'hy^

V^,

c^l

<^^%^
%^^

4^'

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

SIM IM

" IIIIM |||||Z2
12.0

S40

1.8

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

:^.

<° C^x

t-^/

1.25

1.4

1.6

-• 6" —

►

23 WESTMAINSfREST

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Instltut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

1980

Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notee techniques et bibliographiques

The

to tl

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographically unique,
which may alter any of the images in the
reproduction, or which may significantly c^ ange
the usual method of filminq, are checked below.

n
n

D
D
D

Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur

Covers damaged/
Couverture endommagde

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurde et/ou pellicul^e

Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

Coloured maps/

Cartes gdographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

Coloured plates and/or illustrations/
Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
Reli6 avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La reliure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge intdrieure

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutdes
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte,
mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 6t6 filmdes.

Additional comments:/
Commentaires suppl6mentaires:

L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemptaire
qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les ddtails
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-6tre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la m^thode r.ormale de filmage
sont indiquds ci-dessous.

Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

Pages damaged/
Pages endommag^es

Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pages restaurdes et/ou pelliculdes

r~~7 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
I '^1 Pages ddcolordes, tachet^es ou piqudes

The
pos
oft
film

Ori(
beg
the
sior
oth
firsi
sior
or i

Pages detached/
Pages d^tach^es

r"7| Showthrough/

L^ Transparence

I I Quality of print varies/

Quality in6gale de {'impression

Includes supplementary material/
Comprend du matdriel supplementaire

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponibie

The
sha
TIN
whi

Ma
diff
ent
beg
rigf
req
me

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont dt6 filmdes A nouveau de fapon d
obtenir la meilleure image possible.

10X

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiqud ci-dessous.

14X 18X 22X

26X

30X

12X

16X

20X

a4x

28X

32X

The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks
to the generosity of:

National Library of Canada

L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grdce d la
gdn6rosit6 de:

Bibliothdque nationale du Canada

The images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et
de la nettetd de l'exemplaire filmd, et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol — ♦- (meaning "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.

Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to
right and top to bottom, as many frames as
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:

Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en
papier est imprimde sont filmds en commengant
par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la
dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second
plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires
originaux sont filmds en commenpart par la
premiere page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par
la dernidre page qui comporte une telle
empreinte.

Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la
dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le
cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le
symbole V signifie "FIN".

Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre
filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents.
Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre
reproduit en un seul cliche, il est fiim^ d partir
de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite,
et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants
illustrent la m6thode.

32X

1 2 3

4 5 6

■ jiqii iii*R«jp'M« q.

PRINTING AND THE PUBLIC PEESS

By the Hon. W. C. HOWEL LS

American Consul at Quebec

PRINTING AND THE PUBLIC PRESS.

Read before the Institut Canadien de Quebec.

December 23, 1876,

By the Hon. W. C. HOWELLS.

Ameriean Cansvl at Quebec

Of Printing, it is my privilege to »P«ak from
oxporienco. From my earliest recollection of the use
o^ ettere, it was my ambition to enter the mysteries of
?his art ; and as 1 passed from chilahood to youth, it was
my highest aspiration to bo a part of the system called
the Fourth Estate of modern civilization. In this love
of the art. I sought the first opportunity to learn it
practically, as a work of my hands, and to apply it m
what I should perform as the labor of intellect lam
proud to call myself a Printer ; and m the employment
ff my life I have sought to honor the joint profession
of panting and journalism, with what 1 ttle ^^1^7^^
bee^n committed to me. What I say of it is what 1 have
learned in the relation I have borne to it, as I have

read, heard and seen. _ i; * u„^™.

The PEB88, as it existed at the time of my first know-
ledge of it, a^ a power in the dual world of mind and
3or was a tot'ally different thing from what it now
is over the entire world ; but though in the part ot
the world I then knew, the condition of the t'ourth
Estate was in strong contrast with what it now is,
The changes have been so gradual that it is on^ when
viewing them together that we properly conceive of

" «l»

■^^■1

— 4 —

the change. Yot, its growth in that period, like the
growth ol" the prominent improvements of the age, has
been in the ratio of Hquaros and cubes, rather than
ordinary progress. Indeed the development of improvo-
mont in all the arts has been by such rapid angmenta-
tion, that the wonder it excites is not ovorpoworing,
only because all things have kept pace with it ; for the
last six decades have been the nascent period of more
that is truly wonderful than any century of the world's
history.

