The Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1852-1853, 1852-12-08
Lo. the Poor Printer.

-NF D.
personal Memoirs and Recolleetions Of Ed
itorial life" makes the following mention
OF iourneyman printers. a most worthy class,
who always found a friend in the author OF
this book.
1.-The "reminiscences of a jOurneyman
printer will not be esteemed as very valu-
able contributions TO the literature of the
present day. If written ont in full, mine
would be a volume composed chiefly of no
tees of harG-laboring contempoaries-of
privations and sufferings that the world knew
nothing of-of physical and mental toll by
day and by night, which brought neither
wealth nor reputation to the labOrer Though
it transformed many i~lliterate productions
iuto a shape fit for the public eye, which
would otherwise have been cast aside as
discreditable to its arthur. Many persons
who condecend to illume the dark world
with the sparklings of their genius through
|, the columns of q newspaper, and others who
publish sermons and tracts, religious, moral
and political, little think of the labor of the
printer, who (perhaps nearly suffocated with
, the smoke of \ lamp, and with an aching
f head, and eyes intlamed and enfeebled with
intense application sits up till midnight, or
; till daylight, to correct his false grammar,
, bad photography, and worse punctuation.
, 81 have seen the arguments Of lawyers
t who stood n high repute AS scholars, send to
the printer in their own hand writing-chiro-
graphy which would defy the sagacity of the
most inventerate investigator of ancient HE
roglyphics, Astounding with technical and
t foreign terms abbreviated, words mispelled,
and few (or no) points, and these few en-
tirely misplaced. | have seen sermons of
: eminent scholars and ''divines" SEPT to the
: press without points or capitols to deignate
: the division OF Sentences-Sermons which if
Y published with the imperfections Of the man
L uscript. would be a disgrace TO any appren-
y tice, if he were the author. Some writers
use no points whatever; some use Il comma
for all occasions; some prefer the dash, and
o use it in place of all other points. once saw
the manuscript o. a sermon III the hands OF
8 a printer which was entirely with out points,
h and every line began with a capital letter,
as if it had been poetry. Suppose the pro-
auctions had been printed as they were writ
E ten-the disgrace would have fallen on the
printer. He would have been called an il
Il ~literate blockhead, better fitted for a wood.
sawyer than Il printer, and the author would
still enjoy his reputation as a scholar, and
is receive the sympathy of bis readers AS a mar
T. injured by, the printers Ignorance. Nobody
ae would believe that such gross and paldablt
Id faults were owing to the carelessncss OF the
n author; and no one but a particular printe.
4 knows how many hours a compoyitor-ano
L after him, proof. readr-is compelled tt
V cNaDI -, raN,1DiOy tn n raoIabln condition
Mt manuscript, which the Writers themSelvc
as would be puzzled to read with propriety.
I'D "After an experience of more than lift,
ne years, | hold this truth to be self-evident, ;
that there isno class Of workingmen 50 poor
ly paid as ~priuters. For one who make
wv himself rich by printing, disconnected wit
the business Of publishing, tyy barely liv'
- aloe poverty, and die in the possession c
ny little more than enough to pay the joiner 70
a coffin and the sexton for a grave. This i
n or was-pecuniarily the lot of joumeymer
I There are probably not many in the large
n, towns who have not been called on, som
time in the course of their lives, to contrib
H. ute a portion Of their earnings for the relic
en- of a sick brother and his family, or to pa
the expense Of his funeral, | know it may
ED be said-ior it has often been said-tha
HIT iourneymen printers are imprudent, addlc
TO ted to expensive pleasures, and indulge i
. hurtful and Obstructive habits.
Its /" do notdeny that they have their fault
lr- and are subject to the srm propensities a
les otncr men. Let it be admitted that individ
as uals cases of poverty and sickness have bee
produced by improper and even vicious ii
'P- diligence, still | deny that, as a class, the
lat are obnoxious to the reproachful charge
IS They were not forty or fifty years ago, nc
Try do | believe they are now. Il X II #
1e- If, hereafter, | should relate the downwal
no. career and melancholy end Of two or thrt
ale printers, let their characters and fate be t
mn ken as exceptions to the general c~haracte
all and practice of the men of that period. o
dinar.ly they were temperate, industriol
ISL and ambitious to acquire and sustain a goo
m reputation, and devoted to the maintenance
es! the honor of the profession. | should /
'na sorry if l supposed that there is any degen
''o racy among their successors"
he Rg-A cute Down Easter says he once 50
do a fellow who could lie down and jump ov
ach himself. stand up aud jump under hlmse
1eir turn round and jump beside himself, al
then turn back and jump Jim Grow.
o. GsFIn Taylor county, Iowa, at the la
W. election for State officers, every vote give
was for the Democratic ticket.
nd
,er- Eg~At what time of hfe may a man
Ihy said to belong to the vegetable kingdor
and When experience has made him sage.
NY BsFAn ingenious timer in Cir c!evi
named Blotherlin, has manufactured a t
kettle out of a ten cent piece. ~,
,ts' EBy- A reading people will become a thin
all ing people; and then they are capable Of b
coming a great people.
ore- ES-None are so often in the wrong,
my hose who pretend to be always in the rigl
o"- VT General Scott don't think so much
"N' that "rich Irish brogue" in Ohio, as he q
o"n some few days ago. lie says he edo
care a cuss how wet and m0ddy the Clev
land peonle oct after this ... Din.