Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-12-30
AMOS CUMMINGS IN HIS CONTEST

glNEF AtNS AN AAo So4N1 ~
The performance began at noon and con-
tinued till 5 o'clock. This unusual hour
was set of necessity, for many of the actors
had to be taken pack to New York by spe-
cial train in time for appearance on the
stages of the theaters of that city in the
evening. This required some lively trav-
cling, but the railroads were equal to the
emergency. That people can play at a
matinee in Washington and at an evening
performance the same day in New York is
sufficient evidence of the fact that this is IL
fast age in which we live. There are men
now living in Washington who can re-
member when the journey from the me-
tropolis to the capital required four days,
and travellers were lucky ifthey got through
in that time.
But it was not about this big entertain
.ment that I wanted to tell you. One of
the most amusing incidents of the winter
grew out of the Press clubs show. 1 refer
TO b typesetting contest between Amos
Cummings and Walter Wcllman, the
letter writer. With other members of the
club they sat one evening talking of the
old days in which both and many other
smen'now prominent in the legislative or
journalistic world were compositors. One
of the fads of all men who ever worked
with a stick and rule is the belief that they
can still set type just as fast as they ever
could, and that there is no one in the coun-
try who can beat them.
Some such spirit as this must have actu-
ated Cummings and Wellman, for they
bantered each other and dared each other,
and finally made a wager of a dinner for
themselves and their fellow clubmen, and
adjourned to a nearby printing office to
fight it out. With an escort of congress
men, senators and journalists they pulled
off their coats, rolled up their sleeves and
at the call of "time" sailed in. Amos had
not set any type for more than twenty-five
years, while his competitor had left the
case nearly twenty years since. Yet both
men had no difficulty in getting up an old
time swing Of the right arm to and fro
Over the type boxes. 1t is marvellous how
theinstinct of composition survives through
all the years Of other employment.
Cummings did have a little trouble In
finding the capital U box, and his antago-
mist was once at a loss to know just where
the lower case b was. But he had the
presence of mind not to waste time trying
to find it. He went along as if nothing
had happened, and the next time he
wanted a b his fingers flew instinctively
Y dpO W1OuOuO d lAOIleuU . utSlCdUlOu 10 tuc
right box. Then he went back and put in
the b which he had omitted, and all was
well.
Genial Amos was convinced before the
contest was over that he is growing old.
He couldn't see the hicks in the type as he
used to see them in the old days, and his
4 glasses persisted in falling from his nose.
His fingers were not as nimble as they
used to be either, and the result was that
his younger rival somewhat easily dis.
tanced him in the race, though both did
pretty fast work under the circumstances.
This incident attracted so much atten-
tion and was the subject Of so much talk
among public men and their friends, the
correspondents, that the latter have about
determined to start up in Washington
right after the holidays q novel contest
nothing else than a typesetting ourna
ment between statesmen and journalists.
In congress there is a large number of men
who used to set type, and one of the pecu-
~liarities of printers is that they never out
grow their love for the trade-once q
printer always a printer; If not by prac-
tice,tthen in the spirit. "
The little struggle between Cummings
and Wellman stirred the blood of the old
prints in Washington, and half a dozen
senators and Representatives talked next