The history of the discovery and developement oftho
art of Printing is supposed to be familiar to every
intelligent man and woman. At least the conventional
story of the discovery or invention of the art of printing
by Guttenburg, or Faust, or some old German, about
the year 1430, is common property ; and if we turn to
chronological tables, we tind thi^t year given as tho
exact time ; as if it was like the birth of a hero, or land-
ing upon a new continent. But the truth is, that the
•very art whose mission it is to tell of events, cannot in-
form us, whence, when or how itself came into existence.
'Our most remote researches into the past, open to us
traces of printing. Tho bricks of which the walls of
Babylon were composed, are stamped ^' ith the trade
mark of the maker, imprinted upon the soft clay; and
the ruins of Assyria and Egypt are printed in various
way ; while all the Coinage of the world, ancient and
TtiOUy-n, \8 pj-inted. But arts do not go stalking about
the world unbidden. It is only when they are want ed&nd
tailed, that they come forth. Inventions are conceived
of their mother Necessity, and born of the occasion.
They seem to beget one another also, and the birth of ono
depends upon the advent of another. Thus, though the
mechunicjil principles of printing were known andhad
been in use for ages, the art did not come forth even into
its embryo condition, till the art of paper making had
■prepared the means of supplying an article whereon to
print. And yet the mother necessity had not grown
to demand the extended use of such arts. The world
was engaged otherwise than in writing and reading,
^or was every man ambitious to own the book he read.
The portion of men who could read was sm<i,ll, and the

■V*

— 6 —

class that road for amusement and profit was still Iopp.
The scribe, with pen and parchment, could amply
supply the deinand the reading claHsos created. But in
the march of iniprovonient thei-ie classes enlaiyed and
their wants increased. The intellectual man began to
assert himself as his powers unfolded, till in his fervent
love of intelligence, ho wooed his hanl-maid art and
called her from the sanguine fields where war hid en-
sliivod her, to bear to the world the power of knowledge.
The Press was conceived, and duly grow from its infant
beginnings to the ripe manhood of its present magni-
tude.

Theartof making paper preceded the chief attempts
at printing. How long, we have no means of knowing ;
for history does not favor us with any exact slatement
of the time when either began. We learn the relative
dates in the incidental records of the times, much as
wo read the dates of the " everlasting hills " in the
sti-ata of a broken mountain side. But it seems as if
some overruling design had delayed the invention of
printing with moveable types -for that was really the
art — until paper was a common and well understood
manufacture. Till then it would not have been useful,
and might have been thrown aside as an idle play
thing. Without paper, abundant and at a moderate
cost of production, the art of printing was worthless.
So in a later day : the power pvess was impracticable,
till the composition I'oller was invented ; and without
the papermaking machine, the power press was nuseless
outlay of genius and capital. And at this time, the rail-
way and electric telegraph bear a like indispensiblo
lelation to the Daily Press of the present ; for now
thej^ are all parts of but one system from which you
cannot remove either.

Accepting the comntencoment of the fifteenth century
as the era of the art of Printing, we can but remark the
rapidity with which it came into use, and how widely
it spread over the civilized world in a few years A
third of the century had passed, when Bibles were
oflFered for sale in Paris, byatxerman who was thought
to possess the process of producing them as a secret —
which secret, the story is, the authorities squeezed out

-ftttm-'V! w j i ^;i.^.«r:ir*'.Ty •»*

i^i^

— 6 —

of him, by charging him with witchcraft. Before the
century had olapHed, the art was the common property
of every country of Europe ; and men were tilling their
libraries with printed books. The forms of letters had
been settled, a suitable ink bad been compounded, a
mode of applying it had been sought out, a press had
been constructed, and the process of casting the Bej)ft-
rato types from a cheap and conveniently prop.ircd
metal, adopted. This arrangement comprized the art,
and this was found suflicient for the performance of
good printing. Thus cquip|)ed the art was looked upon
as complete. The throe succeeding conturicH passed
before any material improvement was made, either in
the stylo or cut of the lett* r, the press, the ink or the
manner of manufacturing books or printed matter.
The general style of the books that have come down to
us from the sixteenth century is as good as those of the
eighteenth. The paper used in the older books is gene-
rally of better color and quality, and the color of the
ink altogether superior to those of eighty yoars ago.
So of the binding. We are impressed with the excellent
printing of the books of the seventeenth century, com-
pared with those of the oi'-hteenth ; for the general
style of the execution appears to have deteriorated
rather than improved. There were of course exceptions
both waj's ; and the productions of different countries
were unlike. This was largely due to the times and the
temperament of the peoples who did the work. The
patient Hollander of 1650 was necessary to the produc-
tion of the famous Amsterdam editions, to whoso betiu-
iiful fttyb the utilitarian Englishman was indifferent.
At the point of advancement in the art with which it
entered the sixteenth century, it continued until the
nineteenth — varied only by the skill with which certain
masters executed particular editio'ns. Through all this
period there was no change of cut of the Eoman letter.
The same style, which is the established form of the
Latin Alphabet, — (to which we have returned for our
finest books, from the once admired " Scotch faces "
and " French styles " ) — prevaled. The graceful style
of that standaixl cut was attained at u very early day ;
and many of the famous editions have not since been

