San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-25


1t proved so later The blue-coated
policeman and tramp printer picked
the body and hurried it down the
stairs, and through gaping crowd
into the patrol wagon. A clerk, who
had run cut of the Orb business office
below, motioned to the driver to wait
while he sang out to Abe's stolid head
which was pushed through window:
Say, Abe, have you got all the
item?"
"All right, let him drive off, y replied
Abe, not a particle of concern rufiling
his immobile features. And so the
wagon ratified off, the crowd scattered
to right and left, and the book-keeper
was told to insert an lad" for another
niger" That was Old Toms end,
and Pail Terry wondered within him
self if his taking off would have mat
tered picayune more, His not
over-jovial reflections were interrupted
by the metallic ring of Abe.s unvarying'
stereotyped formula:
Gentlemen, your assignments are,
ready"
The staff on hearing Abs's announce
ment went up to him by twos and
threes. Before him lay a large diary.
In it was record ahead of things to.
be covered" various meetings and
such routine matters. Down the page
was the list of reporters and against
each the task assigned.
Every man opened a note book as he
leaned over Abe's desk, copied down his
own assignment" and checked off his
name. 1t was not unlike an examine
ton in school, or college, where. the
teacher holds out some mysterious
doubled-over papers, and each scholar
draws one with inward quakings, not
sure whether his luck will befriend
him and give him some familiar matter,
or go back on him and leave HIM to dis
NAL failure.
The excitement among these report
ers was much less than that, however.
It was more like the languid interest
Of some excellent scholar. who goes up
to the examiners desk confident that
failure for him is out of the question,
yet to whom the choice is by no means
a matter of indifference.
If there is one thing more than an
other that the average reporter hates
il is a religious assignment" 1t is
all routine work and no glory. There
is but little chance to make ga good
glory" out of the doings of a
church body, unless possibly
some member is up for discipline. Yet
May is t, season of the year when it
is favorite time for presbyteries and
Methodist conferences to come to
gether. Consequently two or three re.
porters left Abe's desk swearing mad
They had been assigned religious
racket" Paul Terry stepped up next.
Under his name he read:
Afternoon: Second District police
court-Third District police station
Miss Lebourgeois' Southern ball dress
Evening: Philosophical society,
Seventeenth street and Wabash avenue.
Paul copied it off carefully, but
biting his lips while an angry red
flushed his cheek. Having written
avenue" he turned to Abe, and said,
in voice he tried hard to have sound
natural:
Mr.. Perkins, what does Miss Lee
bourgeois Southern Ball dress meanP"
"Thc dress Miss Lebourgeols is going
to wear at the opening ball of the
Southern hotel next week" answered
Abe.
D,t ,kaN 4 10
about it? / don't know anything
about girls ball dresses" continued
Paul, still trying to talk calmly. The
idea of interviewing a lady about her
gown. the evident intention of the as
signment, was something peculiarly
distast eful, even revolving, to our gen
tlemanly- nurtured Paul. He could &C
down into the lowest slums to track
murder-that was necessary part OF
reporting, and, though disagreeable,
did not involve a sacrifice
of salf-respect. He could fol
low a fleeing politician to his
hotel room, and use any artifice that
suggested itself, from pretending to
have a telegram for him up, to
pass the door and compel an interview
with him on some public or political
question-for that was in the line OF
his duty, and politicians were fair
game for reporters, the penalty they
paid for their greatness. But to force
himself upon young lady-and Miss
Lebourgeois of all the young ladies in
st. Louis, the one whose path he was
most determined to AVOID crossing,
from whom he was most anxious tc
conceal his presence in the city-and
to demand OF her in the name of the
Orh,s readers q dissertation of what she