Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-08

AMOS CUMMINGS IN HIS CONTEST.
The performance began at noon and con-
tinued till.5 o'clock. This unusual hour
was set of necessity, for many of the actors
bad to be taken back 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-
bling, but the railroads were equal to the
emergency That people can play at
matinee in Washington and at an evening
performance the same day in New York is
sufficient evidence of the fact that this is a
fast age in which we live. There are men
how living in Washington who can re-
member when the journey from the me-
tropolis to the capital required four days,
hnd travellers were lucky if they got through
In that time.
But it was not about this big entertain
ment that wanted to tell you One Of
The most amusing incidents of the winter
grew out of the Press clubs show. / refer
to the typesetting contest between Amos
Cummings and Walter Wellman, the
letter writer With other members of the
club they sat one evening talking of the
pld days in which both and many other
hen now prominent in the legislative or
journalistic world were compositors. One
bf the fads of all men who ever worked
with 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 dinner for
themselves and their fellow clubmen, and
adjourned TO a nearby printing Office to
light it out. With an escort of congress-
men, senators and journalists they pulled
off their coats, rolled up their sleeves and
ht the call of ''time" sailed in Amos had
bot set any type for more than twenty five
Fears, while his competitor had left the
base nearly twenty years since. Yet both
men had no difficulty in getting up an old
time swing of the right arm to and fro
bver the type boxes. 1t is marvellous how
theinstinct of composition survives through
Ill the years of other employment
Cummings did have a little trouble in
Ending the capital U box, and his antago-
hist was once at a loss to know just where
Che 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 b his fingers flew instinctive1y
hnd without a moments hesitation to the
right box. Then he went back and put in
the b which he bad omitted, and all was
we'll.
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
glasses persisted in falling from his nose.
His fingers were not as nimble as they
hsed to be either, and the result was that
his younger rival somewhat easily dis
danced him in the race, though both did
pretty fast work under the circumstances.
This incident attracted SO much atten-
lion and was the subject of so much talk
hmong public men and their friends, the
correspondents, that the latter have about
determined to start up in Washington
tight after the holidays novel contest
nothing else than a typesetting tourna-
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 a
printer always a printer; if not by prac-
tice, then in the spirit
The little struggle between Cummings
and Wellman stirred the blood of the old
prints in Washington, and half dozen
senators and representatives talked next