The Ocala evening star., 1922-11-29

ically as those Of Paganinni playing a
baby grand.
The operator, D. ]. Mason, hardly
more than a boy, lightning good
operator, and with a talent
for editing, is a son of the lamented
Judge Mason, who was one Of Aiach-
ua's most honored and honorable
citizens. When receiving for the Sun,
he does the work Of four men in the
old days, and he does even more than
tie average stunt in these, for hav-
ing taken some thousands Of words,
and gained an entire understanding
OF the messages; he cuts the iolg roll
of paper into slips and writes & head
over each dispatch, thus taking the
place OF d telegraph editor and head
line architect, which Is the BoTE o.
two men in a larger office, and would
take the great proportion OF the time
of one on the Sun were it not for hi.
Mason's versatility.
The Sun takes some thousands OF
words over the phone every night; It
also has to take a good many by wire,
for ubiquitous as the telephone IS,
there are yet some things in which 1t
has to yield to the dashes and dots Of
the old Morse system
About this time, another member
of the staff came in-Little Bill Pep
per, i. e., w. NJ. Pepper Jr., sporting
editor of the Sun. Strange to say,
Little Bill is bigger than Big Bill.
He is a great boy for sports and is
we'll known and liked by many Ocala
people.
We toddled around over the Sun
office, taking particular pleasure out
in the composing room, where two
smart linotypers were busily pound
ing the next issue of the paper out
OF two excellent machines. Mr.. Pep
per keeps his Office well supplied with
uptodate appliances and employs only
intelligent, reliable men. He has a
good, all-round paper, supplying the
people of Gainesville and vicinity at
breakfast with news that few years
ago they could not obtain until noon
We would be glad to see him able to
whoop things up so he could send out
an early morning edition in time fol
the people all the way from Clearwater
| to Baldwin to read it-and it is en-
tirely possible to do it, for the Sur
is the most exactly central morning
paper in Florida.
About this time, another of oul
train times was approaching, so Mr.
Pepper took US up street to tidy lit
| tie restaurant, to obtain a few oy
sters and things. When Mr.. P. open
ed the door he started for the frs
table, looked toward the back, gave
his overcoat tails a knowing twitcl
and led the way up the room toward
Il table, where busily engaged in eat
ing was j. A. Goodwin, the A. c. LIS
Gainesville passenger agent. Little
Bill Pepper also came along, and u
three newspaper men surrounded thi
base minion of a bloodthirsty cor
poration, as Debs would say. Blu
Mr.. G. himself was only oyster-stev
thirsty, and bade US sit in. Mr.. Good
win has been a member of the Gaines
vile city council for fourteen years
and Gainesville must treat her alder
men better than we do ours, for h
had money enough to buy oysters fo
the crowd. Mr.. Goodwin is constan
reader of the Star and tries to keel
Mr.. Pepper hot by saying the Star i
better than the Sun. We are afrai'
we will have to write his obituar,
some day. After surrounding thi
good feed, we bad the Peppers good
bye and accompanied Mr.. Goodwin t.
the station, where he first locked him
self in the ticket Office and then lie
US know the trains delay had hat
another three quarters of an hou
tackled on to it. We told him ou
opinion of his railroad for not hav
ing the station fitted with cots an,
mattresses, but he had probably hear,
THAT before. About then in came hi
relief, with another three-quarters o
an hour tackled on to the trains los
time. 1t was then 1890, and witt
an hour and half to wait we stretch
cd out on one of the benches. It wa
so hard that we could not fool our
self into believing we could sleep
and then another traveller was shak
ing US by the shoulder and saying tn
train was coming in.
No. 9 generally scorches the tracl
from Gainesville to Ocala, and w
usually put in an hours sound sleel
on the trip, but being late on that &C
casion the engine evidently though
best to make a night of it, so saunter
ed along at about thirty per hour
There was a theatrical company ol
board-a bunch of live boys and pret
ty girls. While the train stood a