New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-03-13
Secrets OF Printing Onlces.
uonor.hl. Re.,e.nse OF Prsn,.r,.

The extension of education, which espe-
( cially marked the fifteenth century in Europe
had made manuscripts very valuable. and
some Of the earliest specimens Of. printing
were sold as manuscript, speefes of extra
remuneration which the printers were Justly
called to reap, for short time, as a repay
ment for the special difficulties under which
| they labored. The processes OF what was
! long termed the art and mystery ~ printing
were preserved rs n secret by Gutenberg,
Faust, and Schoefier, for a few years, (their
workmen being probably sworri,tp secrecy, }
but with no dishonorable intention, rs NAV
be inferred from the fact that the publications
of 1927 contained proud and a hDst boastful
assertion that they were manufactured BY me-
chanical means. Jensen was dispatched pri-
vately by the King of France IL study the
new art; but no greater secrecyie to be pre-
sumed from this than ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the
introduction of any new and useaul invention
that simplifes the manufacture Of any article
in general demand. From timefo time GER
tain distinguished typographers have endeav-
ored to preserve as secrets some special pro-
cess which they considered as giving them
particular advantages. Thus it is said that
Baskerville would not reveal the ingredients
OF the ink which, in his day, was considered
remarkable for its blackness, and that Ibarra
of Spain initiated his example while Bodoni
refused his most honored visitors admittance
into one room Of his printing Office, in which,
it is supposed, he adopted peculiar methods
for printing sheets. Even at the present day
some trade secrets are closely guarded, al
though many things are freely proclaimed.
Another species Of secrecy-that relating
to the careful subversion of confidential pub
lie documents, books being printed for secret
societies, and the authorship of pamphlets or
aftlplpS-hoG hnpn hOnnrq ly r,1i Mt in
ed. When treaties are prematurely published
IN newspapers the copy is obtained from some
leaky or venal official, and not from any of
the printers who set up and work Off the
original. So, too, where it is desirable to
conceal the authorship of articles or books,
this is rarely or never disclosed by printer
who becomes acquainted with ii In the exer-
else of his calling. Most creditable to the
profession is the story Of Harding, the printer,
who bravely bore imprisonment rather than
reveal the authorship of the DRAPER Letters :;
and the printer, sitting in his cell, calmly re-
fusing the entreaties Of friends, must stand in
far nobler light than the church magnate
and celebrated wit who, dressed in the dis
guise of low Irish clown, sat by listening to
the noble refusal and the tender importuni-
ties, only anxious that no word or glance
from the unfortunate printer should reveal
that beneath the rough dress of poor peas
ant was hidden Dean Swift himself, bent
solely upon securing his own safety at the
expense of the printer. Dean Swift covered
before the legal danger which Harding holdly
confronted; and unequally as the world has
allotted the need of fame to the two COM
batants, the wit and printer, both fought for
the liberty of the press, until the sense of an
outraged community released the typographer
from the peril he so nobly encountered. Sir
Walter Scott's authorship of the Waverly
Novels, although known by twenty persons,
including a number of printers, was so well
concealed that the great novelist could not
even in his great vocabulary find words Of
praise sufficient to express the sense of CRATE
full acknowledgment and wondering admira-
ton for the matchlcss fidelity with which his
mystery had been preserved. In thousands
of other instances, similar fidelity has been
exhibited; and it is a part Of the professional
honor of printer not to disclose, wantonly,
or from venal motives, the secrets Of any office
in which he is mployed.-Prmters' Circular.