The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-12-28
STANDS UP TO CASE.
VETERAN KANSAN Sc S TYPE FOB
HIS OWN BOOK.

John speer Celebrates His seventy-Eighth
Birthday Yesterday by Putting Five
Pages of History in Type-He has Writ
ten Life of the Famous Jim Lane and
His Ambition Is to DO All the Work
Himself-Be has Now Over Two Hum
dred and sixty Pages s.Up' and the Book
VIII soon be Eeady for Binding.
Yesterday Mr.. John Speer, the well
known Kansas pioneer. celebrated mis-
18th birthday at the home of his son
William. on North Topeka avenue.
The manner of the celebra ton was
simple and novel, for Mr. Speer thought
the most appropriate way TO begin his
seventy-ninth year was to stand up be-
fore a printers case and set five pages
of his life of Jim Lane.
At dinner time iIe and John Wallace
sat down TO table to have quiet
dinner and during the conversation
they drifted into "reminiscences of Law
renee and its pioneers. Mr.. Wal
lace referred to Judge Thatcher who
recently died and that started Uncle
John Speer to tell a story.
81 made Judge Thatcher awful mad
about forty years ago but he forgave
me long before he died"
How did you make him mad?" asked
John Wallace.
well. sir" said Mr.. Speer, "I made
him mad because told him that he was
a better man than John the Baptist"
HE didn't get mad at that suggest
ed John Wallace.
did said that Holm
fist lived on locusts and wild honey
and under that l said that Judge
Thatcher would trade the wild honey
for tax titles and live on the locusts
alone"
But to the main story. Mr. Speer
has written a life of Jim Lane, the pic
tUresque Kansas statesman Of the early
days The book viii contain 400 pages
and Mr.. Speer's ambition is to set every
letter Of the book with his own hands.
He has a few cases of type in a room
that was once the library of oscar
Smith and ne stands up eight hours
a day before those cases He will not
leave anybody else set line for him
and John Wallace rs 10 content him
self with making up the forms and
distributing the type after the stero-
typer is through with il. A visit TO
he is going into one of the print shops
Of the sixteenth century. Both Mr..
Speer and MIR. Wallace worked in the
printing business together about forty
years ago. MIR Speer can tell stories
of early Kansas history right along
from early morning until late at night
and work At the same time. He scarce
ly ever follows his own copy but sets
history from meOry as ne goes along
Sometimes he thinks of a detail that he
overlooked when he wrote the manu-
script and he inserts it
All of the proofs are sent to Captain
Harris Of Topeka for correction. Mr..
Harris has been proof reader in the
state printers office for over twenty
five years and dead shot on erros.
y short time ago Mr.. Speer used a
wrong font j on purpose to test the
traditional proof reading ability of Mr..
Harris. The ] was so much like the
right font j that not one man in a
thousand would notice it. A great deal
of speculation was INDUCED in by Mr..
Speer and Mr. Wallace as TO whether
Harris would detect the error and a
few days ago Mr.. Speer returned from
the postOffice and entered the printing
office with the announcement: wal
lace. Harris has caught that ~
Mr.. Speer has already go pages of
the book set and in q short time it will
be ready for the binder Ffe will have
1000 copies printed altogether eco of
which viii be printed on high toned
paper and finely bound for distribution
arpAno his friends