Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-07-18
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Love in a Printing Office.
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you understand, on which the county
weekly paper was printed, and at pc
riod, not so remote, when the county
paper was Of no small importance--a
rival indeed to the twentieth century
daily.
II you are at all familiar with the
"behind the scenes" Of IA publishing
house, large or small, you know that,
however smoothly matters run all the
rest of the week, everything and every.
body seems possessed when the day
comes to get out the paper,
Every like" the deaconess said
The deaconess was the girl at the case
next mine and so dubbed because of
her, Tor so the devil said, "undoubted
elaborate meal; easy enough to cook
tho separate viands but the rub comes
whom you try to dish them up ana
serve in proper style"
At all events there was always a
few advertisers who wanted ads
changed ut the last moment; nervous
fingers pied four out Of five sticks;
about half the locals were found false
by noon--we went to press at |
o'cloclt--and somebody was incon-
siderately coming In or going out OF
the world In tho niche OF time to
throw everything into confusion and
upset the equilibrium Of the boss,
The boss at the Censor Office was not
hard man by any means, but he had
nerves and there may be occupations
more nerve splitting than the county
editors, but we rather question It,
Now this particular Censor day on
which our story opens was u little
bluer than usual inasmuch as the
angel--so called on account Of her
beauty and sweet tempcr-was home
on sick leave, and one hand short
made great deal Of difference In an
office force always too short ut best
II was / o'clock when tagging step
on the stairs arrested the general at
tention, causing the boss, who was At
the stone making up form--if trying
to crowd twenty inches Of matter into
eighteen inches of space may be so
denominated--to throw up his head In
way peculiar to himself when he
scented something unpleasant, and the
doaconess to say the one word Jones'
In n stage whisper. It did sound
Ike the aggravatng step habltual to
that individual when coming at the
eleventh hour to have halfcolumn
ad changed, the work usually requlr-
ing the better part of two hours. But
Jones was the heaviest advertiser in
town and It would never do to offend
him. The boss would smile In a
sickly fashion and wade into the task
but the rest of us had to suffer but we
could hardly blame him: He had
to vent on somebody or die, the devll
said.
All eyes turned to the door of the
composltlng room expecting to see the
bushy red head of Jones appear In
sight, but, instead, n stranger slouchod
inside and then paused.
IA tramp" said the deaconess.
"One OF the turnpike gentry put in
the devil--all in an undortone-whlle
the boss impatiently resumed his
work.
For moment the follows half.
closed eyes wandered from one to
another, then he sank Imply into a
chair. laid his head on the frame Of
II job press and was asleep in a
minute.
The little interval of silence, em
phasised by the frown on the boss, was
broken by another step and this time
II was Jones sure enough, Jones In
one of his slowest, most tantall2iup
moods.
But II Is too late" protested the
boss, driven to desperation at the
moment by an accident caused by his
own trembling fingers
Cant you wait till next week."
Moo" drawled Jones; II can't, OF
else | wouldn't have come today when
I'm in such n tarnal hurry"
The devil snickercd and the boss
said something under his breath. The
outer door banged and with scurryinG
steps and much laughter n bevy OF
girls came in airly rendering a
lengthy notice of n wedding In another
part OF the county n section, how.
ever, that the Censor was anxious &c
hold and please "A box of cake
crumbs" as the angel always said, ne,
companied Il, as was custom.
Before their laughter had died away
n boy came putting up with n long
winded obituary notice, A prominent
politician had succumbed TO whiskoS
and sunstroke-this was not the exact
rendering--in still another part of the
country. The messenger was very
preCmptory In his demand that II be
inserted, adding by way of u clinchei
that IL must so in "'cause the Teller
hadn't died before and lots of folks
would be glad To hear of It,"
And then noticed the whitening
about the mouth OF the boss that
always betolened a complete collapse
but he held his head until the room
was cleared Of all outsiders, save the
sleeping tramp, then he began to pace
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