American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-08-01
estates; which is good testimony that the

estates. SOOu ttSllIiohy 'h'' '>
GrecianS made use of them.
Later along down the highways OF
human invention and progress we ma
the PhRnicians making use OF maps as
guide to their commercial pursuits, IN
which they well-nigh monopoilzed the
trade of India-that inexhaustible source
of supply Sesostris, King of Egypt, also
caused his dominions to be mapped; and
Ptolemy Claudius, of Alexandria, issued
a map of the world, and twenty-six other
maps, on which to illustrate the sciences
of which he was master. Agathod;emon
was his craftsman Says Narro, the
Roman, issued maps of their conquered
countries; and, in the days of Caesar,
Peutenger drew map OF the world, so
called 1t was twenty-one feet long, ana
ONLY one foot wide. Its object appears
to have been to map the military routes
to Roman colonies; to which purpose
Europe, Northern Africa, and Western
Asia were distorted out of proportion
worse than some of the circular railroad
maps of our present day distort the States
through which they pass, to make their
own route appear the most direct
The Arabian scholars made use of the
maps of Ptolemy, and perhaps issued
others. But hiatus in map-literature of
several centuries succeeds the decline
and fall of the colossal power of Rome,
in which little but the germ-cells OF art
and science were preserved from de-
struction. These began to show them
selves in Venice, Germany, England,
France and Spain in the fifteenth cen
fury; and maps, with other literature,
made their temperance from these Ia
vored places. OF the early specimens OF
English maps the writer has many in his
possession, some of which are venerable
with the dust of two centuries. One OF
these is an atlas of the world. The en-
craving is respectable and the coloring
delicate; in which respect 1t Is more
artistic than some of the maps OF the
present day, in which an excess of collar
serves to conceal imperiections in en-
craving Thanks are due to Zebina
Eastman, who procured these maps Tor
me during his eight years COnsulship in
Bristol These early English maps were
engra d on copper-the use OF litho-
graphic .tone being then unknown; but
the commercial age fastened along, when
common people began to discard coarse
blouse-shirts for immaculate linen,
washed and starched with glossiness-
Alois Senfelder was one of these dew
otees to cleanly habitudes, and en-
ployed washwoman. He was also sys-
tematic in the method of doing business,
and invoiced his list of soiled linen as he
gave j. out.
On one occasion he happened to do this
on the smooth surface of apolished stone
in his possession. The facility with
which it took the impression suggested to
him the idea that printing could be done
on it, He tried his new plan and success
was the result. This invention, achieved
Rome and London introduced the new
| art in 1907, Paris in 1914, and the United
States in 1922 The result has been
cheap maps for the milliOn-a desidera-
tum auspIcious for the necessities of the
new States and growing cities of the
West.
The invention of transferring impress
sions from an engraving to polished
stone was not put in practice till about
1S45. BY this process as many small maps
| as the sheet will hold can be printed at a
single impression Steam-printing of
| maps is very recent inventiOn-scarce
| decade old. Small maps are rapidly
printed by this process for circular maps,
and any maps wanted in large numbers,
if not too large in size; but maps, par
| excellence, used in offices, and good
| pOcket-m maps, are printed on hand-presses
| at an expense at least ten times greater
than ordinary type printing. The colors
| are put on by hand with brushes, and not
printed, as some suppose. The drawing
| of maps is study which has tested the
| ingenuity of several generations.
| How to make spherical surface on a
superficial one-that is the problem
| On this subject it is proper to say that
| the map-drawers of to-day are working
on the plans our fathers gave us, such as
Mayer, Calico and Mercator. Arrowmith
| of England and the Coltons of the
| United States have been the foremost
map-men in English literature of the
present century, and it is only just
| tribute to them to say that their maps
| will be preserved in the archives of
| their respective countries as the most
faithful representations of their adj
vancement in arts of civilization; albeit
the field in the United States is too large
for one man, or for hundred. where
towns are springing into existence with
| a rapidity hitherto unparalleled in the
history of the world. To keep pace with
all these, and connect them with lines OF
railroad as fast as the COrnings, and
| Vanderbilts, and Scots and Thomsons
and thousand others of like ambition
build them is the work of the FESTIVE
map publisher, who never sleeps without
one eye open, and works in his harness
till he dies. Men may engage in almost
any other business and retire from it
but the man who has spent the best Of
his life in mapping the most progressive
country on earth can hardly be lureC
from the attractions which lead hin
along with the current of commerce an(
the destiny of his country.
-S