The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-10-01

station he nOtlned MS folKS tnat ne
had hat and shirt, and if they would
kindly send him a pair of pants and
some shoes he would forego the fatted
calf and hasten home. l wondered
then if ever l would grow up to be
| big man like Coe.
Reflections on Past.
"Then Ezra Roe and Nettie Young
and Fannie Elstro and Gus Mag and
Henry Noble and gas engines and
| Ike Kline's old Hoe three-revolution
press and Ross Forkner began to
obscure my horizon, ond things about
a printing office began to lose some
of their glamour and take on the as
poets of an Inferno. | thought in
those days that the sole purpose of
printers and printing machinery was
| to prevent the brilliant articles writ
| ten by such celebrities as / had no
doubt it was, from ever appearing in
| the paper; or, if they ever did get in
| type there was some devilish scheme
Matched up out in the press room to
! prevent the papers from ever being
| printed.
did | say press room? Why press
room any more than composing room,
mailing room, circulation room, din
| ing room, storage room, reporters
room and an all around hang out for
| Strick Gillian to tell rotten jokes, for
which he now gets real money and
| his name on Chautauqua programs?
"If once in while | did manage to
smuggle myself into the sitting con-
| fines of that inferno in order to ascer-
| tain first hand just who it was that
| kept my articles from getting set up
or the papers from getting printed I'M
til long after all decent citizens had
| gone to bed, and those who had not
couldn't distinguish type, Ezra Roe
would pounce on me and kick me out
set me to tearing papers out of the
| patent folder.
Remember that folder, Green?
Green was the first human being
ever met in a printing plant, because
he would occasionally climb down
| from a soap box from which he fed
| the struggled, 1athe-buttressed press
| and confide in me that the plant was
going to the devil and nobody appre-
ciated real merit, else why should he
be feeding a press when he might be
cleaning streets or driving an ice
wagon.
Then came the first linotype, and
the second. Soon thereafter the Item
moved and got a new gas engine,
which was worse than the old one.
The old one simply refused to woYk
at all any time The new one was
tickle. 1t worked overtime sometimes,
so strenuously that DR.. Wampler and
other neghbors complained to the po-
| lice about its noise, and then, appar-
emily regretfu1, it wouldn't emit a
wheeZe until after we had paid Dan
Kiser three times what the engine
originally cost to fix it. Dan fixed
it all right, for he had to be called
| ing of an edition.
at was a great epoch when the Item
put in a perfecting press and stereo-
tipping plant, and divided the press
room from the composing room, put in
another machine and installed Billy
Bloom and Ed Arthur. Soon after Ed
came Ike and then the printing
business in Richmond settled down to
something really worth while.
Bugs Bowers made his last call
being encouraged in that determina-
/, ton by Jimmy O'Brien and Shorty
Fitzgibbons putting him to sleep I'M
der a gas meter.
To-day | venture the assertion that
there isn't city in the United States
of any ways near the size of Rich
bond that has the standard of news
papers and newspaper work that Rich.
mond has. If SO, l don't know where
they are.
And it is due to the printers of
Richmond. | am combining my brief
review to my own experience, but
know that other publishers in Rich
mond hold the same view, and they
can tell of it on the ground.
However, the printer is the man be
hind the gun He is the man who
makes the paper. He adds quality to
it, He gives it a distinction. He Gre
ates its style He is reflected in every
page when you pick up and look at its
makeup and its ads. He never has
so much to do that he is not willing tC
try to do a little more-or, at least
that was my experience. He was
never asked to speed up In. order tC
get an extra" out ahead of the other
fellow that he didn't respond, even
after it appeared he was keyed to the
breaking point.
Once a Carrier.
Il look back to the days when | be
gan as paper carrier and cub re
porter and compare then and now, and
| am sure there is not another bust
ness in the world that can show the
progress, the absolute revolution the
newspaper business does. Yet it has
fall been done by the printer and men
are in the ranks today doing perfect
work at high speed that We're in it
before any of the modern inventions