The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-04-26
Humble Beginnings.
From tina Memoirs of Robert Chambers.l

From tina Memoirs of Robert Chambers.l
My progress in compositorship was
at first slow. / had to feel my way
A defective adjustment of the lines tC
uniform degree of tightness was my
greatest trouble, but this was got over.
The art of working my press had next
to be acquired, and in this there was
no difficulty. After an interval OF
fifty years, / recOllect the delight l
experienced in working off my first
impression; the pleasure since of see
ing hundreds OF thousands of sheets
pOring from machines in which /
claim an interest being nothing to it /!
If the young and thoughtless could
only be made to know this, s,Athe
happiness, the dignity of honest labor
conducted in spirit of self-reliance ;
the insignficance and probably tempo
rary character of untoward circum-
stances while there is youth, along
with willing heart; the proud salts
faction of acquiring by persevering in
dustry instead of by compassionate
donalion,- how differently would
they act!
l think there was degree of in
fatuation in my little attachment to
that jangling, creaking, wheeling
little press. Placed at the only win
dow in my apartment, within few
feet of my bed, 1 could see its outlines
in. the silvery moonlight when L
awOke; and there, at the glowing
dawn, did its figure assume distinct
proportions. When daylight came
fully in, it was impossible to resist
the desire to rise and have an hour or
two of exercise at the little machine.
With an imperfect apparatus, the
execution of my sOng-bOOk was far
from good. Still it was legible in the
old ballard and chap-bOOk style, and
was Obliged to be content. Little by
little, got through the small volume.
1t was q tedious drudgery. With my
limited font could set up no more
than eight small pages, forming the
eight part of a sheet. After printing
the first eight, had to distribute the
letter and set up the second eight, and
so on throughout hundred pages.
Months were consumed in the opera
ton. The number of copies printed
was seven hundred and fifty, to effect
which L had to pull the press twenty
thousand times. But labor, as already
limited, cost nothing. 1 set the types
in the intervals of business, particu-
larly during wet weather, when the
stall could not be put out, and the
press-work was executed late at night
or early in the morning. The only
outlay worth speaking of for the little
volume was that incurred for paper,
which 1 was unable to purchase in
greater quantities than few quires
at a time, and therefore at a consider
able disadvantage in price, but this
was only another exemplitication of
the old and too well known truth that
"the destruction of the poor is their
poverty" about which it was useless
to repine.
When completed, the volume need
ed some species of establishment, and
fortune helped me at this conjuncture.
There dwelt in the neighbOrhood a
poor but ingenious man, advanced in
life, named Peter Fyfe, with whom /
had already had some dealings. Peter,
q short man, in a secondhand suit OF
black clothes, and wearing white
neckcloth, which he arranged in loose
folds so as effectually to cover the
breast of his shirt, was from the west
country. He had been weaver's
reed-maker in Paisley, but having
been unfortunate in business, he had
migrated to Edinburgh, in the hope
of procuring some kind of employ
ment. Necessitous and clever, with
an ineXhaustible fund of drollery, he
was ready for anything artistic that
t,t Ia al
not want confidence. | am not aware
of any department, in the line or USE
full arts, of which he would have con-
fessed himself ignorant. AT this
period, when few knew anything OF
Iithography, and he knew nothing at
all, he courageously undertOOk, in
answer to an advertisement, to organ
ize and manage Il concern of that kind,
and by tact and intuition gave un-
qualified satisfaction. Peter was Just
the man / wanted. Although alto
gether unacquainted with copperplate
engraving, he executed, from the
descriptions L gave him, Il portrait Of
the Black Dwarf, from my account OF
thatsingular parsonage; which sketch
has ever since been accepted Us au
authority.
l now applied to this genius for a
wOOd-engraving for my song-book,
which he successfully produced, ami
for few shiilings additional he exc
cuted vignette representing some
national emblems. Invested with
these attractions, the song book was
soon put i'll boarsd, aud otherwise pre-
pared for disposal. L sold the whole
either in single copies at shilling, or
wholesale TO other stall-keepefs at a
proper reduction, and, after paying al
expenses, cleared about nine pounds
by the transaction.
& Nine pounds was not a large sum,
but it served an important end. L
was able to make some additions to
my scanty stock of types, which /
procured from an aged printer with a
decaying business. To be prepared
for executing pOsting-bills, L cut a
variety of letters in wood with chisel
and penknife. For such bold head
ing, therefore, as "NOtice," Found"
or DOG Lost" l was put to no straits
worth mentioning. One of my most
successful speculatiOnS was the cut
ting in wood of the words "TO Let"
in letters four inches long, an edition
of which disposed of by the hundred
at an enormous profit, to dealers who
sold such things to stick on the fronts
Of houses tn he let t...