A HUNGRY PRINTER WITH A COLORED MOUSTACHE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 95, 10 August 1876, Page 2

A HUNGRY PRINTER WITH A COLORED MOUSTACHE.

An out-and-out " tramp," in broken boots, soiled shirt, and a very discouraged looking suit of clothes, dropped into a composing-room of the Rhode Island daily one day, and said he wanted some '"'subbing." He was worn out, he added, had walked from "Worcester, and hadn't had a square meal in a week. One of the typos "put him on," and giving him half a dollai*, told him to go and get something to eat, and come round at seven o'clock sharp for " composition." The "tramp" shuffled off, but shuffled back again at seven o'clock, and began to pile up the type at the rate of speed that made the heads of the chaps fairly swim. He gave up his whole attention to the business, as he snaked up a " phat ad " off the hook, which all the others had been working for dear life to get hold of ; some one ventured to say that he was doing pretty well for ,i stai'ter. "Yes, tolerably well," he replied, as he skipped back to his case, and " set up " a line in about a second. "Doing as good as I generally do when I am short of rations. lam as hungry as a shark tonight." "Hungry!" repeated two in chorus, " Haven't you had your dinner 1" " Yes, sort of a dinner," he remarked, "but an empty comp. cannot spread himself on 15 cents., you know." "Fifteen cents," said another in surmise. "He said he gave you half-a-dollar." "So he did," responded the tramp, as he reached for a in, "but I paid out thirty-five of it for getting my moustache coloured." The musical click of the types as they were dropped into the sticks was all that broke the stillness in that office for the next half-hour.