The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-02-02
AN OLD ROUNDER.
Colonel Busby, the Noted Tourist Printer,
Turns up in wichita.

| CoiOuel DuSDy ls III tuo CITY.
Night before last the colonel blew into
town before that stiff "norther," and after
thawing himself out presented himself at
the EAGLE composing room with the GUS
tomary salutation, "how's work"
The colonel hasn't been here for three
long years and the boys were beginning to
think that 1907 had been called on the old
man, when he showed up smiling and
dressed from head to heels in a fashionable
suit of ministerial beoadcloth that would
be creditable to an archbishop.
| For six months Colonel Busby has been
! hunting for place not effected by Cleve-
lands financial panic and has hit the spot
at last in Wichita.
Colonel Busby is a tourist printer" +"
and has been from time immemorial.
There is legend among the craftsmen
that when Guttenburg first started print
shop the colonel pulled the latch string
entered and said, ''old man, how's work"
The colonel denies this and AYERS that he
is really only fifty-two years in the busi-
ness.
Since he first learned the mysteries of
the types he has worked on every big
paper in the land, and little ones
for that matter. Today he may
work on a thirty-six page metro
politan journal and tomorrow he may be
sticking type or pulling hand press in a
little two-by-four country Office. He has
set up the great editorials of Horace Gree
ley, John ID. Prentice, George w. Childs
and Charles A. Dana. The spirit moves
himself occasionally, and. disregarding
DRncil and ho ic1o in,
his own mind and sets it up at the case
from memory. He is gifted with fund
of information, and can recall all the
events in the history Of the United States
during his lifetime.
The colonel disdains railroad travel. He
takes his Old goose-necked cane and grip
and travels from town to town and from
city to city along the country roads. He
puts up at the farm houses and exchanges
"reminiscences for bed and board. II his
host happens to be an old soldier, they
hight the war over again from Fort Sump-
ter to Appomattox. while the housewife
and the babies sit around the blazing fire
with mouths and ears wide open. listen
ing to the colonePs lore. If his host is
politician the colonel viii delight him
the 'inside history" of every great
political movement from qualification
to the landslide of 1892 and throw in some
personal "reminiscences of Clay. Webster,
Benton. Douglas, Morton, Lincoln, Logan,
Randall or Sherman. If his host is
Catholic he will discuss with him every
church movement from the council of
Trent down to the contemplated recall of
Monsignor Satolli. If he is an Episcopal
he will give him some inside ideas concern
ing the progress of his religion from King
Henry to Phillips Brooks. Ii his host is
nothiag but plain farmer he will tell
him the exact kind of food to give the
chickens to make 'em lay an egg every day
In the year or how much his corn is worth
when hogs are four cents pound. In
and when he leaves the farmer invariably
gives him an invitation to call again.
When he comes 20 town be asks whether
Bill Hutch is still alive, ard on being an
swered in the affirmative, he straightway
hunts him up. Hutch takes a day off and
both adjourn to some quiet spot and spend
a whole day comparing notes and recalling
events that occurred thirty or forty years
ago, when both of them worked together
The colonel works only two or three
days at one place. This satisfies him and
he pulls ont to see the boys somewhere
else. There is a case always ready for |
him and he can set up anything from
ladies' visiting card to a spread eagle |
Fourth of July poster.
Among printers he is accorded the rev.
erence due to patriarch, and the printer
who has not heard of him is novics He |
travels from ocean to ocean and from !
Canada to the Gulf, taking in the north !
in the summer aud drifts south at the ap !
proach of winter. He is going south now |
aud after doing Texas he will probably |
unfurl his sails before western breeze |
and steer to the Pacific coast.