The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1871-05-20
MISCELLANY.



tbs pen Of Benjamin F. Taylor, the
priuter ETZ
Perhaps there is no department Of en-
terprise whose details are less understood
by Intelligent people than the Fart pre-
seryatiyeH-the achievement of types.
Every day, their life long, they are
accustomed to read the newspapers, TO
find fault with its statements, itsarrange-
ments. its looks; to plume themselves
upon the discovery of some roguish aero
battle type that gets into frolic and
stands upon its head or of some waste
letter or two In it-bnt of the process
by which the newspaper is made, OF the
mvriads of motions and thousands OF
pieces necessary to its composition, they
know little and think less.
They imagine they discourse OF won
der. indeed, when they speak of the fair,
white carpet woven for thought to walk
on. of the rags that futtered on the back
Of beggar yesterday.
But there is something more wonder
full still When we look at the hundred
and ffty-two little boxes. somewhat
shaded with the touch of inky fingers,
that compose the printer lease noise
less, except the checking of type, as one
By one they take their places in growing
line-we think We have found the mar
vel OF the art
We think how many fragments there
are in the boxes how many atoms of
poetry and eloquence the printer can
make here aud there If he only had a
little chart to work by; how many facts
- !, . II
in chaos.
Now he picks up the scattered elements
until he holds. in his hand "a stanza of
"Grsy's Elegy, or monody on Grimes,
"AlI buttoned up before. Now iie sets
a..puppy missing aud now paradise
Lost !" ne arrays bride 10 "smsll caps,
and sonnet in "nonpariel;" he an
nounces the languishing live" in one
sentence-transpose the words, and de
plores the days that are few AID '.evil'' in
the next.
A poor jest ticks its way slowly into
the printer's hand. ike clock just run
Mug down, aud strain OF eloquepce
marches iDto line letter by letter. We
fancy we can tell the difference by hear
ing of the ear, but perhaps not.
day, announces a burial to morrow-per
haps the self same letters.
They are the elements to make world
of--those typos are world with some
thing in it as beautiful as spring, as rich
as summer, aud as grand as autumn flow
ers that frost cannot wilt. fruit that shall
riDen for all time.
The pewspapsSehas become the log
boak Of the age ~ tells at what rate the
is running we canuot mud our
, "reckoning" without it.
True, the green grocer may bundle up
9 pound OF candles in our last expressed
thoughts, but it is only coming TO base
uses. something that is done times innu
merable.
We console ourselves by thinking that
cue can make of that newspaper what
he cannot. make Of living oaks--a bridge
for time Mt he eau fling it over the
chasm Of the dead years and walk safely
hack upon the shadowy sea into the past.
sy,he singer shall not end his song, nor
the true soul be eloquent no more.
The realm of the press is enchanted
ground. Sometimes the editor has had
The happiness of knowing that be has
lfepded the right. exposed the wrong,
protected the weak !; that he has cheered
somebody 5 solitary hour, made some
body hapI~, kiDdIed smile upon sad
face, hope gu heavy heart.
He may meet with that sentiment
many yea6s after it may have lost all
charms ot>its paternity, but he feels af
lection for it. He welcomes it as long
absent child He reads it for the first
time. aud wonders if, indeed, he wrote
, it, for be has changed since then. Per
hans he could not give utterasce to the
s-Snment now-Tperhaps he would not if
ne could.
u seems like the voice of his former
self calling TO its parents, and there is
something mournful in its tone. He be
gins to thiDk--to remember why he
wrote it, where were hisreaders then, and
whittier they have gone-what was he
then, aud how much he has changed
So he muses., until he fuds himself won
dering if that thought of his will con
tinue to float after heis dead and wheth
or he is really looking upon something
the sweet consciousness that there is
nothing at all in tho sentence that he
could wish aewriiteD-that II is a better
part Of him--a shred from a garment of
immortality he should leave behind
when he joins the, '.inuumerable cara
van,p aud takes his place in the silent
halls of death.