The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-06-03
PRINTING oFFrCE sEcRErs.
One Glass OF Men who Were Never
Known 60 Betrey Professional Con n
dence.

One Glass OF Men who Were Ncvc,
Known 60 Betrey Professional Con n
denco.
Printers have never, we think, re-
ceived due appreciation for the honor.
able confidence which they have pre-.
served in regard to the secrets with
which they have necessarily been in
trusted. Such case as this often hap.
| pens. An article in a newspaper or
magazine makes what is called "sen-
sation." 1t is entirely anonymous, and
| public curiosity Is excited to the utmost
to discover the name of its author. The
writer may be cabinet minister, high
| official, a courtier, or any of the thou
sand and one persons who, if he were
suspected Of writing for the press, would
at once lose his position, his office-per-
haps his reputation. On the other hand,
the writer may be struggling author,
Woodworking journalist, or mere
literary amateur. In any case his secret
is preserved; his anonymity is safe as
long as it is confided to the printers.
Some years ago there was great stir
made about book entitled "Ecce
Homo" 1t was clever work, and had
an unexampled success. "Who is the
authorP' was the question on every
body's lips. Some scores of persons
were named, and they repudiated their
participation in it. All sorts of con-
lectures were hazarded, and no doubt
large sums would have been paid by
several conductors of journals for au-
thentic information as to the name of
the author. Yet that name was known
to master-printer, his overseer, and at
least some of the compositors, but it
was never revealed. When the name
was published, it was not through the
instrumentality of the printers, but en-
tirely. Independent of them. They had
faithfully kept their secret.
Going back few years, the author
ship of the Waverly Novels" may be
referred to as remarkable incident of
literary history. Sir Walter Scott's
authorship, although known by twenty
persons. including number of printers.
was so well concealed that the great
novelist could not, even in his matchless
vocabulary, find words of praise suffi-
cient to express the sense of his grateful
acknowledgment and wondering admir-
alton for the matchless fidelity with
which the mystery had been preserved.
There is another species of secrecy
that relating to the careful supervision
OF confidential public documents, books
printed for secret societies, and the au-
thoIship of articles or pamphlets, as
already referred to, which has been most
honorably maintained. When treaties
are prematurely published in newspa-
pers the copy is obtained from some
leaky or venal official, and not from any
OF the printers who set up or work off
the original. A case of this kind oc-
Cured year or two ago, wherein a
convention between this country and
another power was revealed to one OF
the evening newspapers. In the for
eign office, at Whitehall, there is a regu-
lar 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, in
these days of journalistic competition,
be worth few hundred pounds. But
such a dereliction of duty has never yet
occurred; it was clerk, and not COM
positor, who betrayed his trust.
Most honorable to tie profession is
the story of Harding, the printer, who
bravely bore imprisonment rather than
reveal the authorship of the celebrated
Drapier" 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 a great wit, who dressed himself in
the disguise of q low Irish peasant, and
sat by, listening to the noble refusal and
the tender opportunities, only anxious
that no word or glance from the unfor-
tunate printer should reveal the secret.
swift was bent solely upon securing his
own safety at the expense of the printer;
he Iwed before the legal danger which
Harding boldly confronted. The world
has uneqnally 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
typographer from the peril so ncbly
encountered.
In thousands of other instances SINH
lar fidelity has been exhibited. In sholt,
it is part of the professional honor of a
printer not to disclose, either wantonly
or from venal motives, the secrets Of
my office in which he is employed.
There is also the allegiance which
pri tiers pay to their chief, in not di-
vulging important intelligence. In
Some cases compoSitor is necessarily
il.trusted with an item of news which
would be negotiable Immediately, and
worth pounds to him. Seldom or ever
ls there betrayal Of trust in this way.
The examination papers, printed so ex-
tensively in London, are of the most
tremendous importance 10 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 rough proof
What was his course of actionP He
simply informed the authorities, and
the tempter was punished. II was an
other and a creditable example of how
vel and honorably kept are the secrets
of the printing Office. London Printer
and Snfioter