The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1885-10-21
The Printer.

/ "A printer is as ubiquitous as a Texas
flea" For inrtance, last week we were
| surprised BY the visit of one whom We
knew in Miles City, four years ago, who
had then travelled in every state and
territory, except Washington, Oregon
and California he had just returned
from trip through California, where
during the past year he had ''held cases.
on nearly every prominent paper in that
state. He had simply come to Bozeman
to see if there was "sit." There being
none he reloaded his powder and ball
revolver and '.lit out" for the returning
train, with all his baggage in his pockets.
The average western printer travels un-
encumbered, usually without money,
and no one has ever heard of them
walking any great distance. This same
printer could procure steady situation
in most any job Office in the country
and command remunerative salary
with more money in his pockets at the
end of the year than the average Men
|stana editor-but the charm of travelling
and sight seeing is upon him, and the
idea of steady employment in one town
is repulsive to his nature.
That magnificent coiner of adjectives,
Pat Donan, pays the following tribute to
''the tramp printer" much of which is
true and some of which is quite beauti-
full /:
"Wyer-bryer Undertook,
Seventeen geeses in flock,
One few east and one few west,
And one flew o'er the cuckoo's nest.
"Whiff whizz! Presto, change Ever
shifting, always shiftless. Wheel-about
and tum-about, and skedoodle everv
which "a way. Tramping yesterday,
working to-day, paintin' the town red
tomorrow. Now in the city, where the
ponderous eight-cylinder, self-paster and
folder mingles thunder and lightning,
ink and cheap bombastic stupidity at
lightning speed and anon in the back
woods village, where the antiquated
lemon-squeezer hand press squeaks and
wheezes under its weekly and weakly
burden Of ignoramus politics, thanks for
pumkins and turnips, rural rymester
dogerrel to some freckled Nancy Jane, or
the memory of some infantile victim of
whooping-cough o" green-apple collie,
murdered English, massacred grammar
and smashed orthography. Here a
dandy, there ragamufin, everywhere a
philosopher and vagabond. The Be-
douin of civilization, Ishmaelite of Chris
tendon stamped by the finger of omni-
potent destiny with the Cain-like brand
of ceaseless unrest, the seal of perpetual
motion. The world owes much of its
light to him. A vast amount of its
science, its art, literatue and its religion
would lie buried in impenetrable obscur-
itp but for him. To his nimble, dingy
finger mankind, at least in part, owes
every spelling book and bible, every
poem, history, revelation, discovery and
Pail Mall Gazette sensation that stores
the minds of the wise or tickles the ears
Of the foolish. And yet he is vagrant
a homeless wanderer, knowing every
body, caring for nobody and nobody car
ing for him. Such is the history, the
life, the epitomized biography Of ninety
nine out of every hundred of the peri
patetlc printer tribe. Creations orphans,
footballs of fortune, thistle down of luck,
the worlds least appreciated necessities
and benefactors. Without them half of
Dakota's 225 daily, weekly and monthly
papers would be impossible. Heaven
grant them in some other world the
rest and peace and content that are
denied them here" Amen.