American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-09-12
THE ADVENTURES OF A RAG.


finished its travels because it is made into
nice white paper. Far from it! AT this
point in its history it has a short rest
merely before taking Il travelling COM
panion and going on with its journey.
What sort of companion should you
suppose a sheet of white paper would
like? Something nice and white and
dainty like itself?
Well, l don't know what the paper
would select, if it had the choice, but the
companion that men select for it is black
and sticky; and once bound together for
life-married, you may say-they are a
thousand times more valuable than be-
fore. Instead of being mere white paper
and sticky black ink, they become dear
friends and companions to men and
women, as well as to girls and boys.
Don't you love your books? OF course
l don't mean your study boOks-you're
too young to love them much yet-but
your story books? And wouldn't you
like to go to printing office and see how
the types that were made IN the NTH
story and the paper and the ink are put
together to make Il book?
You'd never think they were making
books if you went into that long, light
room, with IA drOll-looking frame stand
ing by each window, and before each
frame Il man at work.
You'd never guess what he was doing,
his hands fly so fast over the frame. But
go nearer, and see what funny frame it
is, full of tiny boxes, each half full of
type. On he goes, snatching type from
this box, and then from that, so fast that
you can hardly count them.
He don't look at them either but just
stands them up in a sort OF box he has
in his left hand, while he all the time
looks at a strip of paper stuck up IN the
frame before him. That strip of paper
is his 6 copy''-that is, the story as the
author wrote it-and the workman is
setting it up In type-that is, copying in
printing-type every letter, comma or
other mark on the paper.
The box into which he puts the type is
Just the width of the columns in the
book he is making. When it is full he
lays it on bench, lifts out the square
block of type-and stands it on a long,
shallow sort of trough, where it stands
safely. AS soon as there's enough on the
trough g. galley" the men call iD to
make page of the book he puts at the
top of it the number of the page and the
name of the book, or of the chapter.
This is called the g running title" Then
he ties cord around the block of solid
type as it stands, and he can carry it
about if he wishes.
Having tied up as many blocks of type
as there are pages to IA sheet-which de-
ponds on the size of a page, you know
he stands them in their places so as to
leave margins between them, puts an
iron frame over them, and wedges them
tightly in their places! Then they are
ready for the printer.
There are several ways of printing,
from the ld-fashiOncd hand-press to the
lightning steam-prcss that takes the roll
OF damp paper at one end, and throws
out the sheets, printed on both sides and
cut apart between the sheets, and SO fast
you can hardly count them.
1t would take IA whole book to tell all
about the printing press. Indeed, there
have been ii great many written on the
subject; so if you want to know all the
particulars / refer you to the wise books,
while we go on with the story of the book.
For, however it is done, the process OF
printing consists merely of putting ink on
the types and pressing them on the paper.
The type-setters work so fast they are
apt to make mistakes, and sometimes,
they do say-but l think it must be
authors write SO lndlstinct-
ly that their manuscripts can't be read.
Dreadful mistakes sometimes occur in
setting up type, so before they print the
book it is necessary to see that no mis-
takes are left, no letter out of place. and
none standing on his head as if he was Il
circus performer.
1t would be an awful bother, you know,
to examine that tramcful of type letter
by letter; SO they print off Il copy on
sheet of paper, and then all the blum
ders come to light.
Now comes hard work. Somebody
they call him a proof-reader-must take
that sheet and correct every error; that
is, he must mark the corrections on the
margin. He has a boy to read the man
uscript while he corrects.
This boy is called reading boy, and
he's the funniest reader you ever heard.
He wouldn't stand 100 in your school, for
he reads the words as though they had
no meaning, naming every punctuation
mark and stopping for nothing.
Often there are two or three boys IN
one room reading as fast as they can at
the top of their voices, and each proof
reader works steadily away undisturbed
by the confusion around him.
If you should happen to go into such
place you'd feel as though you wanted
to put your hands over your ears and
run before you lost your wits.
When the errors are corrected on the
paper it is sent to the type-scttcr, and
he corrects them in the type. Looscning
the type so he can get out the trouble
some letters, he takes IA bodkin or other
sharp tool, and, commencing at the top
of the page he takes out and puts in and
correctS every error.
Then he takes another proof, and the
proof reader goes over it again. After
this it is supposed to be correct and is
ready to print
If it is to be clectrotyped, as many
and papers are, it goes to that
fifth story we told you of before
Putting the type back into the cases,
" Distributing as they call it, is as funny
to see as " setting up The type being
washed clean from ink, the workman
takes up handful on his rule, takes
!; word or So in his fingers, looks to see
what it is, and then jerks the letters Oh
into their proper boxes faster than you
can spell the words. He can distribute
eight or ten thousand in an hour.
Now you must admit we've got our
new pair fairly joined for life, past the
power of anything to separate, and
they're not mere white paper and
printers ink-they are the guardians of
ideas. They have charge of the wisdom
of the ages, and it is for them to preserve
il safely, and carry it down to our chill
drcn-that means y0u.
In old times il was not such short
work to Join these two for life. In the
first place, there was no printing press;
in the second place, there were no type
Every book was a separate work.
Often IA man spent the leisure OF a whole
life making one book Not 5nriting ii,
mind, but merely putting it into the
shape OF Il book.