The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-02-08
THESE WERE ARGONAUTIC TIMES
Judge Eaton, of Pasadena, as
u FRESHMAN.
How He Assisted at the Birth of
the Calaveras Chronicle.
Pleasa14 Reminisceucs OF oid-Time
Matters-The Troubles of Run
ming "A Printing
Office.

was in the sos, though am not in po-
sition to know, not having been in the
business since that time; and I've
learned one thing, young man, you men
can judge newspapermsn now-a-days
by his clothes--that Is, as to his pros
perity."
The speaker was Judge Eaton, we'll
known pioneer of Pasadena, who was q
'49sr. and is proud OF it. You would
notice that, If you ever heard him tell a
story of those good days Of old and gold,
and if you ever meet him you'll hear
him tell one, sure enough. He has never
missed fire yet.
No." says l, sits not likely, Judge.
that there's as much money in it now /;
as for clothes, YOU never can tell q
newspaper man now by his Clothes"
No more'n you could in 50, says he.
"And that's right in the line of story
l was about to tell you; something
that'll give you an idea Of the newspaper
business in the early days. You know
Col. Jim Ayers?"
"Yes."
"Then you'll be inteies in the
story. To start with I'll say that
never was what you'd call full Jour-
printer, and l wouldn't have been any
fortunate accident. I got into the news
paper business in Leavenworth about
the time that place was the biggest out
fitting camp ON the frontier. Printers
we're numerous among the hundreds of
mo hi nn ha lint nnl u
stayed with me long enough to get a
little money and then struck out over
land. had learned enough about the
back Office to know what 'pi' was, and
soon found out that nearly every man
left some of that interesting stuff for the
office to remember him by when he left.
So went to work and established an
iron-clad rule that each man in the
Office should distribute his own 'pi.'
The rule worked all right until one day
I carelessly showed one foot too far un-
der the imposing stone and it went
through large form Of solid BREWER
type, and there was my own rule staring
me in the face in black type ON the
wall over the stone.
swell, learned considerable about
the printing business before l finished
getting that 'pi into the proper cases,
and picked up more from time to time
afterward.
"But when started for California it
never occurred to me that l should do
anything else than shovel gold together
in heaps and sell it, and certainly /
never anticipated working as printer.
| circumstances, and not being able to
locate any of those shining heaps of yell
| low gold, was what drove me into it.
LET me tell you how happened to
! fall into my first job of printing in Cal
ifornia; because If it hadn't happened
| just as it did, it is more than likely that
l would never have remembered that
was able to do anything at the business
at all, and then this other story wouldn't
be worth the telling. 1t was at the time
the cholera thinned out the boys so in
Sacramento. I'd been in the habit OF
dropping in occasionally at the news
paper offices to look over exchanges. !
was we'll heeled then and consequently
not at work or in search OF work partic.
ularly.
"As l sat in the Office reading, in
rushed tall, gaunt, muscular individ-
ual who turned out to be an auctioneer
with q job of printing some bills he
wanted out by morning. l heard the
foreman ssy that it could not possibly
be done. file explained that most of the
! printers we're down with the cholera
and that those who were not had gone
off and got drunk expecting to be, and
consequently there was no one in the
whole Office who could set up the type.
| Suddenly it occurred to me that L was q
printer, but resolved not to say any
thing about it at first. The auctioneer
was one of those forcible, persuasive,
magnetic fellows, however, and went at
the foreman 30 furiously that he finally
agreed to get out the job if he had to
stay up all night to do it.
81 strolled out to where he was, and,
speaking as though it WAS matter of
small importance, said: 'I'll set up
that job if you're in pinch
"'You'll set 1t up says he, excitedly.
EYES, said |; L am printer
"Well, be shook my hand with Joy,
and the auctioneer pstted me on the
shoulder. 'Pll do the fair thing by you,
my friend, he said.
II took off my coat and went to work,
and by 10 o'clock had it set up. But
it was the hardest job | ever tackled in
a printing Office. California print shops
| were different from the office in Leaven-
worth, and | wasn't used to them.
There was lamentable lack of sorts,
and not a great variety of styles OF type.
The foreman looked at the job when
was done. and nearly fell in a fit. 1t
was probably the most atrocious looking
bill ever printed. He was about to
draw bead on me when the auctioneer
came in to see how we were getting
| along.
Excellent cried he; It's id
neat job Every line of it's just right
to dot. Everything stands out clear 8
bell > and he stroked his long chin in
silent admiration OF it, for a time. He
was right about everything standing out,
for it was all set in the boldest kind of
blackfaced type, all of about equal size,
and each line about OF length.
1.-The foreman groaned and put up his
gun. seemingly cory that the fellow
came in just as he was about to kill me.
4 might as well pay you now the
auctioneer said, presently, and he threw
down about $50 worth OF dust. Thirds
about right. reckon, said the foreman,
and showed over about one-third of the
pile. Then the fellow invited the fore
man and me out for a lunch at mid
night, and fed us on oysters, which ran
about dollar apiece in those DAYS. and
guess about 500 covered the cost of
those auction bills before he got through.
but he wac well pleased, because every
line seemed to stick right out and de-
nnand aftanriOn 90 he Eraorao.l. IA