Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1890 — Stopping the Press. [ARTICLE]

Stopping the Press.

I was sitting in the office of a Kentucky weekly paper, and the editor had just furnished proof of the fact that he was editor, drinter, compositor, pressman, and the mail boy, when a shockheaded lad came in to say: “Mr. Daggers, he ’uns’s waitin’ down thar fur you!” “Who’s a-waitin’?” “Kurnel Brill. ” “What’s he ’un want?” “Ter shute, I reckon. ” “Go’n tell he *un to wait till next week; I’m too busy. ” When the boy had gone the editor turned to me with: “You kin see fur yourself what’s a holdin’ me down. That Kurnel Brill is no gentleman, or he wouldn’t put in when he knows I’m rnshed. ” The boy came back a moment later to say: “He ’un can’t wait. ” “Why?” “Says he cum in ter shute, an’ has got to shute, an’ he will shute. ” “Dod rot sech a man! I reckon I’ll hev to go down. Didn’t t like my leader last week, and wants ter shute. He ’un’s no gentleman, no gentleman. I’ll be back in a few minits, stranger.” I sat there in the office and heard the reports of pistols, and I looked out of the window and saw a crowd, and ten minutes later the editor came in with his right ear split by a bullet, and somewhat petulantly remarked: “And now thar’ll be a Coroner’s inquest, and I’ll hev to lose at least half a day! If the Kurnel wanted to pop at me, why couldn’t he ’un hev waited till some tramp printer cum along to ease me off a bit? He was no gentleman—no gentleman. ” —Kern York Sun.