The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-02-06
From ne RICHMOND lTa.) Republican.

| We wish that all readers could have been
present with US at the Printers Festival in cele
bration OF Franklin's birthday. They would have
seen as tine a specimen, intellectual, moral md
physical, Of the men of the type, as ever greeted
their eyes. They would have beheId "Trpo" in
his gory-his heart warm, not with wine but
with cordial hospitality and genial good fellow
ship, doing handsome thing in a handsome way
and evidently as sincere in heart polite in man
ner. And yet, on some accounts we are glad that
the public did NOT witness this festival. The pub
lc are already enough in the dark about "Ibpo."
without being any farther obfuscated. This fes-
laval would have mystifed them still more. They
would have imagined that ''Typo' is a sort Of
Dives, clad in fine linen, and faring sumptuousiy
every day; that Albemarle mutton and Old vir-
GINA ham form the staple of his daily dinner and
picked oysters and plum cake his regular lunch,
whilst every Sunday is celebrated with hnunch Of
venison, canvass back ducks. turkey with oyster
sauce, followed by dessert of ice creams cakes,
oranges, grapes, raisins. and the like. We need
not say that for the public to indulge any such
iancy would be great folly, though not much more
Irrational and monstrous than some of the concep.
tons OF the printers character and condition
which they now entertain. II is now supposed
that the printer Is mere machine, possessing
not much more intelligence and sensibility than
the type in the cnse; that he ia the medium through
which tho sunlight Of knowledge eliminates every
dwelling, but that he neither the light nor feels
the heat which he conveys There is alSo another
cherished deusion common among mankind. II
is that printers. by peculiar law of nature, are
men; that they need clothing for themselves
and their families; that they can breakfast and
dine on air and fog, and sup on moonshine that
they require no houses to them no candles to
lighen them, no fuel to warm them that they and
their families ENJOY perpetual health, knowing
nothing OF doctors bills and that they have no
souls to be saved, and are consequently spared the
expense of pew rent. Their children are presumed
to be thci own schoolmasters When printers die
they are all to be carried upwards in chariot of
hre, or some other chariot which will obviate the
necessity of funeral charges Such must be the
opinion OF the public, for IL cannot be supposed
that if they believe Typo to be man like appo.
utes and wants with themselves, 30 many thousands
would refuse to pay him their just dues, and com
pei him, through the neglect and dishonesty of
others. SO often to pass life Of trouble, and
privation.
But in all soberncss, few men are called to endure
such continuous and exhausting labor the prin-
ter. Each letter of the columns upon which your
eyes are resting has passed through his hands. He
10 at his post from carly morn till midnight. Sun
and storm, snow and ice neither vary interrupt
his duties. During the late bitter weather. the
compositors OF our own office, for example, have
sometimes been up Till one and two O'Clock,
and then walked through the cold night and driv-
ing rain one and sometimes two miles to their
respective ONES, returning at carly hour in the
morning. Such are the tolls of the printer; and
now let US say one word to the moral character
OF the man. single fact will speak volumes on
that head. In the great State Of New York, whose
huge metropolis is becoming famous for the laxity
tor its morals as for is wealth and prosperity not
single printer has been sent for quarter OF cen
tury the State prison at Sing Sing.