— 7 —

excelled, in the qualities of correct composition* fine
color of the ink ana clear, even improsBion. Indeed odr
type founders of this day give the old style a first place
in their published specimens — dressed up a little in
some respoctH, but not materially improved. The great
object sought by the old printers was to achieve cor-
rectness and good impressions. The more showy eleg-
ance of the present time they never aimod at. Their
highest conception of splendid printing seemed to oncl
in the illuminating of a title page or initial letter with
red ink, or an engraved device. The glory of their work
was faithfulness. You may see this, if you hold the
leaf of a book between you and the light, and observe
how evenly one line is printed on the back of another,
or if you note the uniformity of color.

But with the present century came a world of im-
provements in rrinting, Type Founding and Paper
Making — all growing rapidly together, with increasing
demands and the spirit of the ago. The old Hand Press,
from whose dingy frame had radiated the brightest
scintilations of centuries of thought and by whose
means piofoundost results of human wisdom had shown
upon the world, as that world advanced, became an
impediment in the way of what was required by the
progress of the times. Though the storootypo had been
discovered, and thus the means of multiplied impres-
sions, by the use of many presses, had been secured ;
the rapid production of impressions from one form
hastily set up, from matter gathered at the "t moment,
so as to supply a vast re-^dirg public wiciiout delay,
was impossible with any thing short of the Power Press.
Such a machine was indispensible ; and yet there wms
an impediment to its developement in the want of a
proper inking roller. With the ha:;! press, puify balls
of buckskin or parchment pelts, stuffed with wool, had
been used to spread the thick ' rinting ink by beating
it upon the surface of the types at each impression.
This was a good and convenient process by hand ; but
it could not be made to work in a machine. Leather
rollers were tried without success; and the coming-forth
ofthepower press halted, till one lucky day it was discov-
ered that a mixture of glue and molasses melted to^e-

— 8 —

ther, could bo cftst in n round mould, nflor iho mnnner
of n cundlo, with a wood or iron core in the middle,
that when cooled would make u roller of any deHirod
lohgth or diameter, with a Hmooth elastic Hurfiicc, and
be the best posniblo Mubntance ihr putting the ink upon
any form. Th's known, the printing machine was
brought into immediate ukc ; and thence forward the
Daily NownpanerH had no limit but the public demand.
Still, to print oy machinery and make paper by hand
wns UHelOHS ; for Uie paper mill could not keep pace
with the printing otfice. But the genius of the age was
equal to the emergency ; and by the time the power
press was fairly in operation, a machine had been made
that would produce a shoot of paper of indefinite length,
with a capacity of production equal to the supply of
any conceivable demand.

For more than three hundred years all the printing
of the world was done on presses that were substantial 1}'
all alike. The pictures of the old printing presses are
familiar to every reader — whether they be of that on
which Faust is represented as taking his first proofs of
the Bible, or the one exhibited last summer at Philadel-
phia, bccau!-:o it is supposed that Franklin worked on it
when a journeyman printer. They are good portraits
of the machine on which, for that long period, mind de-
pended for its great power of utterance. I know that
they represent one on which 1 lUivo more than once
blistered my hands, when playing the Franklin on an
old Ramage press, as it was called. 1 dare say they
havo been in use within the remembrance of many in
this Province. To work on these preshes required two
men — one to beat the ink upon the form of type and
the other to pull the impression. Two hundred and fifty
sheets, (a token) was an hour's work for two expert
hands, who alternated each hour. Eight tokens made a
day's work ; and I can testify a hai*d one.

