Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1893-03-23
"A FAIR FACE MAY PROVE A FOUL BAR
GAM MARRY A PLAIN GIRL IF SHE USES
SAPOLIO
The Old Printer.

\ AAC OA0 AAANSA
ONE OF THE MOST PATHETIC SKETCHES
EVER WRITTEN By BOB RURDETTE
And so. year after year, he wrought
among the boys in morning paper.
He went to bed about the time lhe rest
Of the world got up, and he arose about
the time the rest of the world sat down
TO dinner. He worked by every kind of
light except sunlight. There were
then they had lard-oil lamps, that
smoked and sputtered and smelled; then
he saw two or three printers blinded by
explosions OF camphene and spirit gas;
then the kerosene came in and heated
up the news-room on summon nights
ike furnace; then the office put in gas,
nd now the electric light swung from
he ceiling and dazzled his old eyes and
glared into them from .he copy. If he
sang on his way home policeman babe
him ''cheese that and remined him
that he was disturbing the peace and
people wanted to sleep. But when he
wanted to sleep the rest of the world,
for whom he sat up all night to make a
3 morning paper, roared and crashed
by down the noisy streets under his win
dow, with cart and truck and omnibus;
blared out with brass bands. howled
with hand organs, talked and shouted;
and even the shrieking newsboys, with
a CHASTITY sarcasm, murdered the sleep
Of the tired old printer by yelling the
name of his own paper
Year after year the foreman roared at
him to remember that this was not an
afternoon paper, editors shrieked down
the tube to have blind man put on the
dead mans cast, smart young proof
readers scrubbed sarcastic comments on
his work on the margins Of his proof
slips they didn't know how to read
long-winded correspondents learning to
write. and long haired poets who could
never learn to spell, wrathfully cast all
their imperfection upon his head But
though ii all he wrought patiently, and
found more sunshine than shadow in
the world he had more friends than
enemies. Printers and foreman and
pressmen and reporters and editors
came and went, but he stayed, and he
saw newspapers and sanctum filled and
emptied again and filled with new,
strange faces. He believed in his craft,
nd to the end he had silent pity, that
anne as near being contempt as his
God, torgiving old heart could feel, for
an editor who had not worked his way
from regular devilship up past the
cases and the imposing stone.
he worked all that night, and when
the hours that are so short in the ball
room are so long in the composing. Dom
drew YEARLY on, he was tired. he
hadn't thrown in a full case, he said,
and be had to climb clear into the boxes
and chase the type up into a corner bo-
fore he could get hold of it. One OF the
boys, tired as himself-but a printer IS
never too tired to be COOK natured -
offered to change places with him, tut
the old man said there was enough IN
the case to last BIN through his take,
and BIO wouldn't work any more to-
night The type clicked in the silent
room, and by and by the old man said
I'm out of sorts.
And he sat on tho low window sill bv
bis case, with his stick in his hand, his
hands folded YEARLY in his lar, The
type clicked YEARLY Oh. a galley q
telegraph waited.
What gen tleman is lingering with
I3 Dr. called the foreman, who was
dangerously polished aud polite when
he was on the point of exploding with
wrath and Importance
Slug nine, passing the alley, stopped
10 speak to the old man sitting there Sc
quietly.
The telegraph boy came running in
with the last manifold sheet, shouting
Thirty"
They carried tie old man 10 the fore
mans long table and laid him down
reverently and covered MS face They
took the stick out of his nerveless band.
and read his last take: