The Press., 1888-07-05
THE TRAVELLING TYPE SETTER.

He walked silently in. We knew him
 the moment we raised our eyes and saw
 him standing there. In fact, we had been expecting him; he nearly always comes when We are ilI just such strait and need
 ing him. He always wears the same style of clothes-coat of one kind, and pants of another; he hasn't any vest his shoes are worn and run down at the heels, and his hat is battered and dusty. There are spots of ink about his shirt which hangs over his waistband, and, his new paper collar is the only fresh whit thing about him, and 1t looks as though he had just put it on with soiled fingers. He is pale, weak eyed, and premature lV gray haired he looks a. though he had never known regu- lar hours, either for eating or sleeping, and he must have nme thousands of miles and been coming ever since he was a boy.
 His stirting point was so far away, aud so lorg ago, that he has almost forgotten when or where it vas but We have an idea that it must have b ,en when his mother buttoae,l his little blIe shirtb md
 arou! his white, boyIsh throat, put on his little white hat, and sent him to work in tue printing ofiic'. How proud he was when he went home the first night and sl o yed his new brass rule, and tells moth TT he has l. aru, d all the boxes, and has a free ticket to the circus next week, and the editor gave him piece of wedding cake, a part of which he had brought home for the baby, and if he sets up column in one day next week he cIn go fishing on s ttnsday. Yes, somewhere about there was the commencement of his long journ- ey, and here he is now, perhaps o-thirds on the way. lie asks us What's the show for n sit ?" We give him a case, and hv T lNy Ina ho int nd oclyo
 us if we can't lend him a quarter-he hasn't had any breakfast yet. We know his weakness, and, as we need his work,
 we go down with him and order some breakfast for him at the nearest restaurant When he comes back he looks happier and better able to work. In the evening, when he gees to distributing in his case. he re- counts the history of hls late pllces of em- plOy ment. He knows the circulation and amount of business of every paper in the state, and inst why the Dispatch suspend ed, ard why the Advance sold out to the Courier He is well acquainted with the unknown editor of the Thundercr, and has friends on the editorial force of all the leading journals of the country. By and by he whistles low an air from an Italian opera, aud in reply to a question answ CTS with Latin quotation. He stays with us week, and we grow to Ike nm more and more every day; he has read every thing from Shakespeare and Ru kin to Mark Twan and Bill Arp; he kLows more about our laws, national and state, than the best lawyer in the city ; he is well ,c
 qnaiuted with the lives of every eminent person of his age, and is ptrft ct clicv- clolRdia of current events. But we n not afford to keep him any longer, so pay him off, and agaIn he starts on his long road that leads to home, for he has none; not t. the society of intelligent people like himself, for outside of the printing office he is unknown maybe back to night work on some city daily or, if too worn and old for that, a r. pid de- scent from one country office to another, with whisky and laudanum flor compau- ions, to an unmarked grave by some lone ly wayside. .-P0testi'ae( { (TeGGs) Adoocdte.