Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-02
Scr'ibner.'s Short, Story
By Epes Winthrop Sargent

I..~ l the Sunday papers whether Scribner smokes good cigars or plug tobacco in pipe.
 l Scribner has the artistic tempera- ment. He is very proud of the tenn 1 perament. This is as bad as small dog when one lives in a fiat. It leads one to make nasty remark to the jan itor, whereat that functionary will ab- sent-mindedly remove bottled milk from the dumb waiter while forgetting to remove the waste basket. Scribner also has 8 typewriter. AL though it is of the mechanical variety he speaks of 1t as she because 1t is 80 contrary. That is another instance of the artistic temperament working out. Scribner purchased the machine from a friend. None of the mans enemies would purchase 1t. so that he had to. dispose of 1t Io irfend. It was about seven years sld when it changed hands.
 The other day it celebrated its tenth birthday by losing screw. Eight 1 tirnes Scribner pushed the screw back K Into the hole where the thread used to be. The ninth time he took it off r the table and headed for the nearest public telephone station.
 \ He telephoned the maker with some heat to call for the machine Two hours later small boy ap- peared with 2 twin to the dscrepit l type machine, done up in a black. cloth.
 Take this dod gasted internal ma chine to the repair shop!" urged Scrib ner. atTeh 'em to clean 1t and fix it up." Then he set out to butter his daily bread with a love story. Scrib ner was SO glad to have a new machine to work with hetcould have composed serial romance had there been the ghost of chance of selling it.
 From the very start there was trouble. Scribner opened the tale with hoydenish heroine swinging upon a low-hanging apple bough. He had to leave the lady up. the tree while, with prayer and fasting, he sought to dis l off every time he slid the carriage up for fresh line.
 ] In about 20 minutes he discovered that one of the paper guides hung too low and caught. the ribbon guide. He mended the machine with tack ham, mer and helped the lady down from, the ltree:
 I The villain came strolling through the orchard. The machine caught the infection of his yillainy, Now the rib bon guide fell off at the end of the line instead of at the beginning. The remedy was easy, for the tack hammer I was near
 The villain proceeded upon his crim- Iinal way and the hero was just spring ing over the low fence inclosing the orchard when the machine suddenly decided that twice as much paper was ,4 needed at one end of the feed as at the other The hero defied the laws of Rravitation for half an hour until Scribner found that. by backing the l sheet with six others he could induce more even feed.
 Then the hero lightly landed and in half dozen strides confronted with blazing eyes Jack Darlington, who stood with uplifted arm above tke covering form of Jessica Carew.
 Lay but finger upon this lady, 7 cried the brave Harold Vane. and I IlI--" s-,
 There was whirring sound that scared Scribner out of his seat With the aid of wooden plug he managed to make the spring stay wound up and five minutes was all the time required. l The machine ran very evenly for with a muttered curse, had turned and -1,y mark about his time coming in the distant future. The brave Harold had been prettily thanked by the grateful Jessica, and had obtained permission to escort her to the house. He was |, strolIing back down the lane when suddenly Jack Darlington sprang through the hedge Curse you!" he cried
 His further comments upon the situ- ation were postponed and Scribner echoed the curse. Two letters had ap- parently raced up to the paper togeth- CT and were locked in deadly embrace Incidentally they were tangled up in the ribbon.
 They were dtsentangled through the kind offices of the Acrewdriver, and ! 41AIAiuSICH Wan AbiC lO Ilts heated conversation with Vane who left him, bleeding and senseless, in tho line.
 | Politely ignoring the possibility of Darlington suing out a warrant for assault and battery. Scribner skipped few hours and brought the hero to the feet of the lovely Jessica that evening:
 
 He was on his knees in his best dress trousers pouring out his tale of love from the depths of his impas- s1oned soul.
 f Jessica was strangely moved-but the typewriter stuck.
 The carriage rode on an oiled bar at the back. This oil was old and gum my. The oil on Scribner's old machine never had a chance to grow gumm N It took him 12 minutes to find ouS what the matter was and another five Ts 4t L. x1. l I -