The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1891-02-07
OLD CLOTHES.

olLb SbO IlEc.
A boy is always proud to get into a
new suit of clothes, and will cast away
his old nes without a regret.
A newspaper publisher always enjoys
putting on a ''new Dress" but unless
he has very deep feelings in his bank
account he parts with old one with
respectful sorrow.
Printers type is like a man. At the
same time it is a fair type of immor-
tality.
Like a mar it has a beginning. 1t
has its uses like a young man and like
q married man is sometimes wofully
abused. 1t is pressed, and makes i'm
pressions. Its face becomes defaced,
and so marred and injured by too
much association with the s'devil' that
it is fit only for the ''hell-box." No
profanity. (The Immortality idea
strikes in lower down the column.)
This week the INTELLIGENCER casts
off its old clothes, and takes on a ''new
dress" What n myriad of memories
memories tender rs ii woman's heart,
memories tough as a spring chicken,
memories fresh as the morning dew,
memories old rs ancient history, come
trooping in to form Il funeral group
over the old type as it lies lit never lied
that way before) upon the Office floor
awaiting shipment.
For twenty-five years this type has
been in use in the INTELLIGENCER
Office. 1t is gray-haired, bald headed
and toothless. For a fourth of Il en-
tury the wind has blown through its
whiskers-metaphorically speaking
while the cylinder press and office boy
have diligently pegged away at its hair
lines, dots, tails and crosses.
What q wonder of tales has that old
type not told! How patiently, yet how
faithfully, has it chronicled the weekly
history of the county, and all the
neighborhood doings, recorded in brief
the annals of the state and epitomized
the world.
1t has told of the bride at the altar
and of the swelling wedding march. 1t
has recorded the birth of nearly every
baby born in % years in Lafayette
county, and told with sympathetic
of deathbed scenes and funeral
professions, as noble men and women,
handed babes, lovely youth or
totering old age have paid natures last,
inevitable, memorable debt.
A wonderful life has that old type,
low dead and boxed for shipment, lead.
Week after week has it told its story
fresh, ever changing, ever varying
as humanity varies or as the fates weave
for men and women their destiny.
1t has told of bursting buds and
blossoms in the genial springtime; of
the SUMS fierce rays and the mis-
cries of fly time when summers breath
was scorching; has painted the golden
autumn in the language of poetry, and
described old winters terrors and
pleasures, neve failing to quote the
price of coal, the cost of eggs and the
dynamic power of warehouse butter.
But this old type is dead now, dead
and at rest. From Lexington it will
be borne to the type foundry in st.
Louis where it will lay around with
other old type for a week or two, and
then be melted down and recast, and
like a man after death, come out anew.
Again will it be laid in cases, again be
used as it was before to chronicle the
history of its locality, boast of the
beauty of hat locality's female popula-
ton, extol the virtues of patent medi-
cine, again announce the ''End of bone
scraping," abuse the opposite party
and tickle the poultry man by publish
ing the latest remedies for chicken
cholera.