The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-06-04
SECRETS OF THE PRINTING OFFICE.
One Class of Mem Who Were Never
Known to Betray Professional Com
fiGeMce.

One Glass of Mem who Were Never
Known to Betray Professional Com
fidemce.
from the London Printer and Stationer.l
Printers have never, we think, re-
ce1yed due appreciation for the honora-
bic confidence which they have preserved
III regard to the secrets with which they
have been intrusted. Such a case as
this often happens. An article in
newspaper or magazine makes what is
called q " sensation" It is entirely
anonymous, and public curiosity is ex-
cited to the utmost to discover the name
OF its author. The writer may be
Cabinet Minister, high official, q court
Ter, or any of the thousand and one per-
ssns who, If he were suspected of writ
ing for the press, would at once lose his
position, his Office perhaps his reputa-
ton. On the other hand, the writer
may be struggling author, hard
working journalist, or mere literary
amateur. In any case his secret is pre-
served; his anonymity is safe as long as
it is confded to the printers.
Some years ago there was great stir
made about q book entitled "Ecce
Homo. 1t was clever work, and had
an unexampled success. "Who is the
author?' was the question on every
body's lips Some scores of persons
were named, and they repudiated their
participation in it. All sorts of coniect-
ures were hazarded, and no doubt large
sums would have been paid by several
conductors of journals for authentic in
formation as to the name of the author.
j Yet that name was known to MASTER
printer, his Overseer, and at least some
OF the compositors, but it was never re-
vealed. When the name was published,
it was not through the fundamentally
Of the printers, but entirely independ-
ent of them. They had faithfully kept
their secret.
Going back o few years, the author
ship of the Waverly Novels may be
referred to as a remarkable incident of
Literary history. Sir Walter SCOTS
authorship, although known by twenty
persons, including number of printers,
was SO we'll concealed that the great
novelist could not, even in his match
less vocabulary, find words of praise suf-
fcient to express the sense of his CRATE
full acknowledgment and wondering
admiration for the matchless fidelity
with which the mystery had been pre-
served.
There is another species of secrecy
that relating to the careful supervision
of confidential public documents, books
printed for secret societies, and the au-
thorship Of articles or pamphlets, as al
DIV 10 oh 1oc 0o4
honorably maintained. 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 or work off the orig
inal. A. case of this kind occurred year
or two ago, wherein a convention be-
tween this country and another power
was revealed to one Of the evening news
papers. Inthe Foreign Office, at White
hall, there is regular staff of printers
always at work, and if these men liked
they might let out secrets of the most
momentous kind, any one of which
would, perhaps, ia these days of Journal
istic competition, be worth few hun
bred pounds. But such dereliction of
duty has never yet occurred it was a
clerk, and not a compositor, who be-
trayed his trust. 2 ~
Most honorable to the profession is
the story of Harding, the printer, who
bravely bore Imprisonment rather than
reveal the authorship of the celebrated
DRAPER letters. The printer sat in
his cell calmly refusing the entreaties of
his friends to divulge the name of the
writer, Dean Swift, church magnate,
and great wit, who dressed himself in
the disguise of low Irish peasant, and
sat by, listening to the noble refusal and
the tender opportunities, only anxious
that no word or glance from the unfort-
innate printer should reveal the secret.
Swift was bent solely upon securing his
own safely at the expense of the printer J;
he covered before the legal danger which
Harding boldly confronted. The world
has unequally allotted the need of fame
to the two combatants. The wit and the
printer both fought the battle for the
liberty of the press, until the sense of
an outraged community released the
4 typographer from the peril SO nobly ell
4 countered. D p T Ek~t',&
There is also the allegiance which
printers pay to their chief, in not di-
vulging important intelligence. In some
cases compositor is necessarily in
trusted with an item of news which
would be negotiable Immediately, and
worth pounds to him. Seldom or ever
is there a betrayal Of trust in this way,
The examination papers, printed SO ex-
tensively in London, are of the most
tremendous Importance to certain
classes, who would pay almost any sum
to obtain the toughest proof the night
before. An instance of this kind oc-
CURED quite recently. A printer was
"got at, and promised considerable
amount of money for a rough proof.
What was his course of action? He
simply informed the authorities, and the
i tempter was punished It was another
and a creditable example of how well
and honorably kept are the secrets of
the printing office.