Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-08-17
DAILY EVENING STAR.
Printers Devil.

We have so frequently been asked by
friends and others, ''why the boy in a
printing office is called the Devil" that
we have concluded to give what little we
know upon the subject.
The first persons who carried on print
ing to any extent, (if they were not the
actual inventors Of the art, as some as
sert, were John Gottenburg, John Faust,
(or Faustus,l and Peter Scheffer. Ger
many was the place where the art was
invented, and first carried on. The
following story is told of the first intro
duction of printing into France:
"In 1862, Faust carried a number of
Bibles to Paris, which he and his partner
SchGffer had printed, and disposed of them
as manuscripts; at this time the discovery
Of the art was not known in France. At
first he sold them at the high price of five
hundred OF six hundred crowns, the sum
usually obtained by the scribes. He
afterwards lowered his price to sixty,
which created universal astOnishment: but
when he produced them according TO the
demand and even reduced it to thirty, all
Paris became agitatcd. The uniformity
of the copies increased their wonder, the
Parlslans considering it task beyond
human invention: informatiOns were given
to the police against him as magician;
has lodgings were searched, great num-
Der of Bibles were found and seized: the
red ink with which they were embellished
was said to be his blood, it was seriously
ad]udged that he was i'll league with the
devil; whereupon he was cast into prison,
and would most probably have shared the
fate of such whom ignorant and supersti-
tious judges condemned in those days for
witchcraft. He now found it necessary,
in order to gain his liberty, to make
known the discovery of the art. This
circumstance gave rise to the tradition of
1.-The Devil and DIR. Faustus," which is
handed down to the present time.
The ignorance and superstition that
considered printing an invention of the
Evil One would also, very naturally, sup
pose the men engaged in it as being the
servants of Satan, if not actual fends in
human shape. 1t is universally consider
cd that the above story gave rise to the
practice of calling the office-boy by tho
name of Devil"
THE EMPEROR LOUIS ANDA COACHMAN.-
The following is one of the stories told in
the English papers: y coachman had
been driving some English sight-seers
about Paris. and seeing the imperial cor
tege in the distance, he pulled up and told
his fare" that if they wanted to see the
Emperor he was coming. At the minute
when the imperial carriage passed by,
the .Iehu observed man standing near
the faCre draw forth pistol, and then,
taking deliberate aim, fire at the Empe-
ror; he jumped from his box, seized the
assassin, or rather, on the principle of
It's dat qui ciio dat, knocked him down,
and then picked him up, and he was forth
with handed over to the police. The En-
peror sent for g Jarvey" on Friday to St.
Cloud and and asked him what lie could
do for him. Jarvey replied that the sum-
init OF his ambition was to sit upon an
imperial hammercIoth. The Emperor
then sent him TO General Valiant, who
snperintends that department in the house.
hold, and the General decided that the
man was too thin and short, as the EN-
peror, like the Empress Catharine, will
have none but fine tall men in his employ;
ne, however, sent the man away happy
with 1900 francs.
\ letter from Paris, in TIC New York
Commercial, says:
t'ltissaid that another attempt has been
made upon the life OF the Emperor. One
of the cooks of the Palace of st. Cloud as
cended as dinner was upon the point of
being served. The circumstance seemed
suspicious. and the dinner was untasted
by all. This story would be more credi-
BILE If some of the suspected viands were
tried upon dog or cat for if poison had
been feared, such an experiment would of
course have been made
1T Is noticed that the Emperor is much
StOuter than he was, and this increase of
bulk Is attributed to more voluminous
coat OF mail. ! sawa curious occurrence
at the Theatre Francois, the other night.
Their Majesties were present at the per-
Torrance of Bertrand ct Batin. During
the second act, a heavy jack knife fell from
the fourth tier directly upon the kettle
drum, Immediately under the Presidents
box. The sound produced by the con-
cussion was exceedingly sharp and explo-
Sivc, and might easily have been taken
for the discharge of a ratherslightly wad-
died. fire arm. The Emperor withdrew,
with movement of extreme precipitation
into his box, and for moment or two
was viSibly moved. TWAS subsequently,
discovered that the dropping of the jack
knife was an accident, for its owner lin a
blouse) presented himself at the orchestra
to reclaim it. My neighbor insisted that
1T was done on purpose, and that the ket-
tie drum was aimed at, to startle the En-
press"