Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-11-11
A PRINTERS TALE.
KlaKE la sHELLE TELLS OF THE EV-
oLUTloN OF A NEWSPAPER.

I
Other seotlOns-HOw Many Climbed the
| Ladder In the Country Printing ONCE.
Kirke LaShelle, manager Of the
"Wizard of the Nile" Comic Opera
company, used to be printer on the
daily papers of Chicago in the earlier
times, and tells some interesting stO-
ries. He has seen both sides of life, and
in the sunny times of the present has
not entirely forgotten certain charm
that gilded the days when things did
not ''come so easy.
In the first place he was printer on
country paper down at Wyoming, Ills.
He distributed pi, washed the rollers,
helped with the press work, built the
fires and swept the Office. And he re-
ceived $1.25 a week for his services.
There was a journeyman printer who
could make $6'or 81 when he was sober
and who could quote whole pages of
Byron and Scott and Tennyson when he
was drunk. The foreman received $12
a week, and the sum seemed perfectly
stupendous to LaShelle.
Whatever could man do with $1S
week? In what possible manner could
he find places for so much money!
Where could he put it? How should he
spend it? How greater than the fortunes
Of princes was the estate Of this foreman
who received $l9 a week!
LaShelle grew in efficiency till he
could set as much type as the journey
man, and then the latter rose to such
inebriated heights that he could no
longer recite poetry and was discharged.
The pay of the apprentice was then
raised to SO week. The foreman left
and came to Chicago, and after time
wrote for his former "devil, and the |
lad left Wyoming and took place as
galley boy on the old Telegraph, which |
had been started as greenback paper
by Colonel S. F. Norton.
1t was an afternoon paper, and La
Shelle had all the work he could do and
drew S. a week for doing it. After
awhile Colonel Norton retired from the
paper and man named Collins, from
Winchester, came up and invested $4O,
900 in the struggling concern. 1t is said
Of Mr.. Collins that his dream of life
in the ability to write passes
10 theaters, and the dream was never
realized till he had bought The Tele-
graph.
The paper ran as an afternoon sheet
'or about year, and then it changed
to morning issue. The
change seems to have been a mistake,
or The Telegraph lost money steadily,
,ut this fact did not for a time interfere
With Mr. Collins privileges with the
heaters. Then came a day when the
business manager of the paper came up
md announced to the men that he
would have to hold back a certain po.-
ion of their pay for a week or so. AT
he end of that time the Office was un.
lble to provide any Of the pay. The
business manager came up and told the
men if they would hold on for day or
wo everything would be all right, rs
Mr. Collins was negotiating for sale.
That went on for another week, and
inc night the men went up to the COM
lcsing room and talked the matter all
)ver. They had worked for nothing as
ong as they thought there was any rea-
ION for it. They believed in being loyal
o their paper, but they saw no reason
Why the thing should run along indef-
litely. The time for starting compost
ion approached, and the men had real
y concluded not to pick up type.
the ruined owner came slow
", laboriously, up the stairs.
GOOD evening, gentlemen" said he.
I don't suppose you feel like working
again tonight, and 1 cannot blame you.
Of course you ought to have your mon
". If the paper could go ON till tomor-
row l believe the trade would be made,
and in that event you will all get your
money. If paper is not issued in the
of course there will be moth
ing to sell, and can do nothing toward
paying you, for have sunk every dol
lar had in the world, and this is the
end of my resources. put $40, 900 i'll
The Telegraph and it is all gone.
81 don't care so much for myself. 1t
really doesn't matter. l am getting to
be an old man, and these things cannot
interest me much longer, but when a
man has put the earnings of his lifetime
in business, as have, he gets to feel a
sort of interest in it and to wish it might
live, even if it has to pass to others.
"Well, suppose you are right Of
course l cannot ask you to do any
more " And he turned YEARLY and
started down stairs.
The foreman looked toward the clock.
1t marked just 1.-THE time for going
to work. Every man felt in his right
hand vest pocket for his composing rule,
and without word every printer walked
straight to his case and began the regu-
lar work of the evening. As the defeated
owner reached the bottom of the stairs
he could hear the thrilling click of metal
type in the steel sticks Of the men, and
he knew he had not been abandoned in
his extremity.
The paper was sold next day, as Col.
Inns had hoped. A man named Perkins
"a large, unotuous man-bought the
sheet, and he lasted Just two weeks.
Later The Telegraph was acquired by a
little group Of men, who knew newspa-
per work and dared to make a tilt at