San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-07-12
TIE PUBLIC PRINTER.
nv Bill Ne.

est;cs Few stop to think that hid
1 ,sn away from the great work.a-day
a "o,ld, with eyelds heavy and red,
.nd with finger-nails black with anti
s 'aony. telling on at his case hour
sasr hour. the public printer during
,Ss sessions of congress is setting up
.hs thrilling chapters of the Congress
;nnal Record, and between times
SManking the Washington press back
Yard and forward with his suspenders
hanging down, as he prints this beau
tful seaside library of song.
We are too prone to read that which
nves us pleasure without thought of
sbe labor necessary to its creation.
We glide gaily through the Congress
anal Record. pleased with its more
attractive features-viz.: its ayes and
noes-Gttle rocking that Sterling P.
Rounds, the Public Printer, stands in
the subdued gaslight with his stick
half full, trying to decipher the man.
nscript of some reticent Representa-
five whose speech was yesterday de-
Ivered to the janitor as he polished
the porcelain cuspidore of Congress.
This is a day and age of the world
when men take that which comes to
them and do not stop to investigate
the pain and toll it costs. They never
inouire into the mystery of manufac-
ture or try to learn the details of it's
construction. Most of our libraries
are replete with books which we have
received at the hands of generous
government, and yet we treat those
Volumes with scorn and contumely.
We ieer at the footsore bugologist
who has chased the large, green worm
from tree to tree, in order that we
may be wise. We speak sneeringly
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 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 basket pic
mic, with deft fingers selecting the
large red antfrom our cold boiled ham.
Thus these books are made which
come to us wrapped in MANILA and
ranked by the man we voted for last
fall. Beautiful Autographs, illustrat-
ing the different stages of hog cholera,
deck their pages. Rich oil paintings
of gaudy tobacco WORMS chase each
other from preface to errata. Mag.
nifcent chromos of the foot and
mouth disease appeal to us from page
after page and statistics boil out be-
tween them, showing what per cent,
Of invalid or convalescent animals
was sent abroad and what per cent.
was worked into oleomargarine and
pressed corn beef.
And what becomes of all this
wealth of lnformation-this mann
moth aggregation of costly knowl-
edge?
Cast ruthlessly away by trit1ing,
shallow, frivolous and predetermined
race!
It is no more than right that Ster-
ling P. Rounds should know this
How it will gall his proud heart to
know that his beautiful books and his
chatty and spicy Congressional Record
are treated by jeering, heartless
throngl Do you suppose that | would
prespire over doubtful copy night after
night and then tread job printing
press all the next day printing books
at which the bloodless, soulless public
neered and the broad-browed talent
Of a cruel generation spit upon? Not
exactly.
! have a moderate amount OF pa
tence and self-control, but | am free
to say night here before the world that
if l had been in Mr.. Rounds place
and had at great cost erected scien,
tfc work upon 1.-THE Rise and Fan Of
Bolts in America" and a hippant