The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-11-10

press we ever saw. more than twenty-five
years ago. 1t was then used to dissent
nate anti-Jaekson doctrines in Western
New Y ork. With variable fortunes, it
finally became the property Of Fourie-
rite society in Monroe county in That State,
and when that bubble exploded, Hadley
brought it West. Between anti-Jsckson-
ism, Fouriersm, and such principles as
IIadley instilled into it, the old press had
in our way of thinking, a tempestuous
and troubled life in this world, and in
common gratitude its wooden frame ought
to be buried with the honors of war,
and its stone platen stuck up at its head
to keep its memory forever fresh. It was
the only Ramage we ever saw in Wiscon-
sin, except small one for jobbing which
we bought of Rufus King in 1917, for
twenty dollars. We hired Il teamster
who was going to Green Bay to put it on
his wagon; and when he brought it home
one ofthe wagon wheels had chafcd near
ly through the wooden frame. We set it
up, though, and it did good work in print
ing blanks ana election tickets until our
Office burned down few years ago.
Good bye to the days of the manages!
They have fled before the march of i'm
proycmont, until their black and marred
forms have withered out of sight, even as
the dusky tribes whose fate is Their coun-
terpart. They had their day; and look
ing back upon it through the years of din
and chatter which finally overwhelmed
them, they wear pleasant look, much
like that we see in the old pictures
presses standing upon halos, with bright
rays diverging from them, illuminating
such devices as Freedom and "Lber-
ty." They are gone now forever into
! that wonderful Past which holdeth all
things-all things but hope. If we might
look in upon them, we should see their
grim ghosts keeping company with the
oldpolitics of our fathers Anti Masonry
National Banks and Notification stalk
strangely around in that political Haies,
and the Ramagos are their attendant
genii.
They figured through the grand days
of the oldcn times. From the lime when
Benjamin Franklin used them at Boston
and Philadelphia, until almost down to
the present day, they formed q race which
may be said now to be extinct Many of
you who are listening here to-day have
never seen one; and you ever do, it will
look to you as the representative of a past
! typographical era, exhumod as we exhume
the bones of a mastodon. You shall e.-
anime them scientifically, and fail to tell
what sort of animal they were. There
great black jaws shall show yon no teeth
and you NAV well wonder how they got
their living. We will tell you. They
were a sort Of chameleon, and did feed on
airs property which is in some sort
inherited by many Of our presses nova
days. They were the pack-horses which
bore the literature of Puritanic times, Of
the Revolution, and of tle early days Of
the Republic. They bore the Blue Laws,
the Declaration of Independence, and
the Messages Of the Presidents. And
they gave us all our old books, newspapers
and almanacs-good, bad and Indifferent.
We can sec, sitting here, men who me
indebted to the Ramagss for their Cobb's
Spelling Books, their DabolFs Arithmetics
and their Kirkham's Grammars. And
all the newspapers of our boyhood, with
their big types, sounding notices, labor
ed arguments, and good old-style adver-
tisements. Day d Martin made known
their backing then; Peleg White his
Sticking Salve; Sickles his travelling
Shows-the grand Sickles, whose 'Babes
in the Woods in guy puppet shows, and
whose Wonderful violin, elevated to a
horizontal line to escape bis own funny
corporosity, have led Is many Moonlight
tramp to witness at the next four-corners.
There's q monument raised in our heart
to tho memory of the princely old Sickles
who GOT 50 to knowing us after while
TINT he patted us on the head and gave US
perpetual free ticket We know that st.
Peter, when the old Snowman arrived at
the Celestial Gate. passed him in without
/ asking q question. But we forget. Ste-rs
made known his Opedeldoc, and some OF
the pioneers in the quack medicine line
led the way with their remarkable pills
all the standard medicine, West India rum,
bibles. razols strops, stage coaches, aud
clocks, were set fourth duly with quain
cuts and quaintcr announcements. Those
we're the fossils of the Ramage age.
Though our theme here to-day is the
Power of the Newspaper Press, we hope
not to haze departed from the subject j
. we have stepped aside and thrown y