Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-07-05
The Public Printer.

| Very few of the great mass of human
ity know who makes the beautiful pub
lie document with it's wealth of stats
tics. Few stop to think that hidder
away from the great work-a-day world
with eyelids heavy and red, and will
finger-na ails black with antimony, toll
ing on at his case hour after hour, the
Public Printer during the sessions o
Congress is setting up the thrilling
chapters Of the Congressional Record
and between times yanking the Wash.
ington press backward and forward
with his suspenders hanging down, as
he prints this beautiful seaside library
of song.
We are too prone to read that which
gives us pleasure without thought OF
| the labor necessary to its creation. We
glide gaily through the Congressional
Record, pleased with its more attrac-
tive features viz: its ayes and noes
little recking that Sterling P. Rounds.
the Public Printer, stands In the sub
dued gaslight with his stick half full,
trying to decipher the manuscript of
some recticent Representative whose
speech was yesterday delivered to the
janitor as he polished the porcelain GUS
pidore of Congress.
This is day and age of the world
when men take that which come to
them and do not stop to investigate the
pain and toll it costs. They never in
quire into the mystery of manufacture
or try to learn the details of its con-
struction. Most of our libraries are re-
plete with books which we have re-
ceived at the hands of a generous,Go
ernment, and yet we treat those vol
umes with scorn and contumely. We
jeer 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
stutfs 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 ov-
er lump of alum, takes chew of to-
bacco and puts in type these words of
wisdom from the lips of gray-bearded
savants, that knowledge may be scat
tered over the broad Republic. Pa
tiently 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 ant from our cold ham.
Thus these books are made which |
come to us wrapped in MANILA and
by the man we voted for last
fall. Beautiful Autographs, illustrat-
deck their pages. Rich oil paintings of
yaudy tobacco worms chase each other
from preface to errata. Magnificent
,hromos of the foot and mouth disease
appeal to us from page after page, and
statistics boil out between them. show
ng what per cent. of invalid or conva-
escent animals was sent abroad and
what per cent. was worked into oleo-
and pressed corn beef.
And what becomes of all this wealth
# information-thls mammoth aggre-
.ation Of costly knowledge.
Cast ruthlessly away by trif1ing. shall
ow, frivolous and Predetermined race!
1t is no more than right that Sterling
J. Rounds should know this. How it f.;
will gall his proud heart to know that {
lis beautiful books and his chatty and '
picy Congressional Record are treated S
y jeering, heartless throng! Doyou :
oppose that would perspire over !,
oubtful copy night after night and
hen tread job printing press all the
ext day printing books at which the +
loodless, soulless public sneered and 8
he broad browed talent of cruel gen. t
ration spit upon. Not exactly. tu
Ihave n moderate amount of patience a
nd self-control, but am free to say
ght here before the world that If I had !.
cen in Mr.. Rounds place, and had at =
raof eoaf erocfad n scientific xrorE ~, |
D 1.-THE Rise and Fall of Bolts in a
merica." and flippant nation of i
offers had utilized that volume to tt
-ess autumn leaves and scraggy ferns
!, I would rise in my proud might and
ash the forms with mallet. IwouldI
rk the lever of the Washington press Z
to the middle of the effulgent hence a