The News Democrat

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Take me back to Peaceful Valley

To the good old "handset" day.

When we juggled with the galley.

In the good old-fashioned way.

Where the editor and devil

Swapped tobacco to and fro.

And they all were on a level,

And were comrades, don't you know.

All your high-falutin' presses,

And your linotypes and such.

And your new attractive "dresses"

Don't amount to very much

To a feller educated

'Mid the romance of a day

When the paper was created

In the good old "handset" way.

When a fightin' man meandered

In to clean up on the shop.

Makin' claims that he'd been slandered

And we never called a cop:

When the boys would all unlimber

Mallet, wrench and shootin' stick

And would chase him to the timber

At a pace that made him sick.

When we always had a column

Of obituary stuff.

That was full of rhyme so solemn

It was plenty good enough.

For each old delinquent brother

As he saw fit for to die,

No use settin' up another.

So we used the old standby.

When the "extra" quick edition,

Was a thing we never knew,

Under any old condition,

And the heads were mighty few,

With no hurry and no bustle.

Till it came to Friday night.

When we'd all turn in and hustle.

Some to get the sheet out right.

What a wealth of young ambition,

When we got our first real place,

A most glorified position—

That of workin' at the case,

There is where we got our knowledge

In the good old-fashioned way.

Didn't have to go to college

—Roy K. Moulton, in Grand Rapids Press.

In the good old "handset" day.