At this rate, or slower, the printing of that three
hundred and fifty years was performed. The workmen
wore mostly men who had served regular apprentice-
ships to their trade, and their work was usually well
done. The art was regarded as of a higher grade than
a mechanical calling ; and they who learned it were ex-

s*^^

— 9 —

Eoctod to bo qunlified by more than orilinury odiication»
ofore boing accoptod as appronlicos ; and thoso of
noted proficiency wore accorded a profoHHionul rank.
But doubtloHH the printorH, v/ho wore the bo.st worknion,
were the quiet, faithful, though obscure goniusoH whoho
names never appeared in imprints. Theirs was the un-

froclaimed honor of boing laithful "over a few things."
n the true love of their calling, they found their reward
in their daily bread and duty done. The laborious de-
partment of press- work could have been ])erf()rnied by
more illiterate men ; but the whole art was regarded as
unit ; and printers were required to sf^t, the type, or
mako the impressions, as the case required, tho' in the
larger establishments tho work would necessarily bo
divided into dopartmonts. For a time the art ombraxred
the casting of tho typos and making tho ink. At all
times it was n trade that required capital ; and there-
fore could not bo readily set up every whore. Until
local newspapers camo to bo required, tho printing
otficoK were mainly connected with booksellers' houses
or institutions of learning and departments of State.

The old books produced for a long time affer the in-
troduction of tho art wore what wo would call plain.
Their beauty consisted in their corrtctnoss, clear impres-
sion and good color of ink on white paper. Occasionally
a title j)age would flnmo out with rod letters, or a gro-
tesque design would head or close a chapter or surround
an initial letter. But tho art of raised engraving was
HO imperfect that there was no temptation to use it orna-
mently, as it lent no beauty to the work. But tho best
work of tho early days would bo good work now. The
• bad printing done upon hand juesses was really more
general in later times, when the prices of labor had in-
creai-ed and there was an effort to cheapen the work.

As long as the printing of books was the solo employ-
ment of tho press, it exerted comparatively little in-
fliienco upon tho intellectual world. Tho art was only
a beast of burden for tho learned and the makers of
books. In this capacity it .served the world through
two centuries at least. At an early day there was an
attomptat tho newsj)aper of regular isBuo in many of the
cities of Europe, but without real success, till the about

mmm

— 10-

tho yeai* 1700, whence forwaixl tho newspaper took
its placoin the business of civilized life. First periodical
issues of tracts, political and theological came, into use;
then Official Gazettes, Public Advertisers, &c., in the
interest of trade, came to be the channel through which
public information, current news and political move-
ments were presented to the people. By the middle of
that century, the pamphlets and periodical papers on
special subjects had settled into regular issues of monthly,
weekly or daily periods. The newspaper of a city then
became the chief avenue through which the thinkers of
a community approached the public on general subjects;
and soon tlie larger towns and even villages aspired to
the use of this convenience. This was a phase c/f news-
paper enterprize that was eminently intellectual. It was
rather a joint stock operation of small authorship. It
saved the writer the cost of printing and circulating his
thoughts, while it opened the way for more or less cai'e-
ful thinking and writing. The newspaper was rather a
circulator than origin.ator of opinion— esjwcially in the
smaller places. Of itself it rarely attempted to make
any public sentiment. In this respect the paper was
nothing on its own account. It made few if any editorial
notes or remarks, much less essays or discussions. In-
deed many a newspaper made no pretence to have an
editor at all. It was made up by the Printer, who
collected news as he could, copied from other papers or
the news budgets of ships. If a contribution was made
by a local writer, it was addressed to Mr. Printer, or
to the Printer of the Advertiser. Mr. Printer rarely
said any thing to his corresnondents or about them. If
they took untenable ground on any question, there was
somebody ready to take the opposite ; and the pHnter
accommodated both and all sides— limited of c- arse by
his spai'C room. I" controversies arose, writers were
given space and were left to flail away at each other to
their heart's content, as well as the amusement <»f readers.
Newspapers so conducted, were doubtless interesting
sheets, small as they were : and few of them were over
medium size, that is 19 by 24 inches square. Such
served the purpose in Europe and America till a period
" within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant," at

