The Little River news., 1923-04-18
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l The Casting Out ] 1 of Jimmy Myers l;
 WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
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Copyright. 1922. by the Macmillan Co.

TT SEEMED cruel thing to do,
 but we had to do 1t. For ours is
 A ordinarily quiet office. We have never had a libel suit. We have had fewer fights than most newspaper of fees have, and while 1t hardly may be said that we strive to please, still in the main we try to get on with the az they are entitled to for ten cents week. Naturally, we do our best to get Up 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 that 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 year, and knew the merchants around town fairly we'll; and. since he was equipped as fur as education went, he seemed to be likely sort of boy for reporter and advertising solicitor.
 One of the first things that happened to him was mistake In an item about the opera house. He said that a syn dicate had taken a lien on 1t. What he meant was lease, and as he got the item from man who didn't know the difference, anu as .he boy stuck to 1t that the man haa said lien, and not lease, we did not charge that up to him. A few days later he wrote for town photographer paid local criti- 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 it turned out that the peddler was woman, and she came with a rawhide 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't say the pedder was a woman, and the boy was not clairvOyant
 One dull day he wrote piece about gang who played poker at night in Red Martins room. Jimmy said he wasn't afraid of Red Martin, and he wasn't Tie item was popular enough, and led to 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. It Was embarrassing, but it wasn't ex- actly the boys fault. It was just one of those unfortunate circumstances 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, per son who is unlucky has les. to fear handling dynamite than he has writ ing local items on country paper.
 A few days after the raid on the poker room Jimmy, who had acquired a particularly legible hand, wrote: ''Yhe hem of her skirt was trimmed with pink crushed roses," and he was in no way to blame for the fact that the prnter accidentally put an "h" for "k' in skirt, though the woman's husband chased Jimmy into a culvert under Main street and kept him there most of tine afternoon, while the cheer 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- ritcly and with remarkable intelli- . nee. He whistled at his work and stacked up more copy than the print CTS could set mp in type.
 ilC lOlu uS III Coluuciltt lnut uC 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 printed and the carriers had left the office he came in singing: She's My Sweetheart, I'm Her Beau" and sat down to read the paper.
 Suddenly the smile on his face with cred as with frost, and he handed the paper across the table to the book keeper. who read thls item:
 Died-.Mrs. Lillian Gilsey.
 Prepare for the hot weather, my good woman. There is only one way now; get gasoline stove of Hurley X Co,, end you need not fear any fu- tnre heat.
 And it wasn't Jimmy's fault. The | foreman had merely misplaced head l line, but that explanation did not sat l isfy the bereaved family
 Jimmy was beginning to acquire 1