The Evening critic., 1883-06-27
OUR PUBLIC PRINTER.
Bill Nye's Plen For MIR. Rounds
what the IIumorist Advises Him

Bill Nye's Plea For MIR. Rounds
What the IIumOrist Advises Him
TO DO.
Very few OF the great mass OF humanity
know who makes the beautiful public docu-
ment, with Its plain, black binding and Its
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 antimony, toiling on at his
case hour after hour, the Public Printer,
during the session of Congress, is setting up
the thrllt9g chapters Of the Cor
yankiDg the Washington press backward and
forward, with his suspenderS handing down,
as he prints this beautiful seaside library of
song.
We are too prone to read that which gives
ue pleasure without thought of the labor nec-
essary to Its creation. We glide gally through
the Congressional Record, pleased with Its more
attractive features--viz, Its ayes and noes
little recking that Sterling P. Rounds the Pub
lie Printer, stands in the subdued gaslight
with his stick half full trying to cipher the
manuscript of some reticent Representative
whose speech was yesterday deliyered to the
tenitor as he polished the porcelain cuspidor
This is day and age OF the world when
men take that which comes to them and do
not stop to investigate the pain and toll 1t
costs. They never inquire into the mystery
OF manufacture or try to learn the details OF
Its 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 con-
tumely. We jeer at tho 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 sturs the
woodtick and paints the gaudy wings of the
squash bug that we may know how often she
crates.
Year after year the entomoiogist 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
rice, flourish and decay.
Then tho Public Printer throws In his case,
rubs his finger and thumb over a lump OF
alum, takes a chew Of tobacco 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. Patiently he
goes on with the click of type, anon In an alb
sorbed 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 franked by the
man we voted for last fall. Beautiful litho.
graphs, illustrating the different stages of
hog cholera, deck their pages. Rich oil paint
tDgS OF gaudy tobacco worms chase each other
from preface to errata. Magnificent chromos
OF the foot and mouth disease appeal 10 us
from page after page, and statistics boil out
between them, showing what percentage of
invalid or convalescent animals was sent
abroad and what percentage was worked into
And what becomes Of all this wealth OF In.
formation-thls mammoth aggregation of
costly knowledgeg
Cast rnthlessly away by trialng, shallow,
frivolous and freckle- minded race.
1t is no more than right that Sterling p.
Rounds should know this. How 1t will gall
his proud heart to know that his beautiful
books and his chatty and spicy Congressional
Record are treated by a 1eering, heartless
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 at which the bloodless, soulless
public sneered and the broad -browed talent of
cruel generation spit upon? Not exactly.
have moderate amount OF patience and
self-control, but / am free to say right here
before the world that II I had been In Mr..
Rounds place, and had at q great cost erected
a scientific work upon "The Rise and Fall OF
Bolts in America" and a hippant nation of
scoffers had utilized that volume to press
autumn leaves and scraggy ferns In, would
with mallet. would Jerk the lever OF the
Washington press into the middle OF the eiful-
gent hence. 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 rudeiy disregarded and
derided.
Think OF this, dear reader, when you look
carelessly over the brief but wonderful career
OF the hop louise, or with apparent ennui daw-
die 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 Ameri-
can progress and the lovers OF learning
throughout our whole land.