— 11 —

any mte. In this period of newspaper development,
the term Public Press came into general and correct
use, a« signifying a press in which the public could hear
and be heard. For the tradesman there was the adver-
tising department and commercial news for them to
contribat.; to or read ; for the gossips there wore the
births and deaths ; for tho young ladies the marriages ;
the poets' ..orner for the rhyrasters; and the general
news and politics for whom it might concern ; while the
little remaining space went to anecdotes, etc. Through
this medium, whoever thought expressed himself; and
thus the habit of thinking and writing grew upon the

i)eople till it came to be more than the mere work of
>ook- Wrights. The recognized value of <Ae/)/"ess in this
form gave it a consequence tliat was new and increasing.
Printing offices sprang up in ovei-y town ; and it was a
very tiime village that did not assert its right to starve
a printer. In the very nature of things this was a
business that paid but poorly. The profits of the public
printer depended upon the number of patrons, as he
politely called them, but many of whom were more
properly retainers ; and he was tempted by his hopes to
deliver a large part of his issue without pay and make
little debts that he could never collect ; and as a conse-
quence ho became proverbially poor — to which it was
the too common practice of these printers to add the
humor of joking over their povert}^ and thus accepting
the situation, till half the newspaper rejiders seemed to
regard it as the proper thing to withhold their just dues.
With such ti-catment the profession of Village Printer
fell into poor though honorable repute.

The freedom with which every calling was pursued
in the English American colonies was fovorable to this
UhO of the press ; and by the time of the American
Eevolution, the country was well provided with this
means of intercommunication. The active men of that
period did not neglect to use the press as a means of
forming public opinion and preparing the sentiment of
the people for the assumption of their independence.
It soon became one of the necessities of the American
public, both in the New States and in Canada ; where
It has maintained this local condition in the rural situa-
tions jf both countries.

mm^^

wmmmm

12 —

With the use of Nowspapora in the politics of ii popular
government, they take on a kind of personality, by which
every paper becomes an organ of some party or interest ;
and the editor finds it his business to fashion the expres-
sions of the organ and make them representative of the
party to which it belongs. In this way he assumes a
higher character than belonged to the Mr. Printer, who
had been the mere mouth-piece of those who met in his
paper. He now came to take part in or direct the dis-
cussions of iiis journal, directing and expressing the
complex views of his party, under the term editorial; in
which capacity, with groat propriety, he used the plural
pronoun we. In the " make-up" of the paper, a special
department and heading was assigned to what he wrote
or as sometimes hai)pened, what he fathered. The
editor was held to have prepared those articles, and
being responsible for them, was occasionally treated to
the luxury of a thrashing or dilema of a challenge, by
way of cheap martyrdom for opinion's sake, to say
nothing of the libel suits in which ho was at times
involved. The courts very properly held that the printer
of a libel was liable to the sufferer from it ; and editors,
publishers and printers acted upon the understanding
that if they made libels public, — whether of their own
writing or not, — they must fortify themselves with res-
ponsible names. The law, of libel, no doubt had a
wholesome restraining eltect upon publishers; but apart
from such considerations, the honor of the crafi, includ-
ing all the workmen of a printing office, was always
placed upon high grounds ; and confidence was usually
accorded to it. The famous Letters of Junius furnish a
case in ]ioint, where fine upon fine, and endless suits
failed to bring out the author, who with his publisher
died with the secret of the authorship. The p()wer and
favor of Princes have failed to peneti-ate the secrets of
the printing office ; where the confidence of authors has
ever been sacredly regarded by the craft. At the same
time printers have maintained the greatest liberality
and impartiality in serving the public. Even when
particular papers came to support the interests of a
jiartj', the printers thereof have been impartial and fair
to opponents, printing for them and preserving their
secrets.

— 13 —

Tho printing office of the times of small papers and
the hand-press, as it was when I first knew it, was an
institution peculiar to itself. Though a concern of some
pretension, it was limited in size and means, and mostly
occupied but one room, — large, lighted with plenty of
windows, and if possible, it was some where up stairs.
The master printer, who was usually tho editor of the
paper also, would have a table and desk in one corner
of the room, where he opened his exchanges and wrote
his editorials. Here ho also had a chair or two, where
the gossips who came to tell the local news and read
his exchanges, made themselves at home, and interrupted
him and his work by their ditcussions of party prospects
and plans and the politics of the countr3\ Opposite a
window stood the press, around the walls were ranged
tho cases of typo, and in the middle of the floor the im-
posing stone, a slab on which tho forms of the paper
were made up. The " hands " or workers of the office
were commonly an old journeman printer, who remained
in employment as long as he vras needed or was content
to stay, and who when out of a place, travelled from
town to town, seeking work and picking up additions
to his store of experience ; also two, but rarely three,
apprentices - the younger of whom was condemned to
perform the minor services and rough work of the con-
cern under the irreverent soubriquet of the Devil. These
three or four spent their idle time in the office — made
it their home in fact. Here they read the papers received
in exchange ; read and discussed the communications
and the writers, as wall as public affairs, with which
they were well acquainted ; criticised the visitors to
the office and public men of the vicinity ; and in the
absence of the editor, sat around his table to talk over
public matters as if they had them in charge. It is a
fact we often loose sight of, that what we call a great
subject is about as easily managed as a small one. It is
the complication of a subject that makes it difficult,
rather than its vastness. A steam engine is quite as
easy to understand, to construct and manage as a watch.
A Province or a State is no harder to govern than a
city ; and a Congress of nations may only exceed in the
extent of its relations, a meeting to settle a parish

