Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-12-07
OR PuBLlC PRINTER.
The Great Work Accom- pltshed by HIM
and De rided by a Nation or sconrrs.

anu DtTIuSs1 Oy u "
Bill Nye in Laramie Boomerang
Very few of the great mass of human
ity krow who makes the beautiful public
document, with its plain. black binding
and It's wealth of statistics. Few stop
to think that. hidden away from the
great work a-day world, with eyelids
heavy and red, and with finger nails
black with anthony, tOlling on at his
case hour after hour, the public printer
during the session of Congress Is setting
up the thrilling chapters Of the Congress
sio,at Recor1i, and between times yank-
ing the Washington press backward and
forward. with hrs suspeRders hanging
down, as he prints this beautiful seaside
library of song.
We are too prsne to read that which
gives US pleasure without thought OF
the labor necessary to its creation. We
glide gailv through the fonqressteI1"f
Rerord, pleased with its more attract
i've features, viz, Its yeas and nays
little reckoning that Sterling =. Rounds.
the Public Printer, stands In the Snb-
uued gaslight with his stick half full
trying to decipher the manuscript of
some reticent Representative. whose
speech was yesterday delivered to the
ianitor as he polished the porcelain GUS
pidor of Congress,
This il 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 IN:
quire into the mystery of manufacture,
or try to learn the details of its con-
structiOn. Most of our libraries are re-
plcts with books which We have received
1T the hands of generous government,
and yet We treat those volumes with
scOrn and contumely. We jeer at the
foot sore 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 ear the etOmologlst treads
the same weary road with his balt-bOx
tied to his waist, woOihg to his labOra-
tory 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 i'll his
case, rubs his fingers and thumb over a
lump of chalk takes a chew of tobacco
and puts in type these words of wisdom,
frem the lips of gray bearded savans,
that knowledge May be scattered over
the broad Republic. Patiently be goes
sorbed way, while we, gay, thOughtless
III )rtals, wear out the long summer day
at a basket picnic, with deft timers &C.
| T.. - L., ~ snId har
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
tObOccO 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
percentage was worked into oleomarga-
rine and pressed corn beef.
And what becomes of all the wealth
of information this mammoth aggre-
CATION of costly knowledge!
Cast ruthlessly away by trlfling,
shallow, frivolous and tickle minded
race.
1t is no more than right that Sterling
p. Rounds should know this. How it
will gall his proud heart TO know his
beautiful books and his chatty and
spicy Congressional Record are treated
by a jeering, hearthless throng. Do you
suppose that | would perspire over
doubtful copy night after night and
then tread job printing press all the
next day printing books ut which the
bloodless. soull.ss public sneered aad
the broad -browed talent of cruel
generation spit upon? Not exactly.
Ihave moderate amount of patience
and self control, but l am free to say
right here before the wsrld that if |
had been in Mr.. Il ,und's place, and had
At Il great cost erected scientific work
upon " The Rise and Fall of Bolts in
America" and a fiippant nation Of
scott srs had utilized that volume to
press autumn leaves and scraegy ferns
in, | would raise in my proud might
and mash the form with mallet.
would jerk the lever OF the Washington
Eres, into the middle of the effulQent
hence. would kick over my case,
wipe the roller on the frescoed walls,
aud 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 disregarded and derided.
Think of this, dear reader, when you
look carelessly over the brief but won
derful career of the hop louise. or with
apparent ennui dwaddle through the
/ treatise on collie among silk worms and
facial neuralgia among fowls.
This will not only please Mr.. Rounds.
the young and struggling compositor.
| but it will crafty and encourage all the
friends of American progress and the
lovers of learning throughout our whole
land,