News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-17


think of the active business man going
to his office.
Your surmise would be correct so far
as it indicates retirement instead OF act
i've business pursuit. But the gentle
man is not O retired banker or broker:
he is q retired tramp.
Twenty years ago | was the managing
editor of q New York morning newspa-
per. Late one morning, as looked up
from the work on my desk, l saw a
young man standing beside me, diident-
ly holding his hat in hand, and visibly
embarrassed.
Excuse me, sir" he said, ''I am try
ing to find something to do and have
had little newspaper experience"
A morning newspaper Office is no Kin
dergarten, no place for newspaper ap-
prentices.
1 simply said, ''See the city editor,
and pointed to the desk of the man who
was wont to be pestered by journalistic
fiedglings.
When l turned to my work / found
that my mind was on the sad, almost
supplicating face of that youth. L look
ed up again, and he was just passing me
on his way out. His face was flushed, |
he was nervously Tumpliug his hat, and /
l thought / detected moisture III his /
eyes.
beckoned to him.
''What did the city editor say?"
''He said, sir, that he had no need for
my services. "
''Are yOu a stranger in the city7"
eyes, sir, my home was in Western
PENNSYLVANIA. I came here two weeks
ago, and have been ever since trying to
get employment"
felt enough Interested in the youth :
to question him further.
His name was Wilford, and he was an
orphan. He had latterly lived with a
hard-fisted grandfather on stony farm
IN Western Pennsylvania. The grand
fathers harshness had led to a rupture
between them, and the young man had
come to the city to see what fortune had
in store for him.
/ was satisfied that he was penniless
and 1 believed he was hungry. This was
no new sight to me, but somehow my
sympathy was arOnsed.
/ spoke to the city editor and light .
and easy assignment for the young man .
was the result.
Well, in due time he returned with his .
copy. 1t was amateurish, of course, but .
1 assisted him a little in dressing it mp, /
and gave him some useful hints. He /
soon developed into q good reporter. He /
was not brilliant, but he was conscien- /
tious, reliable and truthful. He could /
always be depended upon, there was no (
danger that he would either shirh his 1
work or fail to have his copy ready in
reasonable time.
About two ,ars had passed when one
day Wilford told me that he was soon
to be married. He was engaged to a
young lady, who, with her mother, werc /
his fellow boarders.
l attended the wedding, and was not /
favorably impressed with the bride. She
was unquestionably handsome, and it
seemed to me that she was rather too .
anxious to have everybody know it.
few months had passed since the /
wedding when the city editor surprised /
me, one day, by the statement that VIII |
ford was beginning to neglect his work |
and further, that he seemed to be at
times under the influence of liquor. AS
he was my protege, / determined to ia |
thom the matter at once, and left word /.
for Wilford that wanted to see him i'm (.
mediately on his return to the Office.
He came to me in my private Office, |
and could sea at glance that he was
even then slightly intoxicated. I told /
him what the city editor had said to me. |
The tears came to his eyes and he frank .
ly admitted that the statement was true. !
1t was the old dstory-domestic trouble. /
He had suspected his wife, and one
night when out on an assignment he had |
seen her in company which left him no
longer any room for suspicion. He had !
not seen her since, did not want to see
her, and there was no evidence that she /
cared to see him. He tried to drown
his troubles with drink.
But lie would quit drinking. Yes, he /
promised me on his honor that he would /
drink no more, and that lie would dill .
gently attend to his duties.
Two days afterwards the city editor /
gave Wilford an important assignment. |
1t was matter that would eliminate /
late and which required rapid writing
after the facts were gathered in order to .
have the copy ready in time.
Neither WilfOrd nor his copy appeared
that night and mortifying ''beat' on
the paper was the consequence. 1t was
subsequently learned that he was drunk ,
early in the evening and was sleeping off
his debauch when he ought to have |
been at work on his report.
He was summarily discharged, of /
course and it was a dozen years after
wards before / saw him again, when he |
told me the strange story of his life |
in the meantime.
After his discharge, to use his own /
words, he ''shot down to the tramp level |
with the swiftnes5 of toboggan." He |
did no more work He didn't attempt /
to get a situation on any other news /
paper.
Everything avail able in the way of
jewelry, clothing and so on went to the .
pawn shop, and the proceeds to the rum
shop. He avoided the haunts of news
paper men, dreaded recognition by any
one who had known him in better days, /
and skulked around with the conscious |
ness that he was q coward, loafer, a |
tramp.
He soon reached the point where he /
was in no danger of being recognized by |
any of his former acJuaintances. His |
attire was that of n scarecrow in a corn
field. his bloated face with beard growth |
like scrub brush, and hair like a
mop.
He was at the bottom, sleeping in
board piles with other tramps no better
and no worse than he, begging bread at
basement doors or pOking In garbage
boxes, and tipping beer kegs to pour