Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-25

paper offices "railroadng'' Is much more
common than in large ones, but there is
record of a metropolitan daily which, being
obliged to railroad a news item, pro-
claimed in consequence that a certain
burned building had been reduced to a
mess of onions" when it had been the de-
sire of the writer to announce it as a mass
of ruins
So, one by one, the men dumped into the
form the type which was to proclaim Caleb
. Cooper, candidate for Congress, thief
liar and blackguard; which was to an
nounce that Jack Selkirk, editor of the
Express, fiance of Cooper's daughter and
his campaign manager, could no longer en-
dure to keep silence concerning his out
rageous dishonesty; that the men who
voted for him on the morrow would be
voting for a scoundrel instead of the honest
| man which he had hitherto been thought
to be.
Hubbard looked at his watch as the last
man dumped his stickfull.'' Then smiling
grimly he brought over the type of the
headline and introduction and put it in
its place at the beginning of the half
column or so which the whole libelous
ticle made.
Hubbard himself lifted the type from the
galley into the space left for it at the
right-hand upper corner of the big "chase,"
dropped the headline which he had written
and set into its place, gave the screws at
the bottom of the chase" a quick turn
or two with the crank handled key, tighten
ed the screw quo1ns at the side of the
cndSe, ran the planer with quick taps or
the mallet over the whole, frightened it up
again, lifted the completed form once or
twice to that everything was tight
about it, and then hurried it over to the
press, with the help of one of the men who
was standing ready.
On the two feeders stands the men were
ready, with their fingers nervously fumbling
the edges of the piles of paper (already
printed one side before them on the
inclined platforms. The form was swung
into its position on the bed of the press
the lookup which held it firm in its place
adjusted, and Hubbard himself, with his
watch in the other hand, pulled the lever
There was a creaking and screaming as
the belts first slipped on the pulleys, which
ceased as they took good grip upon the
iron wheels; rafting roar, increasing
gradually into deafening, crashing mono
tone as the great machine gathered head
way; and then first one fly and then the
other came slapping to the table beneath it.
bearing a futtering white sheet, on which
the printing of the body type seemed a
soft gray as it flew, and the advertisements
with their large type and black illustrations,
stood out in heavy blotches.
Hubbard held his hand beneath the flv at
one end of the press, so that paper, fresh
from the type, was cast into his opened
| fingers. The big headlines which he had
set with his own dextrous hands, stared at
him from the upper corner.
COOPER BRIBED!
Hubbard turned TO Billy, with a face that
| had paled a little in spite of his determina-
ton.
Were late now, Billy" he said. Get
| EN- out as soon as you can
He paused an instant, so evidently in
tending to say more that that boy hest
tated before beginning to take the rapidly
accommodating papers from the ''throw-off
tables, waiting. But Hubbard did not
speak. He went first to one table and then
to the other, and took all the papers from
each. This gave him, perhaps, a bundle
of fifty. These he rolled up hastily so that
only the inner side of the outer one showed
IT'S the night before election Billy" he
said, grimly, and there are things in this
paper which Mr.. Selkirk wants every one
to see. Take these down to Dennisons and
the tavern, and see that everybody gets
one. Tell each man that you give one to
that it is with Mr.. Selkirk's compliment"
AS Billy took the papers, Hubbard looked
at his watch.
LAS soon you've distributed the pa
pers." he said take this down to Frank
Bernard at the station, and tell him that
Mr.. Selkirk wants it sent. Tell him to
rush it,
He handed to the boy a telegram svnon
sizing the attack on Cooper, and headed bv
the names of the newspapers to whom Sell
kirk had intended to telegraph the tale of
Musser's railroad deal.
Tell him to rush it, he said again.
After the lads departure Hubbard stood
for moment irresolute.
Il guess l won't stop and say GOODNIGHT
to the boys he said to himself, grinning.
I'm wait around town for a few minutes
long enough to hear what they say at the
first shock of it-and then I'll quietly 90
down to the station and take the seven
ten.