The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-02-08

landlord if it would be any cheaper if
should take pair of blankets and sleep
ont on the hay. He said he could cut it
down to $l8 week, provided would
do that, and | accepted the offer; but
not so much on account OF the cut as
because had noticed that there were
great many boarders in the house vino
had not been paying anything for board,
and quite number OF them had taken
to sleeping with me.
"About the third morning after | had
begun to room at the hayetack [ awoke,
and looking out of my bedroom window
was surprised to see printing Office,
apparently in full operation, under q
shed not far away The thing inter
ested mo at once, for l remembered that
| was printer myself. Presently l
made out that there was difficulty OF
some kind in the office.
Il arose and made my toilet, which
act consisted of running my hand
through my long hair to remove the
hay, and approached as near as | dared
to the scene OF the trouble. Soon was
able TO make out what the difficulty
was. Three men, evidently all bosses,
were trying to set up a hand press.
Probably you know as we'll as l do that
when hand press is together it looks
as though it consisted OF Just four parts,
but when you take it apart you learn
that there are nearer four hundred
parts, and they are all nearly alike.
''At fret merely looked on, as any
one might, simply as a spectator, and
never once thinking that l could be of
any service. Two or three times they
got the thing setup apparently all right,
only that they had few parts left out,
and they didn't dare try the thing to see
if it would work without them, for fear
it would tumble down. Then they'd
take it apart again and set il up another
way, according to a new notion one
of the three would get, and this
time there wouldn't be parts enough to
make the thing complete. One OF them
would get down on his back in under
the thing with part or two in his hand,
while the other two would step off few
feet and keep moving around and look
ing. 80 as to get views of the different
parts from different points of view and
at different angles. Most of the pieces
fitted all right at one end or the other.
but when it came to putting the second
end in place it seemed to be intended
for some other part of the machine. At
"
iron heaped up on the floor composed of
the different parts of a hand press, and
around it were grouped the despairing
men, who gazed in silent awe at the
heap as though it might be some re-
markabe and gigantic puzzle; 80 intri-
cate and 80 perfect q puzzle as to battle
all skill, and yet seemingly so easy that
there was bitter anguish in tho thought
of giving it up.
Suddenly it occurred to me that l
WAS the very man they wanted. All my
experience with presses had been with
that very kind. and | felt that it would
require no effort at all to put the thing
together alone.
Gentleman said |, let me set that
press up for you.' joining the group
around the pile.
81 have no doubt from the look that
each one gave me that they all won
dered whether | was a harmless crazy
person or dangerous lunatic. But /
assured them that WAS a printer, after
a fashion, and that aa far as my ex-
! perience of presses went it was confined
to hand presses, and that l had set up
several. Inside OF an hour | had the
thing in good running order, and before
the day was over the first number OF
the Calaveras Chronicle had been
printed upon it and it worked all right.
"'And you stood right there for two
hours watching us working our gizzards
out before you said word. eh?' says
one of them to me. 'Boye, let's not
give him but $50 for the job, and that's
all got for my hours work, but being
nearly broke it came in handy.
"Those three men were all brilliant
fellows, if they couldn't set up hand
press, and two of them you'll know, for
they were Jim Ayers, now Col. ]. J.
Ayers of the HERALD, and to my notion
the most brilliant journalist on the
Pacific coast, and Henry Hamilton, who
founded the Los Angeles Star and died
out at Alhambra two years ago. The
third one, Harry De Courcey, poor fell
low. was shot shortly after the hand
press got to turning out Chronicles, in q
duel" HoGABooM.