The National tribune., 1893-04-06

| S1EBnD-AzSHxxv~<2 was known as Til
HSEFgsa4tSSSSaJxG1iS3zaS3 proprietor of the SaH
to outsiders)-bu
his shabby coat hung in long, wrinkled fold
from his soping shoulders, and his gray mus
tache dropped as mournfuly as his week, SAT
old month had ever done.
We three men-reporters on the little morn
| ing daily-barely glanced up as he came in, fol
it was growing late, and the calls for copy
would soon keep us moro than busy to supply
| the printers upstairs The first proofs had
already come down the shute from the COM
| posing room above and that meant it wa:
| somewhere near IL. For five minutes nc
one spoke q work, and the only noise which
! disturbed the silence Of the room was the
scrubbng of pencils over the pads as they
| hurried on to paper the story of the day hapa
and mishaps, and the mnffled rattle of the tele-
| graph sounder in the next room where Newell,
the Associated Press man, sat pounding his
| typewriter and taking bulletins of the Chicago
| nominations. Now and then late cab bowled
| by on the street. or some happy, bcsotted citi-
| zen sang few wavering bars from the latest
| popular song as he reeled home, but the little
town was nearly asleep inside and out.
At last with a relieved sigh, l scrubbed my
especial mark at the eud of the "wad which
had kept me busy for the last half hour, and
took it across the room to where he sat- He
had his face buried in his hands now, and he
did not hear me stop beside him.
Here's this car-strike stuff, Josiah" / said,
laying it down before him. He uncovered his
eyes slowly, and pulled the copy TO him, as
had seen him do thousand times before; then
he seemed to remember something, for with a
sudden gesture he showed it away, and turned
to me.
Mr.. Bird will attend to IT," he said slowly;
civil not be here after this. He has taken
my place" AS he spoke his voice quavered,
and l noticed in the changing glare of the gas
jet overhead that there were something like
tears in his honest old eyes. Newspaper men
are not apt to be affected by any display Of
emotion, for their training accustoms them to
it too much, but with youthful arrogance l had
always felt sorry for Josiah, and l had moro
than a passing interest in him. l began TO
question him at once, but he stopped me with
an answer had heard many times before: Mr..
Barnell has made other arrangements" And
as Mr. Barnel was the sury proprietor of the
Sun-the same being the Old Mani knew
there was nothing moro TO be asked. As l
turned to CO. he rose from his chair. and taking
his hat tall and shabby like himself from the
desk, he put it carefully on his head Then he
made straight for the door, past the Uttered
exchange table, past our three little desks, past
the row of broken, weakly chairs and the book
case. As he put his hand on the knob he
turned and clearing his throat. said
GOOD night gentlemen. and-good- by" and
before the other men could look up in mild sur
prise at this unusual proceeding he had passed
out and closed the door behind him.
Whats wrong with Josiah to-night?" in
quired Jones, usually termed the Horse Editor,
on account Of his deep voice and his liking for
horses.
Same old story-turned back into the COM
posing-room again." answered Brothers, the
society man (who also combined his social work
with reporting court proceedings, both circuit
and police). Whenever the Old Man gets
mad he bounces Josiah out of the editorial
chair right up to case and jams stick into
his hand. Then he says: There, go to work
sticking type, damn it; that's all you are worth,
anyway You ought to hear the foreman tell
how he does it,"
Has he done it often?" inquired, wonder
ing how man could stand such disgrace.
"At least three times in the last year." said
Brothers, numbering the sheets of his pad for
the court proceedings. AFTER he has been at
the case for a while the Old Man takes him off
and puts him up here, and tells him to go to
work writing editorials again, and see if he can
do better than lie did before"
well" said the Horse Editor. "ho wouldn't
have chance to do that more than once with
me, tell you; would let him find another
plaything."
mot if you couldnt get another job, sonny"
said Brothers dryly, land that is the case with
Josiah. Poor old chap feel sorry for him.
but-there's the Old Man, Brothers, at the
tube" az the speaking tubes shrill whistle in
terrupted him, and Brothers turned back the
whistle and YEARLY inquired, "Well?" into
the opening. For moment there was no re-
Spouse; then there came in the short, sharp |
accents we were all used to:
"Mr. Jones will do the telegraph to- night |
until Mr.. Bird can get down--that's ALL" and !
Brothers turned away with smile upon his |
dark face.
Just my COMPOUNDED luck !" said the Horse |
Editor. " You fellows never get into it like |
this" and catching up the long exchange scs-
sors from the desk he shuflied into the oper. |
each other and smiled because we had not been |
graph news.
=
For weeks afterwards the patient, quiet man |
who used to write frc-eating editorials on the |
wickedncss of tho tart ii and the force bill stood
before his dusty case all night long clicking the |
type into his stick, and at the end of the week |
got paid for his string" just the same as any |
of the other men.
ale knows a sight more about setting type |
than he does about writing editorials" said the |
Horse Editor.
"Ali the same" rejoined the society man,
you'd feel mighty bad if you were set back |
that way every now and then"
"Of course should and wouldn't stand IL.
Just as l said before. There are plenty of other
jobs in this town for a selfrespecting white +!
man." And we all laughed at his earne.tness.
do not think any of US knew that the old |
fellow had son until one night a tall, hand
some young man walked into the room and
asked if Mr.. Sanford-whom we always called
by his first name--was ill., We directed him