Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-10-16
miscellaneous.
dQ
-.-s-.- -------.-.-.- --.-- 49, ~ ------.
THE PRINTER.
The Joys and Sorrows Of his Che
guered Life.
from the Chicago TtiJune.l
THE TYPE STICEER.

! From the Chicago Tribioe.1
THE TYPE STICKER.
When old Gutenberg got off his first
crude idea of movable type he laid the
foundation not only of the part of printing,
but also of the printer, being who is in
I dispensable to modern civilization as the
steam-engine or courts of justice, and who
presents in himself 4 wider range and
greater variety of idiosyncrasies thar any
other creature in this world. There is not
in the world ut the present day class of
men better misunderstood than printers.
by most people they are looked upon as an
easy-going, anti-crusading set Of mortals,
who, Ignoring the errors of yesterday and
/ careless Of the responsibilities of tomorrow,
/ live but for the present and it's pleasures.
/ In this they are in the main wrong, though
it must be confessed that the shortcomings
ola few evil geniuses among the typ-setting
fraternity Of almost every place help to
create an incorrect general impression with
regard to the body. In whatever direction
the pccularities Of a printer tend, however
they are sure to be marked, and this it is
which makes him n prominent figure in
the circles in which the peculiar bent of his
! inclination places him. and which render
him very fair subject for a newspaper
article. One prominent feature of the
modern printers character is
HIS CLANNIsHNESs.
He possesses this quality to an extraQr-
dinary degree. The exclusiveness of the
Unions, and the stout bonds of friendship
which unites its members, are hardly eX-
celled by the same qualities in the members
of Free Mason, Odd Fellow, knight of
Pythias, or Fenian Lodge. These are of
Course feelings which the printers hold in
common, but the sources Of the wide varie-
ty of personal peculiarities are us numerous
as the peculiarities themselves. These
cannot unfrequently be traced to the i'm
pressions created by the copy that the type
setter has had to reproduce in the way of
| business. Thus the printer who spends
most of his time in setting up dry CONNER
cial reports and tables becomes before very
long
4 CONFIRMED MELANCHOLIC,
and in his spare time q searcher after the
mysteries of perpetual motion, the quadra-
ture of the circle, the tri-section of the rec
tangle. Beecher's innocence, or some other
no
up the original poetry for the Sunday pa
pers becomes a vapid nonentity, who is
continually amusing his fellOw-prnters
with mist quotations, from the poets, and,
who, while waiting for copy, devotes stray
minutes to storing his mind with Tupper
or the Bard of Michigan.
Another popularity which the men who
compose have and hold in common, and
which they promise never to part with, is
an
UNFAILING INPECUNIOSITY.
They are always hard up, and were it
not that an appeal from one printer to
another never goes unheeded, the number
Of suiciding compOstors would in a year
become something appalling. AS it is, the
impecunious printer, be his unfortunate
condition the result ofeither folly or misfor-
tune, never fails to find ready help among
his brethren of the stick.
The temptations to
A COUNTRY PRINTER
to come to the city are always very great.
In the first place, set he typo never so
swiftly, oe his proof never so clean, the
far-distant country type never earns much
higher wages than IS or 60 week, while
a city printers wages are fixed at S2l
week, and if working by the piece he can
be considered the intense anguish arising
from the setting up week after week of the
country EDITORS literary productions. 1t
must have been some knowledge Of this
peculiar kind of misery which induced Ar
temus Ward in his exquisite novelette, of
the Dock de Sassy TO make the evil genius
Of the plot, the "cruel pirate,' to prefer
sudden death to the lingering tortures
threatened Of being condemned for one year
to read the Canada papers. The "pirut''
might have been worse off than the Ameri-
can newspaper tipo, but when it is remen-
bered that the rustic journalist is, nine
times out Of ten, his own poet, that he con-
tributes largely of original matter to his
own columns Of faCetia, and indulges great
ly in the sentimental strain, even in the
most practical departments of his paper
it is not difficult to conceive the unhappy
state of mind of the man who converts the
copy into printed matter. There is no
escape for him. His doom is inevitable,
and at last he forms the resolve of hieing
him to the city and seeking work on one of
the daily papers.
THE TROUBLES AND CARES.
which await 4 young printer in a large
city, are manifold, and, unless he be made
of sturdy and tough material, mentally and
physically, he will probably rue the day in
which he sought for better fortunes and
fairer fate abroad. The first difficulty he
meets with is the securing of job, and
this is generally one which he had not an
ticipated. A country printer struggling
week after week with rustic editorial and
bucolic poesy in the wilds of Missouri hears
of the enormous number of publications
issued in Chicago, and the idea never en-