Arizona republican., 1903-04-13
A PIONEER PRINTER
And How He Learned to Make the
 Best of Things.

William Ludy is in Phoenix again.
 That is not a very startling statement.
 but it is of interest to oId-timers wio a generation ago divided honors tIl these parts with Geronimo and divided
 bacon and frijoles with whoever hap
 pened along. LUdy was an Arizora
 pioneer printer and it is possible th4i
 lie set the first stickful Of type tha; ever went into the form of q Phoenix paper. He is one of those Bohemian.
 fellows who is at home wherever his
 hat is off and there is anything to eaj. and where there isn't hes al home any way.
 It was twenty years ago that hc
 drifted out of this valley, and it wa2n;
 much over twenty minutes ago that ne
 drifted back again. But he was recos-
 nized immediately by the few here now
 who haunted Phoenix print shops
 twenty years ago and was given the
 glad hand. Ludy is famous. but not in
 a way that brings him political hOnors
 or a large bank roll. He is famous as
 type of the old-time coast printer
 whose religion is to make the best O.
 everything and do it without kicking.
 An experience he had some years ago
 and which he related to a friend illus
 trates how ne makes the best of things.
 He had tired of the Pacific coast as :.
 field too limited for his operations. SO
 he journeyed as far east as Oman;; hunting for a land of promise. By the
 time he reached Omaha he decided that
 the east was not what it was cracked
 up to be, so ke determined to retracc
 his steps to the coast. He get a half- dozen water bottles. some handy lunch
 that would not spoil during the length of any ordinary railroad journey. and crawled into box car. It was one of the old-fashioned kind with q trap door in the end which chanced to be open and was filled with through freight. After he got into the car a brakeman came along and locked the trap door. Everything was well for
 four or five days till he began to ge, low on grub and water and ne Was just wondering whether or not he could stand a fast from that time till his car reached it's destination in San FrSn
 cisco when he noted through q small | crack in the door that his ear had been shunted on side track in a little tow, 1 in Nevada. After couple of days on the sidetracll it began tc grow mono- tonous. Nobody likes to be in iai,, though it may have its pleasant fea- lures with no thought for tha morrow what ye shall eat. etc. But being in jail with no jaiier and nothing to eat or drink has 1 a tendency to depress, ones spirit. Ludv would have been willing to go to jaii or walk the rest of the Way to SaI, Francisco if he could have made any
 one hear. but he couldn't. If there was any one living in the vicinity Of that side track he must have been deaf. But before perishing he thought it
 would be just is well to find out what ] his car was loaded with in the hope that there might be something aboard that would sustain life. An eXamina . ton followed and from that time a
 the end of his journey LGdy had the time of his life and living was all vel vet. He noticed that the car was filled i with patent medicines from a we'll known manufacturer in Lowell, Mass. and from that time on till his car was finally picked up and taken to it's de=- tinati1n. matter of ten days or so.
 Ludys regular diet was sarsaparilia for breakfast. hair vigor fer dinner and pills for supper
 So grateful was he when he reached San Francisco that he wrote the Lowell firm a testimonial saving that his fife 1 had been saved.