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Show SIIAWNJEETOWN. 1 t r .1 ' '! " H They say that-only .a fow bullflingsurcrtr. left -of 1 "what once constituted the beninlf.ul-' city of , Shawneetown. . t i- . That teminds me. One tinrtr It the-rold. days I when r-vns foremnn o a -country-printing office i a tramp typo came along, and asked for worK. 1 It was a little mornlng'paper; -and we carried about I 500 words a day of telegraph servioe.' In ..this n- ft nection, It is only fair to say that we gave'tho H people more telegraph with these 600 words than I editors of the present Any can provido with 10,000. I .For -example: If .United States senator was 1 .named in the news from congress, tho compositqr 1 .had to add both his politics and tho state- from which ho hnlled. Like this: "Smoot (rep. Utah) moved to adjourn." This tramp pi inter developed the best ability I have ever seen to take these names as 'they eamo K over the wire and classify them as to state and t politics without referring to a congressional rec- f ord He had the additional gift of poesy. With our limited telegraph service, it was the habit to make big heads over the news, whether there was enough detail in the despatch to .orry it or not. I had always convinced myself I was a good writer of I , heads. But this slip-shod son of Gutonburs ,did M It in rhyme. j One night tha.ro. vyas, absolutely no. telegraph 9 news. Tho company furnished Its usual .6 0Q svords, 9 but no man HvLng would have called it news. The 9 best thing In the night was a despatch from tho 9 now Jnundatel Shawneetown, describing an at- M tempt to deliver a prisoner from the county jail. 9 I could not make a head on It that vwuld war- 9 rant Its publication, and turned it over to the S tramp printei. It was in the days before 0 o'cloek 9 ilfcja?dfifhvaoJjiyi quoted 9 vfjjmsjtjver hevent downto the sajtioh. and gla.raikWheJwLrae,JftokiI.i th'e fire 9 of genius in his eye, and restrnJLnopl thfe. tenptation 9 to advise him. He wento hvcayjtna,,set his 9 head as follows: .,t " ;.!. -, 9 DOWN- AT -THE, CITY -, . - 9 , OP . SILVWNEIOWN , . . . 9 WHERE THE WABASH WAflEltS FLQW 9 THEIR .WIMPLLN& WA,VS 9 - O'ER SILVER aVNDS - 9 INTO THE O.Il-I-O - 9 THEY HAD A PRISONER IN THE JUG, I A-COLORED ALAN, TIIEY-SAY, AND THE 9 MOB IT CAME TO GET HIM JUST AT THE BREAK OF DAYr BU.T THE . SHERIFF GOT IIIS.CANNON OUT., AND SCARED THE ,MOB AWAY. All this in the usual aondonsed gothlc type usually usual-ly used for hends. It filled half a column, although tho story that carried it wns not more than ono hundred words, even with all tho padding I wns able to give It , Of course that doesn't make life any easier for the slum-soaked citizens of the HUnoIsMown. .nd my only excuse for using it is that I never see- tho pame of that city without recalling the- figure of a tramp printer of- the olden school. |