CHAPTER XVII. 



Family Life and Character. 



Like that of many great or even good men, and 

 of men far greater and better than he, Tegetmeier's 

 domestic life was not his strongest point. The 

 best servants of the public do not always make 

 the best parents or heads of a household, and 

 especially so is this possible in the case of a 

 writer or a journalist. The demands of the printer 

 are imperative, and the call for " copy " must 

 receive attention before that of the journalist's 

 family. The true journalist is like a soldier on 

 active service ; he must subordinate his private 

 interests and inclinations to the call of dutv. But 

 unlike the soldier, the pressman's fight is never 

 finished ; directly one battle is won, that is, 

 directly one number of his paper is out, he must 

 think of and work for the next. And so in his 

 early manhood and middle life Tegetmeier had 

 little time for the display of the domestic virtues, 

 especially at first, for when experimenting on 

 and breeding bees, pigeons, fowls, etc., his home 

 was also his laboratory and studio, and domestic 

 amenities and sometimes exigencies had to give 

 way to the insistent demands of science, study, 

 work. His duties as judge at agricultural shows, 

 his lecturing and his visits to game-preserving 



