Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1893-10-21

ON "eA > III VIC week, III useu 10 WOfk
seven religiouSly-well, not exactly re-
l~igiously, because he necessarily ignored
the seventh day, set apart sabhatically
for rest-but, at all events, he worked
with faithful assiduity. When the six
day rule was passed over his vote, he
grew soured and discontented; full of
dismal prophecies about the trade 60
ing to the dogs for the sake of a few
vargrant bum printers, and bitterly
retrospective about the good old times
when a man, if he chose, might put in
one hundred hours a week, if he could
possibly accomplish such a miracle.
Jack Rule was not OF the drinking
order of prlnters-at least not in pub
leland this popularity gave him an
excellent excuse for curly refusing to
give assistance to any wandering
printer whom circumstances had tenn
porarily embarrassed. NO man." he
used to say, need to starve if he is
sober and works as hard as ! do" To
tell the truth, Jack was miserlv-so
misery that it almost seemed to be
music in his ears when it was broadly
limited by some poor fellow that he was
a hog" or when it was suggested by
his fellow workmen that he would
make a tirst-class 'Shylock' for the
coinposing-room Of the famous Mari
gold Mirror.
But while Jack was severe on the
fallln%s of his fellows, he made up for
that by his liberality to himself. He
ate heartily and found a great delight
In telling his friends what he had had
Tor dinner, how much he paid for it. |
and how he liked it. 1t was noted as a
singular fact that he took particular
pleasure in dilating upon the healthy
rapacity OF his appetite before people
were either feeling too unwell to
enjoy any kind of food or too Door to
buy anything worth eating before
pay day. This habit NAV have
from gross selfishness, although
Jack used to boast of his heartiness
and free outspokenness and deluded
himself into the belief that he was
really n good, bluff, honest, all-round
kind of fellow.
Jacks fellow workmen on the Mari,
gold Mirror did not like him much.
therefore made him chairman Of
chapel. 1t SO happened that in the
few months of his incumbencv of
)ftlce some important subjects demand
the attention OF the chapel. There
rumors that the proprietors of the
Mirror intended to substitute type-set-
ing machines for men, and the uues-
ion, whether or not this action should
lot be opposed as being distinctiyely
destructive to the trade of the compos.
tor, led to many warm discussions in
winch a minority who held that the in.
of machines could only in
ure bad printers, whom the trade
well afford to drop off the roll,
we're bitterly opposed by a majority
'ho felt by no means sure of their Do
ltlon if it ever happened that their ]
'rains and hands had to be pitted {
gainst a senseless automatic type-set. l
machine. This and a number Of |
ther matters worried Jack Rule as {
OF the Mirror chapel. He c
RED his best not to lose any time over S
hem' but, do what he might, he found
Is mind distracted and his string /
otably shortened week by week. If |
weren't that he possessed a sub v
iratum OF vanity in his composition he t
have thrown up the chairman
lip and all its vexatious worries and
otherations. But he hadn't strength a
mind enough TO do this. He feared &
sarcasm and laughter of his fellow f
orkers' and therefore kept the chair o
h
June ended and July commenced with a
Rule in a bad state of mind and e
'dy. lie was worried, first, because W
S weekly bills had fallen off in spite a
his extra exertions to work better h
an ever. Then he was worried, next. d
cause he had begun to notice a dis. W
net failure in his appetite. His gen. CO
al condition was by no means i'm b
when one after another of his b
lends exclaimed: ''Holy Moses, Jack. te
you're looking i'll. What's the mat tt
r? You had better look out for your. 81
II oeiore It's too late" lie was com. ei