St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-08
AoLLY Ca, .4o,4rDRs.
A Little Chat About Those Who
Toll when Others Sleep.

Printers are unlike other classes of work.
men. Their vocation imparts to them an
intelligence which does not result from any
other business. Dealing with language ex-
clusively, in combination of letters, words,
sentences and paragraphs, they are con-
stantly brought in communication with
thoughts and their workings, and thus al
most insonsibly become imbued with the
ideas of those minds whose creations they
help to embody into those forms that give
them to the world. They literally get gram
mar at their fingers ends, while picking up
the types that form sentences that are gram
NAUTICAL Spelling comes to them as natur-
ally as breathing, for they fall into correct
photography through force of habit. The
characteristics of printers are not SO favor
able to personal thrift as those OF other pro-
fessions. They partake of the nature of
the artist in a certain degree, and are gen
orally liberal to fault thoughtless OF the
future and frequently improvdent in the
present, flush" when in good situations,
and dead broke" when on the tramp. The
printers who do not look upon the wine
when it is red are the exceptions instead OF
the rule. They may truly be said to be the
working Bohemians of the world OF indus
try. A Telegraph reporter took a seat i'll
the City Hall park one day recently beside
printer who has
BEEN THROUGH MOST OF THE STATES
of the Union, working at his trade in the
larger cities, and who knows nearly all the
old-time printers in the United States.
''How's work at your trader" the re-
porter asked.
Pretty dull-very dull, indeed. The
printers trade is growing worse every year.
I remember ten or fifteen years ago, when
working on Western papers (the Cleveland
Herald. Louisville Courier-J ournal, and De
troit Free Press among the rest. never
thought of drawing less than $35 to $40 for
a weeks work. Now, SIS to $25 is con-
sidered a good weeks work, and it is hard
to secure situation even at that. Inc
halcyon days for the printers have all passed
by
''How do you account for the depres-
sion?"
''In several ways. In the first place there
are too many printers for the amount OF
work to be done. Apprentices are being
turned out too fast. Runaway apprentices
flock here to New York and other large
cities and take the bread out of the mouths
of men who have spent all their lives at the
CdSt dllu dlC Shll1Cu NOlhliOu. u SooSA iiAe'iiJ
offices employ girls instead of men, and the
New York Tribune and some other offices
ARE USING TYPE-sETTING MACHINES,
thus throwing men out OF employment.
And the system of stereotyping in large
book publishing houses is an injury to the
printers. If the books were not stereo-
typed each edition would require the reset
ting OF the types. l am old and gray now,
as you can see, although was once one of
the fastest compositors in the country, and
| do not expect to see any improvement in
my time. 1t will require years OF work by
our unions to mend matters"
(which are the best cities for printers?"
"Probably the four cities in America in
which printers can make the most money
are in New York, Chicago, New Orleans,
and Denver. There is no doubt but that
Buffalo is the very worst city printer can
strike and Cleveland isn't much better
''Who, in your opinion is the fastest
workman in American"
well, Mccain of the New York Herald
has now the credit Of being the fastest com
position in the world. In match race with
Ira Somers, formerly of the World, for $500
a side, he won the match, and beat all pre-
vious records. He averaged about 1890
ems of type per hour for three hours. In
order to accomplish this feat he had to pick
up over 5000 type each hour, arrange them
correctly in his stick. aud properly space
out the lines. This seems an almost in
credible feat at first sight, but he accom-
plished it, George Ahrensburg, now Of the
New York Times, had the best previous
record. The printers employed in the
World Office are trying to arrange match
c;5 bnty RarnQc nf tho World
and Mccain of the Herald 1t is claimed
that in a private trial held in the Times
office few days since Barnes broke the
record made by Mccain by 100 ems per
hour. Among the other fast compositors
in America are ''Vic" LOOMS of the New
York World, George Duegood of the Gin
cnnati Enquirer, John Rogers of the Buff
falo Times, Paul Jones of the Detroit Free
Press, and White of the Toronto World.
But so much talking makes me dry"
The reporter took the hint, and the
printer wasn't so dry.-New York Tele-
graph.