The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-04-30

home he spoke to the p~roof-reader and
one or two others, and they fractured
their legs with their hands and they
all went off to the hospital for the
night.
"The next afternoon they were back
at the office two hours before the usual
time. The foreman caughton rooster
and the proof-reader the other, and
they took them over in the corner be-
hind the imposing stones. They had
previously sent the devil down to Mr..
Greeley's oom to get a dozen sheets of
the paper he always wrote on. These
they spread or the floor in the form of
a square, carefully linked the feet of
the fowls and set them to fighting on
the copy paper. They had just had a
meal of c~ockroaches and they went at
each other savagely. Every two or
three minutes the men would take
them off, ink the bottoms of their feet
and toss them into the ring again. at
the end of the twenty minutes every
sheet Of the paper was covered with
their tracks, and the foreman gathered
up the pages, numbered them and
scawled a head on the first one, The
Plain Duty of Congress- in the imita-
tion OF Greeley's hand, marked the
whole 'Brevier-Double Lead and
hung it on the copy-hook.
pretty soon the men began to drop
| IN hit &ho- hn6 oil L~a~S AZ oo-o4
that was up and picked around the
article. After awhile Larkway came
numbering along. He had just made a
new pipe out of the biggest corn-cob
ever raised in Cayuga county and a
particularly crooked pigs tail from
Brattleboro', Vt, and seemed unusu-
ally pert. He started the confagra-
ton in his pipe, put on his spectacles
and walked to the hook.
"'Hey! You felIers still soldering,
amt you9" he cried. Still afraid of
the old mans stuff, hey9 Can't rastle
with it, can you7 Had to leave it for
old Larkway, didn't you9 Well, that
is all right. I like it. You do me a
favor when you leave it to me-
HE took it, walked over and
slammed it down on his upper case,
planted a handful of leads on the bot
tom of it and picked up his stick.
Every man in the room held his sides
and watched to see the old man fab
~bergasted, but by the Goodness of
Truth he began to set it.
Eyes, LarkWay started to set it. At
the end of the second line he began to
look little troubled, laid down his
stick and we thought our moment of
victory was come, but he only swore a
little, knocked the ashes out of his
pipe, reflled it, lit it from one Of the
husks from the outside, picked up his
stick and went on. You could have
packed every one of us in a hat-box.
The old cave,dweller worked on and
never looked up again until he got al
most to the bottom of the last page.
Here he stuck on the place where the
rooster had slapped down the end of
his wing, also inky. Larkway studied
over it for a long time then he said to
the foreman:
"'Darn if the best of us don't get
hung up on a word once in a while.
What's that down there9'
"'Don't ask me- said the foreman.
You know that I cannot read the
stuff. Go down and ask the old man
himself
"Larkway shuf1ed out with a long
face, carrying his pipe in one hand and
the copy in the other. He went into
the chiefs room and said in a low tone:
Mr.. Greeley, I'm stuck. What is that
word9'
Greeley snatched the sheet from
his hand impatiently, studied for a
moment and then squeaked in his
highest voice:
"'Unconstitutional, sir! Great Jehos-
haphat, it seems to me sometimes as if
this Office was full of pesky college
graduates and after I have given the
ianitor strict orders not to allow one of