Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-02-02
The Casting Out
OF Jimmy Myers
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
Couvriaht. 1922, by the Macmillan Co.

fewer fights than most newspaper Of
fees have, and while it hardly may
be said that we strive to please, still
in the main we try to get on with the
people, and tell them as much truth
as they are entitled to for ten ent
a week. Naturally, we do our best to
get up a sprightly paper, and in that
the Myers boy had our idea exactly.
He was Industrious; more than that,
he tried with all his might to eXer-
else his best judgment, and no one
could say hat he was careless; YET
everyone around the office admitted
that he was unlucky-
We took him from the college at the
edge of town. He had been running
the college paper for a year, n kne"
the merchants around town fairly
we'll and, since he was equipped as
far as education went, he seemed to be
a likely sort of a boy for reporter and
advertising solicitor.
One of the first things that happened
to him was a mistake in an item about
the opera house. He said that a syn
UlCdl6 Idu ldhtn ii llGll IA IL 10
he meant was a lease, and as he got
the item from a man who didn't know
the difference, and as the boy stuck
to it that the man had said lien, II
not lease. we did not charge that up to
him. A few days later he wrote for a
town photographer a paid local critl'
cising some one who was going abroad
the county peddling picture frames
and taking orders for enlarged pic
lures. That was not so bad, but 1t
turned out that the peddler was a
woman, and she came with a raWhdde
and camped in the office for two days
waiting for Jimmy, while he came in
and out of the back door, stuck his
copy on the hook by stealth, and trav-
eled only in the alleys to get his news
One could hardly say that he was to
blame for that, either, as the photog
rapher who paid for the item didn'
say the peddler was a woman, n the
boy was not a clairvoyant.
one dull day he wrote a piece about
a gang who played poker at night in
Red Martins room. Jimmy said he
wasn't afraid Of Red Martin, and he
wasn't. The item was popular enough
and led to a raid on the place, which
disclosed our best advertiser sitting
in the game. To suppress his name
meant our shame before the town to
print it meant his-at our expense. II
was embarrassing, but it wasn't eX
actly the boys fault. 1t was just
n of those unfortunate circumstance
that cOme up in life. However, the
advertiser aforesaid began to hate the
boy.
He must have been used to injustice
all his life, for there was a vertical
line between his eyes that marked
trouble. The line deepened as he went
further and further into the newspaper
buiness for, generally speaking, a per-
son who is unlucky has less to fear
handling dynamite than he has writ
ing local items on a country paper.
A few days after the raid on the
poker room Jimmy, who had acquired
a particularly legible hand, wrote:
1.-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 accidentally put an h for
a "k' in skirt, though the woman's
husband chased Jimmy into a culvert
under Main street and kept him there
most of the afternoon, while the cheer
ing crowd informed the injured hus-
band whenever Jimmy tried to get out
of either end of his prison.
The printer that made the mistake
bought Jimmy a new suit of clothes.
we managed to print an apology that
cooled the husbands wrath, and for
ten days, or perhaps two weeks, the
boys life was one round of joy.
Everything was done promptly, accu-
rately and with remarkable intelli-
gence. He whistied at his work and
stacked up more copy than the print
ers could set up in type.
He told us in confidence that he
never felt festive and gay that some
thing didn't happen. He was not in
the building that evening when the
paper went to press, but after it was
~ IIANth lId IIC u III Tx
office he came in singing: "She's Ny
SW eetheart, I'm Her Beau" and sat
down TO read the paper.
Suddenly the smile on his face with
cred as with frost, and he hanaed the
paper across the table to the book
keeper, who read this item:
Died-Mrs. Lillian Gilsey.
Prepare for the hot weather, my
good m There is only one way
now; get a gasoline stove of Hurley
& Co, and you need not fear any flu
ture heat.
And it wasn't Jimmy's fault. The
foreman had mercy misplaced a head
line, but that explanation did not sat
isfy the bereaved family.
Jimmy. was beginning to acquire a
reputation as a Joker. People refused
to believe that such things just hap
pened. They did not happen before
MI. James Myers came to the paper
~. 1l,,,,Il 49,. I--f- ,-.AI I;.