folded
YEARLY In his lap The types clicked on. A
galley OF telegraph waited.
''Wili any one kindly tell me what gentleman
Is lingering with ID 1872 called the foreman, who
was always dangerously polished and polite
when he was on the point Of exploding with
wrath and impatience
Slug Nine. passing 10y the alley. STONED TO
speak to the old man sitting there SO quietly
The telegraph boy came running in with the
last manifold sheet, shouting:
Thirty"
They carried the old man to the foreman's lonp
table, and laid him down revefentlv, and COW
cred bis face. They took the stick out of his
neryeless hand, and read his last take:
BOSToN. Nov. 23-The American baruue PILGRIM,
went 10 pieces OF Marblehead in light gale a6out
midnight. She WAS old and unseaworthy, and this
VAS 10 have been her last trip.