Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1886-08-05

What ! am going to tell You hap
pened nearly thirty years ago, wher
was little more than boy, but every
fact is impressed upon my memory al
strongly as if the exciting circHm
stances occurred last night. Folk,
call me whimsical, because | Away:
shun any newspaper article having
allusion to insane people, and they
call me an "old woman, because often
scream out in my sleep, or start and
turn pale when even a child creeps
behind my chair unawares.
All these things have an explana-
nation, and am going to give it 10
you:
In the quaint old village of-well,
we will say Banktown-I made my
first start in life. Like other Penn
sylvania villages, it had been built up
by neighboring coal mine, and most
of its residents were miners. There
were not over eight hundred inhabi
tants, but there was floating popu-
lation, and country trade, which
gave Banktown a busy stirring air.
My mother was a widow; in average
circumstances, aud | was her only
son. My schooldays were very few,
o--~lI us~s~s. -usars nesueu 10
assist in paying the rent and buying
provisions. Sometimes | worked at
the mines, or drove teams, and at
other times picked up a few shillings
by doing odd chores about the town.
On the very day that / was fifteen
years old, man named Justin Welsh
arrived in Bankton with two or three
teams loaded with the furniture of
country printing office. People had
been making an effort for a long time
TO secure the establishment of a week
ly paper in our town, and the final
arrival of Welsh created considerable
excitement. He had engaged rooms
IN the third story of the largest and
only brick store in the village, front
ing on the main street, close to the
bridge over a rapid and deep river.
The rear walls of the building rested
on the brink of cliff twenty feet
high, at whose base the river growled
and roared over the rocks like tiger
bafiled Of its prey.
Boylike, | was on hand, and gazing
at the press, cases, racks and other
appurtenances, with an eager and
curious eye.
Welsh employed me to assist in
carrying the stuff up stairs. After
this was accomplished, he engaged me
to help get the room to rights, and
by the time that work was finished
was an enthusiast on the subject OF
printing. The typos vera 80 mysta.
rious, the press so wonderful, and
there was so much TO admire one way
and another, that I determined to
become an apprentice to the art, il
such a thing were possible.
In a timid way l limited my desires
to Welsh, and was overjoyed to find
that he would chesrfully accept Of my
services at small salary, providing
my mother gave her consent. Ny
mother approval was easily obtained,
as she saw that a trade would prov,
much better for me in the end, and
Was informed by Welsh that NV wage
would soon be increased to the ful
amount which / could earn by pick
ing up light jobs here and there. s,
came about that undertook to bt
printer.
Welsh had no family. He was /,
bachelor OF thirty-fve, tall and pow
ful in build, jovial and droll in hi
conversation, aud was soon the most
popular man in BanktOwn. Tbs
reader must remember that printing.
offices were not 50 plenty thirty year:
ago as now, And at tbst day newspapel
men we're surrounded with a sort o
atmosphere OF awe and admiration
which made them leading character,
la every community.
The Mirror. a. our new paper Ma