Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882-10-15
nAILY POST lsfELLIGENOER.


INrHLLI0ENCER edltOrla rooui, - As"A
ago printing press, the date OF 'ns
manufacture Of which is unknown, Us IL
also the date Of its arrival on this coast
Il has an interesting history, sketch
Of which Appeared In the columns q
this Journal sbout year ago. II ID mol
our purpose to reproduce that article
Int il may not be ont Of place to re-
marx that Il did ssrvies for the Francis
ean monks Who founded the California
missions; that it sent out TO the ~oF'o
the fi,s. issues of she San Francisco
a,to calitorn;a; was utilized in found
inc the Oresoaion; is the press us'on
which the first copies Of the first paper
publishsd in Washington Territory. the
Pioneer Democrat, Of Olympia, we're
strnck of. and crowned it's long career
Of usefulness By ushering TO existence the
first Newspaper Published in Seattle the
Goseste, and, until the day when It was
rstired from ssryiee. did good and faith
sul work and Furnished clean impress
sioua. It stands, today. connecting
link between the past and present;
muta witness OF the march of improve
ment, Q page Of that illuminated missa'
wherein in recorded the wonderful pro
orsas of what has been not inaptiy
termed. "rhs Art preservative OF Arts.
10 trace the successive steps which
mark the development OF the art Oh
printing would DO to trench upon the
nrovince of the Encyclopaedia. Let II
suffice to say that with this old battered
Ramsae press, In the days of Its best
estate. an active man assisted by smart
boy, might in ten hours OF hard LABOR
have stricken of An edition OF lOoO cop
lea. Today modern press will do III
one minute what.it would have required
one hundred hours to do in the last cen
tury, or, 10 use the words OF another
$1,000 men with GOO presses would have
done very badly what ono Of these ma
chinss does very we'll now"
But it is not alone as IL Illustrating the
.,aat. indeed the almost inconoeivably
vast advance which human ingenuity,
aided BY the wonder working power OF
steam, has made in this potent inssru-
msnt for the diffusion Of knowledge,
that our old Ramage press 10 An object
Of interest.
Il in tho mute reminder Of other
changes, scarcely less remarkable than
those which have marked the transition
FROM the SCREW OK lever press Ut the
eighteenth century TO the multiple press
of tho nineteenth.
When the flag Of our country was an
infrsQuent visitor to these shores, our
old Ramags was borne piecsmeai on the
baokssof Flooding mules, accompanied
the Spanish Soldiers Of the Cross in their
weary jourueyines over the sandy dss-
erts and the frowning mountains OF
Mexico aud saw the white walls Of San
Gabriel, San Buenavsntura, Santa bar
bara and San Carlos rise like exhala-
tions in the wildernesses Of California,
which piety and zeal transformed into
gardens that bloesomed with tho rose and
were made fragrant with the flowers Of
the orange and the lemon, and beauti-
full with hedges Of pomegranate and
clustering rows Of vines.
1t has been the obedient servant Of
new civilization, which has seen the
work Of its first owners crumble beneath
The destroying touch OF time. leaving
only Wondering wallis to mark the site
Of palace and cathedrel. 1t listened to the
music of the mission bells, and heard
the thunder OF the alien cannon which
proclaimed tho passing away Of the era
which was inauguratOd when for the first
time they pealed DOT the Angelus.
Il was the register Of the DEGREES of
spiritual hierarchy and the recorder Of
the rescripts Of foreign monarchy. 1t
became the echo Of a vanquished past;
and with the advent Of another race, the
establishment Of another and . differ
emit system Of government, II was trans
formed into one Of the innumerable
messengers Of freedom, which day and
night cease not. but from the lakes
10 W. gulf and from the Atlantic to the
Pacific proclaim liberty throughout the
land to al the inhabitants thereof.
II heard the low plash Of the waves Of
Ne Bay Of Ban Francisco a. they rose
and fell with rhythmic regularity where
now stand the splendid temples Of .
world wide commence and the palaces
Of her merchant kings.
II sav the metropolis Of the Pacific
coast . village, aud heard the roar and
surge of the tens Of thousands who laid
broad and deep the foundations Of her
pssoont and future grandeur.
In looked down upon the placid waters
Of the Willamette whom they reflected =
few houses and an almost unbrokenjfor-
est. It heard the footsteps Of the pion
cor and saw tho retrsating moccasin
tracks Of the aborigine ~ he retired be-
fore the advsnt Of his traditional foe.
The still waters Of the Sound reflected
ito uncouth proportions while yet "the
Oldest inhabitaut" did not 20 mnch a.
dream that in littls moro than quar-
TOR Of century, the keels Of ships from
every known port Of the world would
traverss this splendid highway Of oom
nsros.
Il became the herald Of the foundins
Of this young city and was the potent In.
strumentality by which it, manifold At
fractions were Arst made known abroad.
Along the pathway that our old
Ramaae pess has traverssd. from
Mexico 10 PaRst Sound, ass scas.
tered the unnumbered graves Of those
whose hopes. whose fs~rs. whose joys
and whose SORROWS, whose high ambi-
tioos and whose unworthy aims, wsrs
paRt OF the history which il has record
81. Eyes which have grown dim Il
deAAA, have dropped tears ''fAxasl
I'm tbs Arabian tres its medicinal