— 14 —

quarrel. We can always compass what we sLudy nnd
learn to understand. These printing oflSce boys took up
the nation or the world as their lesson ; they studied it
as an incident to their daily labors ; they made them-
polves familiar with the busy movements of mankind ;
so that the grand operations of kingdoms and empires
scon became to them matters of no more importance
than the details that wont to make up the manufacture
of a suit of clothes in the adjoining tailor's shop. They
acquired a breadth of view when they lookod outwai'd ;
iheir scope of observation was expanded, and they
learneU to think on a grand scale and of all things. It was
to them a liberal education, though an informal one. If
a l»oy in a printing office had genius or talent it came
forth and was nurtured by even meagre opportunities
of this kind. The v seemed to have entered the guild
of letters and to belong by right to the fourth estate.
The printing offices became colleges without a pres-
cribed curiculura. Their defect was the want of system ;
but genius and experience supplied much of that. The
intercourse of these printere was free from restraints,
and they learned of and insti'ucted each other, and also
gathered the waifs of information dropped by the loun-
gers and talkers of the common room of the Office ;
and those latter were often of the? best cultivated minds
of the town. The eminent Stateaman, the aspiring, the
successful leader of opinion and the man whose aifection
for letters attracted him — al'. came before these young
printers as models, each furnishing material to stimu-
late as well as satiate their powers of intellectual
absorption. They necessarily grew clever, and even
brilliant if they hail capacity. Great men have eman-
ated from these printing offices, who had few other
opportunities of mental culture. A long list of distin-
guished names might be presented as instances, even in
the n >w country of the United States, — beginning with
Franklin, but not ending with such men as Horace
Grroeley, Simon Cameron, Thurlow Weed, Bayard Taylor,
Charles Brown (Artemas Ward,) Samuel Clement,
(Mark Twain,) and many other well known names, *

1 M. H , aurait pn mentionner sonfila, W. D. HowelU, auteur de plu-
eiears volumes bien oonnns et r^daotcHrde la prinoipale revue litt^raira
de rAmdrique, oomme ^tautrun des gradu^s du bureau des impressions.

— 16 —

that might be cited. It did not follow that all those
graduates of the printing office became greatly distin-
guished men, any more than those who have taken
homo their university parchments ; though the com-
parative proportion shows well for the printers. Many
of them never aspired to be any thing el&e than printers,
as thousands devote their lives to the art from a love of
it. The system of newspaper exchanges brought to
every office more or less of the beat ijublications of the
times, and all the current material for reading. This
^applied them with a vast amount of solid information
and an endless fund of stories, anecdotes, puns, bon mots,
rapartee and wit in all its phases. These they learned
to handle skilfully ; so that in conversation they were
ready and piquant. I have never heard more brilliant
talks than I have heard in a printing office. They
learned to write well ; and the peculiar style necessary
for successful newspaper writing belonged to them of
right. This was but natural. It is a heritage of the
Fourth Estate that lawfully descended to them ; and it
is a talent that printers have seldom buried or hid in a
napkin. The mass of the good writers on the city
newspapers of America of the present time have been
graduated from the small printing offices of the country,
where boys who could but read, have developed into
scholars, with an unrivaled readiness in the production
of the matter best suited for the daily reader. They
comprehend at once the detail and the compilation of
the newspaper ; they can therefore produce the mater-
ials to enter the make-up of a paper, and frame them
together as literateurs cannot do ; and in short, they
supply a want that no others can. With such a class
to conduct it, the growth of The Press to its present
pro]X)rtion8 has been most natural.

