Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1853-02-26


commercial partnership, what industrious house
hold exhibits SO direct an exchange of services?
| All that is wanted is that we should recognise
this fact, and give it all the assistance in our
power. We cannot be independent of one an
other. The attempt is more than unsocial; 1t
is suicidal Could either dispense with the la
Dor of the other, it would Immediately lose the
reward of its own industry. Whether national
jealousy, or the thirst for warlike enterprise, or
the grosser appetite of mercantile monopoly at
tempt the separation, the result and the crime
are the same. We are made helps meet for
one another. Heaven has joined all who speak
tho British language, and what Heaven has
joined let no man think to put asunder.
Lo, THE PooR PRIxTER.-Mr. Buckingham,
in his recent work, Personal Memoirs and Re-
collections of Editorial Life, makes the follows
ing mention of Journeyman Printers, a most
worthy class of mechanics who always found a
friend in the author of The pleasant book:
"The "reminiscences of journeyman printer
will not be esteemed as very valuable contribu-
tions to the literature of the present day. If
written out in full, mine would be volume
composed chiefly of notice of hard laboring CO.
mporares-privations and sufferings that the
world knew nothing of-of physical and men,
tai toll by day and by night, which brought nei-
ther wealth nor reputation to the aborcr, tho it
transformed many an illiterate production into
shape fit for the public eye, which would other
wise have been cast aside as discreditable to its
author. Many persons who condescend to il
lume the dark world with the sparklings of their
genius through the columns of newspaper,
and others who publish sermons and tracts, re-
ligious, moral and political, little think of the
labor of the printer, who (perhaps nearly suffo-
Gated with the smoke of lamp, and with an
aching head, andeyes inflamed and enfeebled
from 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, who
stood in high repute rs scholars, sent to the
printer in their own handwriting, chiropraphy
which would defy the sagacity of the most in
veterate investigator of ancient heroglyphics-
Astounding with technical and foreign terms,
abbreviated, words misspelled and few Tor no)
points, and those few entirely misplaced. l
have seen sermons of eminent scholars and di-
vines sent to the press without points or capitals
to designate the division of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
which, if published with the imperfections Of
the manuscript, would be disgrace to any ap-
prentice, if he were the author. Some writer's
-. -, oo,,o., ,eo
all occasions; some prefer the dash and use it
in the place of all other points. l once saw
the manuscript of sermon in the hand ofa prin-
ter, which was entirely without points, and eve
ry line began with a capital letter as if it had
been poetry. Suppose these productions had
been printed as they were written, the dis
grace would have fallen on the printer He
would have been called an illiteratc blockhead,
better fitted for wood-sawyer than printer,
and the author would still enjoy his reputation
as scholar and receive the sympathy of his
readers as man injured by the printers ignor-
ancc. Nobody would believe that such gross
and palpable faults were owing to the careless
ness of the author, and no one but practical
printer knows how many hours composition
and after him proof.reader----is compelled to
spend in reducing to areadable condition manu-
scripts which the writers themselves would be
puzzled to read with propriety.
"After an experience of more than fifty years,
hold this truth to be selfevident,' and there is
no class of working men so poorly paid as prin-
ters For one who makes himself rich by prin-
ting, disconnected with the business of publish
ing, fifty barely live above poverty, and die in
possession of little more than enough to pay
the joiner for coffin and the sexton for a grave
This is---or was--peculiarly the lot of journey
man. There are probably not many in the
large towns who have not been called on, some
time in the course of their lives, to contribute
portion of their earnings for the relief of
sick brother and his family, or to pay the ex-
pense of his funeral. know it may be said----
that journeymen printers are improvident, ad-
dicted to expensive pleasures, and indulge in
hurtfu and expensive habits.
81 do not deny that they have their faults, and
are subject to the same propensities as other
men. Let it be admitted that individual cases
of poverty and sickness have been produced by
improper and even vicious indulgence; still / |
deny that as a class, they are obnoxious to the |
charge. They were not forty or
fifty years ago, nor do believe they are now
If, hereafter, l should re.
late the downward career and melancholy |
end of two Or three printers, let their charac
ters and fate be taken as exceptions to the gen.
eral character and practice of the men of that
period. Ordinarily they are temperate, indus
trous, prudent, and ambitious to acquire and
sustain good reputation; and devoted to the
and honor of the profession. |
should be sorry if supposed there is any de-
generacy among their SUCCESSORS
USEFUL AND INSTRUCTIVE Sleep--Indul-
gence in sleep is not only baneful to the health
and incompatible with the true enjoyment of
life, but it is detrimental to ones worldly inter
nstS. "The industrious man is always an early
-iser The early sound of the hammer, denoting
he artizen to be at work, appeases the appre.
tensions of the CREDITOR" says Franklin, ''and