The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-02-16

THE STORY OF HORACE GREELEY, AS RE
TOLD BY HIS OLD PAPER, THE TRIBUNE.

TOLD BY HIS OLD PAPER, THE TRIBUNE.
The bust of Mr.. Greeley, contributed
by practical American printers, has been
placed with appropriate exercises, above
his tomb. Such testimony OF respect,
pride and affection would be extremely
congenial to his tastes and sentiments II
he were with us, and the honor had
been deservedly accorded to another.
No man could be prouder of his origin
al profession. Long after he had aban'
doned its active exercise he showed In
hundred familiar ways his attachment
and his abiding sense of its Importance,
dignity and usefulness. He was fas-
tidious in his idea of good work, and
never very tolerant of botchers or OF
blunderers. Any grave mistake in typo
graphical composition or arrangement,
any fagrantly bad proof reading or
presswork, any inferiority of the mate
rails used, always sorely tried his pa
thence and not seldom got the better of
it. He had his own opinion of the
shape in which matter should be set,
and expected his workmen to conform
to it. It has been said of punctuation
that its main service is clearly to pre-
sent the thought of the writer. but Mr..
Greeley insisted upon such an arrange
ment of all the types as would most
strikingly present opinions, and especi-
ally the facts upon which they were
based. He never managed any journal
upon the physiognomy of which he did
not impress visible tokens of his typo
graphical taste. The practical printer,
about whose shabby coat his rivals
could never be sufficiently merry, was
almost foppish in his captions, his dis
tribution Of paragraphs, his use of nu-
merical figures and of capitals, his en-
ployment of italic and full-face letter.
We do not believe that Aldus the Elder
or Baskerville, neither of whom was q
working printer educated to the bust
ness, was nicer than Mr.. Greeley in his
ideal of handsome form. Scholar in
many branches of learning, and states
man by habit as he was, unlike many of
the early printers so called, he was me-
chemically skilled in all the branches Of
his trade-in presswork, composition,
making up, and proof reading. He
must rank with Plantin and his sons-in-
law, with Franklin, and with the IDIOTS.
Indeed, it was probably to his first
profession that he owed his success as q
public man and man of letters-at
least, the peculiar and distinguished
career which has inseparably connected
his name with American history. All
might have been different if, instead of
remaining to learn the art and mystery
of printing in the little Office at East
Poultney, VT, he had followed the hard
fortunes of his father and become till
err of the soil in Pennsylvania. "a
word from my mother" he said, after
ward. at the critical moment, might
have overcome my resolution; but she
did not speak it, and went my way"
He passed the drudgery of his appren-
ticeship amid the squalor and confu-
sion of an i'll arranged printing office,
the very place in which such confusion
always becomes worse COMPOUNDED. His
hands were blistered, his back was
famed by working the old-fashioned
two-pull Ramage press, machine
which, We suspect, has sent many prom
Using printers to early graves. Still he
worked on, reading or debating politi-
cal questions during his spare hours,
intensely interested in political contests,
and gradually acquiring that thorough
knowledge of public men and of public
affairs which were hereafter to distin-
guish him. Employment failed at last
in Poultney, and successfully in other
country offices in which it had been OBJ
tanned. CT would gladly" he subse-
quently wrote, have given faithful Ia !.
Dor at case and press through some
years yet at $15 per month and board;
but it was not to be had" New York
was to be tried; and the young country
printer made his slow journey by the
canal toward that city of refuge from
enforced idleness and starvation. He
came here twenty years old, with ten
dollars in his pocket ito use his own
words) ga decent knowledge of SO
much of the art of printing as a boy
would usually learn in the Office of
country newspaper" and with his per-
sonal estate tied up in his pocket hand
kerchief." Then the search for work
begun. Mr.. David Hale bluntly Or
dered him out of the Office of the Jour
nal of Commerce, presuming him to be
runaway apprentice; but finally he
found place in the Office of Mr.. West,
in Chatham street, and work in the COM
position of O 32mo New Testament,
agate-the most difficult composition,
on account of the references, which he
had ever undertaken. The remainder
of the story has often enough been told
by others, admirably by himself, and it
need not be here repeated. He was
master OF his business. He was thor
oughly enamored Of hard work. He
could live with the frugality of an An