Considering as I do now, the condition of the Press
in America chiefly,' the time of the introduction of the
art into the New World is a pertinent question, though
somewhat difficult to answer. It seems however to be
pretty well established that the first printing press in
North America was set up in the city of Mexico ; where
it was used as the property of a monastry. This was
some time before New EngUnd was settled by the

— 16 —

*' Pilgrim Fathers," among whom one of the first uses
of the press was the production of the Eliot Bible for
the Mlftssachusetts Indi'vns. With the growth of the
settlements we hear of presses in diftbront pai'ls of the
country. Newspapers grew up irt the last century, and
took their place as an institution of tlie country in due
time. Weeklj' papers supplied the smaller places, and
a few dailies wore issued in the rising cities, where ihoy
grow with the population, or requirements of trade.

As long as printers were confined to the use of the
hand-press, it was impossible to extend morning or
evening issues to any thing like the present volume.
One hand-press, with two men at a time, working to
the extent of their ability, could not produce more
than six thousand impressions in each twenty-four-
hours. The present issues of many American city dailies
— the New York papers for instance — often exceeds
twenty-fivo thousand copies, all printed within three or
four hours ; while the sheets are six to ten times as
large as those formerly worked by hand. The daily
press of the hand-press days was only an increased issue
of the small weeklies that sufficed for our grand fathers
of the rural districts. But all the daily papers in Ame-
' rica, say up to ISIO, were a mere handful, compared
with the present list. The great mass of news readers
were content with weeklies ; and of those who read
dailies there were very probably ten readers to a paper.
]^ondon furnishes a good example of this condition of
dailies; where a dense population, in the exciting times
of the wars that kept Europe in a ferment at the close
ot the last and beginning of this century, was clamorous
for news ; which had to be supplied from the multiplied
issues of the hand-press. There it was not unusual to
resort to the expedient of setting up the forms of type
in duplicate and employing four presses with relays of
pressmen, to meet the demand. In addition to this the
readers economised the papers as tve should not think
of doing. The daily papers were " taken in, " as the
English say, by the reading rooms, and public houses,
whore they were read aloud to listening groups many
times over ; and after they became stale at one house,
they were sold at second hand to a cheaper place, where

'"1

>^ \

— 17 —

a poorer class absorbed the contents. With such expe-
dients as these, the wants of the public were in a manner
supplied by the slow means then at hand ; and the
reading public was content and happy, rejoicing in their
wonderful facilities foi* looking over " the map of busy
life." Then the enterprising newspaper boastfully told
that its proprietors had secured the landing of a swift
boat at a near point, with the news of the last great
battle, and how fleet horsos cjirried the dispatches over-
land in a few hours, and how they masked a force of
printers at midnight and at day light laid the important
news before the public in less than a week from the
event,— and never dreamed that they might live to read
at breakfast the last might's dispatches from around
the whole earth.

Hut the world was growing, man was enlarging his
sphere, and all his wants were expanding. The ever
present Necessity called forth her child Invention to the
work. The Power Press, the Stereotype plate, the
Paper Machine were produced ; and the means of siipply
became mH that the demand could ever require. Then
the power of human expression was indeed unfettered.
lUlen could make known their thoughts as they willed,
and intelligence waited only to be received. All the
books could be made and all the periodicals issued that
the entire world was prepared to read. Still this, which
seemed to be the neplvs ultra of the art was not perfec-
tion, or the kind of perfection that we enjoy. But there
waited to join the train, in the triumphant march of the
Fourth Estate to its grandest domain, — the Railway,
the Telegraph and the Photograph. These unite as if
by elective affinity to produce the results we contem-
plate in Thk Press of our time, — an institution that
once would have been thought magic; that within my
own recollection, would have been called impossible^
and which to-day creates no astonishment ; because it
has so entered every household with its marvelous
eflFects.

We sometimes imagine the spirits of the great of
other days coming back to earth to note the contrast of
the times. I have contemplated in fancy, one of the
fathers of this art, — Aldus or Caxton, — watching the

