The Ketchikan miner., 1907-05-11
LOCAL CURIOS

Hon. John C. Higgins. eS,
 that's him-the same identical indi- yidual duck who used to stick type in the same ''alley" with Curio, years and years ago. on the old Marshall town Statesman. He has greatly
 disappointed us-is now member of the Washington legislature-though from the hour of parting from him we had until lately confidently ex- pected to see his name, sooner or
 state institution of an entirely diff ferent kind, both in name and pur- pose. He seemed to Curio gifted by
 nature with all those rare and brilliant qualities which go to the perfect make up the thorough and con- sistent convict. But he is in the
 legislature now. or was, until its
 recent adjournment, and long ere this has probably become so hardened
 and steeped in the sin of law making that the little story Curio is about to relate will fall upon him as drop of ice water upon sleeping husband d who religiously refuses to get up and start the kitchen fire on a frosty
 December or January morning. He was then about twenty years of age, and having graduated was in receipt,
 or supposed to be in receipt, of 1 iourneymen's wages. The balance of the office force-three in number
 were, if not aged, rather mature '.devils." The editor and proprietor
 of the Statesman was queer old
 mastodon and, a distinguished characteristic of his whole moral and physical nature was his unparalleled and almost superhuman laziness. The pressure of the atmosphere upon his distended anatomy could not have been less than fifteen pounds to the square inch-a casual observer would have thought it at least several hundred and ninety-fiye thousand. H z was almost ener getically lazy. In his younger days, when he had been possessed of considerable animal ex- ubsrance he had been won't to exelt 1 himself and get around to the office on an average of once in every three l days: but he had grown olGer and more corpulent. and the boys had learned to expect their pay very much as the stockholder in corporation of doubtful earning capacity awaits 1 hi, sem-apnull dividend. Curio has no doubt that ''Browny," the new
 boy who begun about the time C. took his departure, is a decrepid,
 gray.headed old man now, and il alive has just about this time receiv- ed his pay for 1852, or may be 1854 Still he may rot have received either But it is pleasant to look back from
 this remote day, and think how tbe three of us lost our situations. None of us were ever discharged. The matters, and if we committed any seg.ous error he always toox the matter under deliberate considera. tion, ar q forgot all about it at his very earliest convenience. He wa, not what could be called a haro mas ter. and if he were to have lair him down with the lion little cbild could easily have led them both~-a' far as the corner saloon. No, he dit not assault, or with violence eject u, from the premises. He lief us to wcrs out our own disgrace and ruin. H. Ii q it in this way: He called us Int his sanctum one afternoon, and desIr
 ed each one to write during the week An essay or item for the pap r, rromi
 ing the position of local editor to ths one who acquitted himself with tit most credit. Curio well remember.
 the destruction of white paper whicl
 followed that suggestion. At that early age the position If local editoi
 vas not regarceu l., any of Us witt ! distinct aversion. Al the appoint, !, hour the editor received our IT. hu
 scr pts and reviewed iiiem care ul,s
 holding 1st of the,D wrc i2 end IL
 and gIsncing at the blanh ages on'
 Of m of them rIe said we had q
 a9ne .ooI de Il better hJn he ex'