Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-06-30
VOL. XXXVII.
Secrets Of the Printing Office.

due appreciation for the honorable conf
dence which they have preserved in re-
gard to secrets with which they have nee
essarily been entrusted. Such case rs
this often happens. An article in news
paper or magazine makes what is called n
" sensation" 1t, is entirely anonymous,
and public curiosity is excited to the ut.
most to discover the name of the author.
The writer may be cabinet minister, n
high official, courtier, or any of the
thousand and enc persons who, if he were
suspected of writing for the press, would
at oEce lose his position, his of1ce-per
hapS his reputation. On the other hand,
the writer may be struggling author, u
hard working journalist, or mere litera-
ry amateur. In any case his secret is pre-
served; his anonymity is safe as long us il
is confined TO the printers.
Some years ago there was great stir
made about book entitled 'Ecce Homo" "
1t was clever work, and had an uneX-
ampled success. Who is the author?"
was the question ON everybody's lips.
Some scores of persons were named, and
they repudiatcd their participation in it.
All sorts of conjectures were hazardcd,
and no doubt large sums would have been
paid by several conductors of journals for
authentic information as to the name of
the author. Yet that name was known to
master printer, his overseer and ut 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 entirely independent Of
them. They had faithfully kept their
secret
Going back few years the authorship
of the "Waverly Novels" may be referred
to as Il remarkable incident of literal his.
tory. Sir Walter SCOTS authorship, al
though known by twenty persons, including
| Il number of printers, was SO well conceal
ed that the great novelist could not, even
in his matchless vocabulary, find words of
praise sufficient to express the sense of his
grateful nowledgcment and wondering
admiration for the matchlesS fidelity with
which the mystery has been preserved.
There is another species of secrecy
that relating to the careful supervision of
confidential public documents, books print
ed for secret societies, and the authorship
of articles or pamphlets, as already re-
ferred to, which has been most honorably
maintained. When treaties are prema-
turely 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 original. A case of this
| kind occurred a year or two ago, wherein
a convention between this country and
another power was revealed to one OF the
evening newspapers.
| In the foreign office, at Whitehall, 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, in
these days of journalistic competition, be
worth few hundred pounds. But such a
derei ction of duty has never yet occurred ;
it was clerk, and not Il compositor, who
betrayed his trust.
! Most honorable to the profession is the
story of Harding, the printer, who brave
| ly 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
ldivulge the name of the writer. Dean
|Swft, a church magnate, and a great wit,
who dressed himself in the disguise of n
low Irish peasant, sat by, and listening to
the noble refusal and the tender importu-
mites, only anxious that no word or glance
from the unfortunate printer should reveal
the secret. Swift was bent solely upon
securing his own safety at the expense oi
the printer; he covered before the lega
danger which Harding boldly confronted
The world has uuequally allotted the meet
of fame to the two combatants. The wi
and the printer both fought the battle fol
the liberty of the press, until the sense o
an outraged community released the
typographer from the peril 50 nobly en-
countered.
In thousands of other instances similar
fidelity has been exhibited. In short, it is
a part of the professional honor OF printer
not to disclose, either wontonly or from
venal motives, the secrets of any Office il
which he is employed.
There is also the allegiance which print
ers pay to their chief in not divulging i'm
portant intelligence. In some cases ;
, compositor is necessarily entrusted witt
an item of news which would be negotia
BILE Immediately and worth pounds to him
Seldom or ever is there betrayal OF trus
in this way. The examination papers
, printed so extensively in London, are o
the most tremendous importance to certai
classes, who would pay almost any sum t
obtain the roughest proof of the night be
+, fore. An instance Of this kind occurre,
quite recently. :" a printer was got at,
, and promised ~ considerable amount G
, money for Il rough proof What was hi
course of action2 He simply informed tn
authorities, and the tempter was punished
1t was another and creditable exampl
of how we'll and honorably kept are tn
!. secrets of the printing Office Londo
, Printer u1sd StGti0per.