If f. ,

— 18 —

S reparation and issue of one of our great morning
ailiea. I can iniagino the spirit of Father Caxton
rising from the shawdowy past, to look upon the world ngs
of the art he loved, and wee what four hundred years
had wrought of progress in a process that he was sup-
posed to have completed, with his cast metal types. I
see him, (inspired by a wish to know how far th^ art
had blest mankind,) coming down to a land unknown
in his time, where forty millions of men speaking his
tongue, spread over a continent risen to fill the place of
the lost Atlantis. He has alighted in the miast of a
great city. It i& night-fall ; and he betakes himself to
his beloved Printing Office, one of the thousand in the
place, but one whose proportions are multiplied an
hundred fold to any ho had ever seen. He sees the same
types, in the same cases, and distributed in the same
order as when he used them ; and the workmen aie
taking their places, each with the old composing stick
and rule, as the printers of old were wont to use. They
are for a night's work ; and each compositor, before he
begins, touches a little point with a lighted taper, and
there flashes before him a new illuminating power, and
reveals to the astonished ghost a modern composing
room. The editors are at work in another apartment
preparing the morning edition ; a meissenger brings the
copy to the printers, where it is divided among th^m ;
in a few minutes ii is all in type and they wa.t for a new
supply, which is disposed of, till column after column ig
composed, proof-read and corrected ; and there is before
him a mass of reading, made up of news, editorials, cor-
respondence, commercial and shipping intelligence, mis-
cellaneous selections, poetry, advertisements, etc., equal
to a year's work of his day. He inspects the matter, is
attracted by the head " Despatches," each item begin-
ning with a date that is the present time ; and he reaJs
before the same date, — London, Paris, St. Petersburg,
Home, Alexandria, Calcutta, Canton, Yeddo, and other
places from as wide a world beside, to him unknown.
It is now " the very witching time of night," and the
clock points towards one. The last regular telegraph
dispatches have been setup and the " latest " are waited
for, while the forms are prepared. He cm*iously watchds

;/»

— 19-

the foreman as he builds up these columns into eight
great pagen ; and when they are locked up, ho turns to
find the press on which thoy are to be printed. But in-
stead, he sees thorn phicod in a sliding elevator, and a
workman taking his place with thom on the platform to
descend through four or five stories, to the und(3rground
floor; and he goes along to witness the process. Thoro he
sees .hese pages covered with layers of soft damp paper,
which is pressed into the uneven surface of the types,
till a perfect mould of every word and letter is made
upon it, and it is lifted off, a complete matrix. Ho recurs
to his ottbrt to cast the tirst metal types, and the travail
in which he devised the means to cast a single letter; and
hi> wonder increases as he sees this paper mould, within
a few minutes, dried and made ready to receive the
moulton metal, which in a moment more will bo a solid
plate of the size of the whole page, bearing every letter
and every point of tho form. Ho beholds with admira-
tion these eiirht pages cast, one after another, the last
delayed a few minutes for the latest dispatches, and
notes that it is now past one o'clock. Ho sees these
plates taken up and carried forward to a grand apart-
ment, formed under the street of the city, where they
are bent to a perfect curve, around u large cylinder and
made fast to its surface. Wonderingly he follows the
workmen, as with cranes they lift this cylinder into its
place in a vast machine, made up of rollers wheels
and springs, ^o combined as almost to have tho movements
of life, and it dawns upon him that this is the press.
At one end of it he observes a continuous sheet of paper
a yard in width and hundreds loni(, rolled upon acylinder;
and his eye follows tho process, as the end of this sheet
is led along between guiding rollers till it passes over
and around the cylinder covered with the plates of type,
which are inked by thowe mysteriously flexible rollers,
so important to tho power press, and thence directed
through revolving shears, that cut oft' the sheets, fully
printed on both sides, and whence thoy are passed
into machines that fold them for the mails. Thoentranc-
ed spirit of this old Father of the Art looks on, and sees
thousand after thousand of these immense journals
thrown off, folded, wrapped, directed and mailed ; and

■^^

lon^ before the day-brenk cock crows, he has seen trains
that baffle bin very conception of mechanicH, by their
locomotion and their speed, (-tart off with iI.oho mails,
beaririLf these improved " maps of bu^y life," to greet
with the rising sun, their expectant readers miles and
leaguesHway. And well may he delay his flight till the
cock crows, and coniemplaie it all. \le has seen these
mamouth sheets fall like ihe flakes of snow, has wondered
over every step of the processor their manufacture, their
superior execution, their variety and number. lie has
seen those shcefH made up since the night set in ; and like
the fabled worksof magi(^, it is the labor of ii night; though
it goes on iind is repealed day after day, night after night,
as if lor all time, reciting the story of each day of the
world's life to the world itself. lie has seen the news
of the day, in one hour, gathereii from the ends of the
earth, multiplied a myriad times and told again to a
nation in a night. In short, he has seen, in the slow
world of matter, so near areal'zalion of his spirit home,
that he might well doubt if Ik- had left it, did not the
messages he has seen called up an<l dispatched, tell
such talo-i of woe and sorrow - tell so vividly that they
belong to earth, and are the work of mortals.