Here are the quotations for this week (January 29th to February 5th):
1. …Here, under the guidance of the inky apprentice, he
had learned to find his way more or less circuitously about the case, and
considered himself an expert compositor.
The…paper in its locked formes lay
on a stone-topped table, a proof by the side…With a mallet and a pair of
tweezers, he knocked out mysterious wedges of wood that released the forme,
picked a letter here and inserted a letter there, reading as he went along and
stopping much to chuckle over his own contributions…
2. Keller
was insolent with joy. He was going to cable from Southampton to the New York
World, mail his account to America on the same day, paralyse London with
his three columns of loosely knitted headlines, and generally efface the earth.
'You'll see how I work a big scoop when I get it', he said.
'Is this your
first visit to England ?' I asked.
'Yes', said he…
3. ...It
was a shade cooler in the press-room than the office, so I sat there, while the
type ticked and clicked, and the night-jars hooted at the windows, and the all
but naked compositors wiped the sweat from their foreheads and called for
water…There was no special reason beyond the heat and worry to make tension,
but, as the clock hands crept up to three o'clock, and the machines swung their
flywheels two or three times to see that all was in order before I said the word
that would set them off, I could have shrieked aloud…
The sources of the previous set of extracts (January 15th to 21st) are as
follows:
1. (..."Don't speak English," said Lalun, bending over her sitar
afresh...) This is from "On the City Wall" in Soldiers Three.
2. (..."What d'you think of that?" said he in English. "Carnehan
can't talk their patter, so I've made him my servant...) This is from "The Man
who would be King" in Wee Willie Winkie.
3. (...I began to tell the story of Charlie in English, but Grish
Chunder put a question in the vernacular...) This is from "The Finest Story in
the World" in Many Inventions.
Good wishes to all
John R