The San Francisco call., 1906-06-03

| In second or two another fell. and then very
brasses slipped @ slipped. slipped into their places
| and the steel spaces dropped INTO theirs. Hne Inc
was formed while the 61ys hands m aS n ts I,s
! lever that seat the line over 10 the metal pot
to be cast, and his hand fell back IN bis zap;
while the dripping Of the brssses continued and
the blue and white keys on tke board SANK ana
rose, although no finger touched them 49,
reporter broke the silence with: wen. I'll be
damned!' and the voice from David mourn ~ 4
| replied: Very likely. And the clicking OF the
brasses grew quicker
| The lines thus automatically written
| by the linotype were in Latin and fore
told that David would go on long
journey, but would return and the
whole town should see him and know
him, and that he would bring back the
| song that was in his heart, and the
| townspeople should hear it.
i The sadness comes into the story
when young David gets his heart
/ broken by the blonde "A girl of
twenty is so much older than boy
of twenty one that the blonde began to
assume a maternal attitude toward the
boy" "A travelling silk salesman. with
/ a naughty manner and a, two hundred
dollar job, saw the blonde in the Racket
store and began calling at her fathers
home like the captain of an army with
banners" "All this may seem funny
| in the telling. but to see the little
Welshman's heart breaking in him
was no pleasant matter. The girls in
the Office pitied the boy, and hoped
the silk drummer would break the
blondes heart" David fabricated a
legend that the blonde was selling her
self for gold" "As for the blonde, il
was only nature asserting itself in her
David went with the soldiers 10 the
Philippines and was killed in the skir-
mish line before Manila. His body was
sent back to his native town for burial.
With il came a letter and little box
with a government frank on it. The
box was sent to the newspaper office
where David had worked as a boy.
The reporters opened it. The letter
said that all David's things would be
found in the box. IN a camera-plate
box was a rose. faded and crumbly, a
chip diamond ring. a bangle bracelet,
woman's glove. and photograph
This chip diamond ring and the bangle
bracelets the blonde had sent back to
David after she got the silk drummer
for lover and the new love gave her
more costly gifts. Also In the box was
a bunch of keys. and long brass lever
which unlocked the music in the box.
Here" said one of the reporters, lis
the last link in our chain" He went
over to the music box that David had
been so fond of. and put in the lever.
Then the music began TO come. 1T
was strong and clear and powerful,
and seemed to have a certain passion
in 1t that may have been struck like
flint fire from the time and the place
and the spirit of the occasion" 1t was
David's favorite. Loves Golden
Dream" Thus was the prophecy of
the spirit-possessed linotype fulfilled.
After that pathetic sketch of the
broken-hearted Welshman it may be
well to turn to one of the amusing
chapters and get the good there is to
be derived from the law of contrast
and relief Such a one is chapter XI.
The Casting Out of Jimmy Myers"
Jimmy Myers was a both bright and
good boy. and also an excellent re-
porter, save for the sole reason that
his work was hoodooed more than half
the time BY some cruel fatality which
was no fault OF his. Something so often
went wrong with the excellent copy he
handed in that the Office, under the stern
necessity OF self protecting, was at last
compelled to cast him out. As the
editor said. 1T was a cruel thing to do.
but we had to do it," Myers had good
Judgment and he tried hard to use it,
and nobody ever accused him of being
Office admitted he was unlucky.
The tale OF the number of scrapes
his unluekiness got him and the little
country paper into is sadly laughable;
but only one or two of them will suffice
to suggest the inevitableness of his
fate to be victim of a casting out"
Once he wrote a paid local for photo
grapher, eriticising some one who was
peddling in the town and taking orders
for enlarged pictures The item would
have been all right but for the un-
fortunate circumstance that the person
criticised proved to be a woman. She
came with rawhide and camped in
the office two days waiting for Jimmy,
while he came in and cut of the back
door. stuck his copy on a hook by
stealth and travelled only in the alleys
to get his news" The artist of the
book has chosen that scene for Illus
tration-
Another hoodooed item was when
Jimmy wrote in quite legible hand.
THE hem of her skirt was trimmed
with pink crushed roses" and "he was
in no way to blame for the fact that
the printer put an n for k in the
word skirt The woman's husband
chased Jimmy into culvert and kept
I'm there most of the forenoon"
So frequently did these little accidents
occur that the people of the town re-
fused to believe that they just hap
pened"; and as the editor puts, it. they
didn't happen until Jimmy came into
the staff There was quite series of
these happenings. which at last culmi-
mated in Myers expulsion.
Jimmy had habit of writing playful
little items about some Of the good
natured townsmen whom he knew
would take 1t in good part and laugh
over 1t. One day he wrote one of these
playful skits and. heading with a
quotation of foolish little verse from
Kipling, handed in his copy. For the
same issue OF the paper Miss Larrabee.
the society editor, had written an an
nouncement of the engagement of two
prominent young people of the town.
Miss Larrabee was known to be a de-
tester of village weddings. although
she always wrote them up very prettily
for the paper. Even in the act of pen
ming the complimentary words she
would jab down sweet adjectives
viciously on the copy paper. while
half under her breath she would
gibe about the same facts in
words wrathfully different from
those she wrote The towns knOvvl-