Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1860-04-27


any noise, nor have any color they don't
weigh anything. Bill Deepent, the
sexton, says mans weight is just as
much when his mind has gone out of him,
as he did before. No, sir all the minds
that ever lived wouldn't weigh an ounce,
troy"
Then how do you print thoughts +?
If minds are thin as air, and thoughts are
thinner still, and make no noise, and
have no substance shade or color, and
are anywhere in moment, sometimes
on earth, how can you see them when
caught or show them to others p
EzekiePs eyes grew luminous with a
new idea, and pushing the ink-roller
proudly across the metallic page of the
newspaper, he replied:
" Thoughts work and walk in things
that make tracks, and we take them
tracks and stamp them on paper, or iron,
wood, stone, or what not. This is the
way We print thoughts. Don't you I'M
derstand 7"
The pressman let 60 the lever, and
looked interrogatively at Ezekiel, be-
ginning at the patch on his stringless
brogans, and following up with his eye
to the top of the boys brown paper puff
cap. Ezekiel comprehended the felicity
of bis illustration, and wiping his hands
on his tow apron, gradually assumed an
attitude of earnest exposition. gave
him an encouraging wink, and SO he
went on
Thoughts make tracks" he con-
tinued iiDpressively, as if involving a
new phase Of the idea BY repeating it
slowly. Seeing that ne assc9,od to this
proposition inquiringly, no sJspped to
the type case, with his eye fixd admou-
ishingly upon us I: Thoughts make
tracks" he repeated, arranging in his
hand a score or two of metal slips, "and
with these ERE letters we can take the
exact impression of every thought that
ever went out Of the heart Of human
men and acc can print 1t too give us
paper and ink enough, till the great
round earth is blackened around with a
coverlid Of the thoughts as much like the
pattern as two pins"
Ezekiel seemed to grow and inch ut
every word, and the brawny pressman
looked first at him and then at me, with
evident establishment.
!. "Talk about the minds living forcv-
er!' exclaimed the boy, pointing patron
i=iagg!yy ct the ground, as il f minds wer5
lying there incapable of Immortality un,
til the printer reached them helping
hand. "Why the world is brimful Of
live, bright, industrious thoughts, which
would have been dead as stone, if i
hadn't been for boys like me, who run
the ink-rollers. Immortality, indeed
Why, peoples minds" he continued
with hisimagination climbing into the pro
fanely sublime, peoples minds wouldn'
be immortal if it wasn't for the printers
at any rate in this ere planetary buryinl
ground. We are the chaps that manu-
facturo immortality for dead men," ht
subjoined, Shaping the pressman grace
fully on the shoulder.
The latter took it as il dubbed {
knight of the legion Of honor; for the
J boy had put the mysteries Of his pro
. fession in an apocalypse.
"Give us one good healthy mind,
resumed Ezekiel, to think for US, and W,
will furnish dozen worlds, such as this
with thoughts to order Give-us such I
, man, and we will insure his life we viii
keep him alive forever among the living
He can't die, no way you can fix it
. when once we have touched him witt
, these bits Of inky pewter. lie shan't di'
nor sleep. We will keep his mind at worl
on all the minds that come to live here
as long as the world stands"
} " Ezekiel" | asked, in a subdued tom
ofreverence, will you printing thoughts
too"
+" Yes, that WILL" he replied, ="
you will think some Of the right kind. {"
Yes, that we will, echoed the press
man.
And / went home and thought, an
Ezekiel has printed my thought tracks
ever since.