Well, I had begun already to do a lot of it, and then I had him. When I
got him full-time (well, the full-time that he was allowed to work each
week; he was just allowed to work a certain number of days a week) he clipped paper for two or three years (several
years). And he's the one that filed them in those things that they're in
now. And I'm sure there are a lot of editorials from all over the state
and South Carolina, any papers. I'd go over to the library once in a
while and go through the papers that they had laid aside and were going
to turn in for pulp or burn up or something or other. I shouldn't take
the time to tell this, but the room that they put them in in the old
library (which is now a music building, you know) was very handy to get
to, only a semi-basement thing. But in the new library, the first time I
went over there to check on them (I went about every few months, you
know, so they wouldn't throw them away) he said they were down in the
basement. And I said, "Will you tell me how. . . ." "I'll have to take
you," he said. Got down on the ground floor (the real ground floor); it
turned out you had to go through the "Men's only" to get to there. It
was a space under those front steps (steep, you know). And the door to
that was into the men's room. He said, "I'll go in and see if there's
anybody in there and convey you in." And I said, "Well, it won't take me
but about an hour to go through that batch, I'm sure"—because I just
went through the editorial page. "You come back for me, will you?" It
was in the afternoon, and he said, "Yes, sure, I'll come back there for
you." Well, I got through and I waited and I waited. And I'd hear people
come in and go out, and come in and go out. And then the traffic got
less frequent, and it was getting to be way after five o'clock. And I
thought, "Well surely these students have gone to eat supper or
something." And finally I got up my courage to sneak out, and got out
into the hall without being seen [laughter]
. Next morning I went over to the library, and when my head
appeared on the steps, you know, before he could see all of me (he was
behind the desk there) he began to laugh. But I had gotten my paper
[laughter] , and this man filed them. But
they're there.