The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-10-09

Where midway OF the spine. On tne ldole
near his elbow was an empty quart bot
tie. Tears were coursing down Skid. FUR
rGTed cheeks, and making riHuletS
through his WHISPERS. He was pleading
with the bartender.
No. sir" the bartender was exclair-
ing. mot another drop. Mr.: Skidmore;
were square or that last adj
Takesh andzzer ad. zhen and glyesh
NO on your lIfe!" CALCULATED the bar;
tender. rather gruffy. thought. Skid
whimpered. We approached him. From
freely.
skid said Pevely. this. here is
Hono'ble ]. y. Foote."
the reclining editor, without opening his
eyes. I did not take his hand. not caring
TO disturb him. "Shink / heard of you
before. shir, yesh. shir-J. y. Foosshe;
Yesh. shir. ]. y. Foosshe. I'm a ruined
mansh."
"Hono'ble Foote's ONE to hep yom out
some" volunteered Peyely. Hes tol'able
thin fer the Taper"
VIII zhe Hcnorblesh ]. n, Foosshe buy
Pevely looked at me, whether In ex-
pectancy or doubt, or both, / couldn't de
termine.. and the disconsolate edito
opened his dripping eyes.
No" said firmly, Il cannot bring my
self to buy a drink under these circum-
stances, however much I may. be moved
by sympathy for you, Mr.. Skidmore."
"Zhen." sobbed the broken-hearted
Skidmore: "Zhen Zhe Honorblesh J. \.
Foosshe can go to hellsh ash farsh I'm
consherned."
Come, Pevely." 1 said. let us leave
He led the way to the office of the
Budget. a small. upstairs grimy place.
1t had al appearance of unc6Gthness n
an air of deSolation. AS we entered a
solitary typesetter, who was temporarily
nj - 80 fInn n 4 u nnd
mending his clothes while waiting for
copy. grunted. 1t developed that he had
been waiting for copy all week, and for
ages a period considerably longer. He
when Pevely remarked, I'm goin' to git
When" asked the compositor. folding
up his mendins and rising from his squat
posture.
Directly" said Pevely; 'jest as quick as
you kin set up h were goin' to write
I'm .goin on a strike till ! git some
wages the compositor grumbled.
Never you min about wages-yOu git
ready TO go to wuk. This amt no case of
wages. This is a case of pure civic pa
paper out TO keep It from dyin' a nat
u'al DEATH said Pevely, in tones which
carried evident conviction. Yes" Peve-
ry bSEisd' ave 70! got to save the great Re
Pevely took a seat near a bog over be
hind the gasoline press engine and began
TO scratch with a pencil. I have never
seen such editorial energy. Pevely wrote
with all his Joints. as 1t were, his elbows
his sharp knees likewise. and
his bent back'in an acute angle. crouchei
over the paper. he seemed almost to trans
fer vitality to it. His head bobbed and he
appeared to be punctuating with his SHARP
nose. The literary throes of this gen!us
indeed pass description. He made hast,
slowly, however, and it was a long TIM
before he covered the first sheet.
Meanwhile | sat down and inscribed m
article on the temperance question. J
could think of nothing better under the
horrible example. though l would not have
you believe that ! mentioned any part!c-
uiar person. / was still writing when in
terrupted.
'"Th'ow yore eye over that" said Peve-
ly. bringing me his completed effort. Il
ran:
Wee the editer is willin to aknollege
wee WIZ in that gain OF the tumbell bugc
and ball last weak and wee come out Tx
:, man and SEE 1t. but wee amt mean no
harm by it, our Democratic trends make
Govnor roilen his unholey ~allyance, but
wee had nuthin TO do with hiatt. and It
wsss not our falt If that dadblame bugs
ack like a pollatieion runner fer one
thing and fallen back into anuther. i
that is. wee, didn't make no remarks me-
nuthin aboWt honoble Wallburge maken
his best proggriss bacwords and wee doant
no nuthin aboHt what he is UP to all we
lone was TO bett the bugg wood roll back
in to our track. it was Sectary of the In
teroar wee bett on. but we amt never
maid no remarks. wee air a tru repuglicoE
and aim TO vote her strate and stand by
the ole partey whether she is rollen up hi
or down. and whoever says wee doant
IS
That was as far as I got. when a ire
Inendous noise of feet sounded on the
stairs. announcing the arrival of a ceie-
bEated Republican politician and leader,
followed by the Sheriff OF the county. Ev-
pTN6nnv knnUo This nminarf Dn-,,t1f-an
Leader. and l wish that ] might repeat
the language which he used as he entered,
manifestly expecting to find skidmore
prevent or even disturb his flow of pro-
family. He had just arrived In town that
minute and he was come to close up. or
newspaper under a chattei deed on - martH
gage, which entitled him TO possession.
He had. 1t seems, held that formidable
Legal insirument over the head of the luck
but having read that Skidmore was play
ing b~ug-and-ball in the road and gener-
ally proving faithless to Republican prin-
close him and fix his, ID clock for
keeps" az he expressed it.
Sheriff." commanded the eminent party
tents Of the room, Sheriff. take all this
rotton old truck out into the alley and
make a bonfire of it,"
And thus came the end Of the Boone
o"l DeNsSt- i Atb V u ~ II.
Ing In mind a source whence / might Dor
row the money; but the relentless Repub-
party man would not listen to my
proposals. He stood in the middle OF the
floor. volleying round after round of ter
rible oaths. until the last scrap OF the
Inflated Budget had been thrown on the
Persimmon Hill; as We were making for
the depot. Pevely and l observed a faint
spiral of smoke rising high from the ruins
OF the Budget. and the bonfire of Skid
lnr0's - A. ne 1nntnI -
the platform to wait for the train. which
was to beer ME away. Pevely Sadders re-
marked: There's another dossone fool
Republican paper fzzled out"
Yes" he pursued. ph~ilosophically,
that's the way all them two-by-fours enu
up, sooner or later. The Republican bosses
forscloses EN-. Well o course, I'm ter
r .oIn sorry ny for Orb Po sli Skid Id But reGkin the
trouble with most n kind of a failure is
a man to start with. And Skid is jest
about a fair sample of most of these
pitdlin' leetle Republican editors that sells !
out their soul to the post-otice politicians
they don't amount 20 nothin after that"
What 1 cried. "You don't mean 10
say that many of our respected little coun-
try Republican papers are owned by the
pie bosses!'
Depends upon Jest What you mean by
respectable but do know that a heap
of 'em is sold out that way. and l expect
nothin' about is. too.
about the fust thing that a post
Office boss tries 70 buy is a Republican pa
per-he starts in buyin' up editers and |
winds UP buyin' niger voters. But. as /
was a-sayin', It's the man. after all. After
a editor sells out to a boss they amt |
much more to his princlples-in fact, they |
ANT much to begin on. They's a whole lot
o. these here anti-FoIk .editers, / believe
You call en-. that can't call their soul
their own and they is terrible run down |
at the heels. too. in this campaign. They |
have lost most o their subscribers since
the campaign started. from printin' ed
~itorials writ by the Postmasters, and a /
good many of EN- is liable to go the way |
pore Skid went. About all they air dom