Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-06-20

the details Of its construction. Most of
our libraries are replete with books which
we have received at the hands of gen
erous government, and yet we treat those
volumes with scorn and contumely. We
jecr at the footsorc bugologist who has
chased the large. green worm from ticc To-
tree, In order that we may be wise. We
speak sneerlngly of the man who stuffs
the woodtick and paints the gaudy wings
of the squash bug that we may know how
often she crates.
Year after year the entomologist treads
the same weary road with his bait box
tied to his waist, wooing to his laboratory
the army worm and the sheep scab Larvae
In order that we, poor particles on the
surface OF the great earth, may know how
these minute creatures rise, flourish and
decay.
Then the public printer throws in his
case, rubs his finger and thumb over a
lump of alum, takes chew of tobacco
and puts in type these words of wisdom
from the lips of gray-bearded savants,
that knowledge may be scattered over
the broad republic. Patiently he goes
on with the click of type, anon in an
absorbed way, while we, gay, thoughtless
mortals wear out the long summer day at
a basket picnic, with deft fingers selecting
the large red ant from our cold ham.
Thus these books are made which come
to us wrapped in MANILA and franked by
the man we voted for last fall. Beautiful
Autographs, illustrating the different
stages of hog cholera, deck their pages.
Rich oil paintings of gaudy tobacco
worms, chase each other from preface to
errata. Magnificent chromos of the foot
and mouth disease appeal to us from page
after page and statistics boil out between
them, showing what per cent. OF invalid
or convalesccnt animals was sent abroad
and what per cent. was worked into oleo-
margarine and pressed corn beef.
And what becomes of all this wealth of
information-this mammoth aggregation
of costly knowledge
Cast ruthlessly away by trifling, shall
low, frivolous and predetermined race!
1t is no moro than right that Sterling
z. Rounds should know this. How it will
gall his proud heart to know that his
beautiful books and his chatty and spicy
Congressional Records are treated by a
jeering, hcartless throng! DO you sup
pose that would pcrspirc over doubtful
copy night after night and then tread u
job printing press all the next day print
ing books at which the bloodless, soul
less public sneered antrthc broad browed
talent of u cruel generation spit upon?
Not exactly.
have q moderate amount Of patience
and selfcontrol, but am free TO say right
here before the world that if had been
in Mr.. Rounds place, and had at great
cost erected scientific work upon "The
Rise and Fall of Bolts in America" and a
fiippant nation of scoilers had utilized that
volume to press autumn leaves and scrag-
ely ferns in, l would rise in my prond
might and mash the forms with mallet.
l would jerk the lever of the Washington
press into the middle of the effulgent
hence. l would kick over my case, wipe
the roller on the frescoed walls, and feed
my statistics to the hungry flames.
No publisher has ever been treated more
shabbily, no compositor has, in the history
of literature, been more rudely disregard
ed and derided.
Think of this, dear reader when you
look carelessly over the brief but wonder
ful career of the hop louise, or with APP
parent cnnui dawdle through the treatise
on collie among silk worms and facial neu-
ralgia among fowls.-Bill Nyc.