The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-12-01
i. An OLD BOOK WORM.
WHAT he FINDS IN A BOOK BE-
SIDE THE LETTER PRESS.

Fortunes in Fine BooISs--Lavish Expend-
lures to Illustrate Modern Literature.
What New York Publishers Pay for
Engravings and Printing.
He was such queer-looking old gentleman
that the writer paused in his walk to examine
him moro closely He was standing in the
doorway OF one Of those dimly lighted book
stores which line Nassau street, between Full
ton and Ann, eagerly scanning the pages Of
hoary volume through his old-fashionod gold
spectacles His wide-awake straw hat had
drifted back to the apex of his crown. and
had anchored itself permanently among the
struggling strands of snowy hair which
caressed the frayed collar of his alpaca coat
His white wnistcoat was unbuttoned, and the
onds of the black silk handkerchief which
served him in lieu of nccktie bristled de-
family.
III have just made an astounding discovery,
sir, remarked the old gentleman. "Havo the
kindness TO look at this book and tell me what
you think of it,"
1t was one of set Of four volumes of the
works OF Pliny the Younger, published in
Strasbourg in 1870 The type was good and
tho book was in fair condition. The binding
was yollum, and four tiny strings of sheepsiin
hung from the corners In order that the
render might tic the volume up securely when
no was done with It. Thousands OF Just such
books may be seen any day exposed for sale
on the qunys at Paris. They are the out
scourings of the early French and German
printing houses, and can be purchased for o
few francs. The writer did not see anything
extraordinary about the book. and he said so
frankly.
BESIDE THE LETTER PRESS
Then the old gentleman chuclsled There
is something In book beside the letter press,
the printers name and the date he said.
aSee herei" and with that he gingcrly lifted
up the edge Of the vcllum binding and ex-
posed the fragments Of two or three sentences
inscribed upon it In black letter, with here
and there an illuminated capital rich in ara
besque and gliding.
That" declared the old gentleman, with
an air of triumph, after surveying the grabbed
scrawl critically for few moments, twas
originally missal transcribed with laborious
care by some Twelfth century monk in tho
secluslon of the scriptorium of medieval
cloister The old fellow probably took four
or five years TO complete IL.
II tell you there was some chance of man
writing n book that was Git 10 read when no
knew beforehand that it would take four or
five months to complete every single copy
that was exposed for sale
"Thero have been great changes in the pub
fishing business since / gave 1t up" he re-
marked with quaver In his voice, changes,
TO my mind, for the better One of my chief
objections to printing used to be that it did
away with all that was beautiful in books
What can compare in beauty with the Tenth
century missali The gospels inscribed In sill
yer and gold letters on purple vellum every
capital flower garden, and the very margin
glorious with parti-colored figures Of men,
birds, beasts and fishes. StiD, this objection
of mine Is slowly melting away. You see, In
my day the books we printed never had any
illustrations to speak Of A few wood cuts,
perhaps, and more rarely steel line engrav-
ing, and that was all
CHANGE IN BooKMAKING.
The old gentleman was right thirty years
has wrought marvellous change in book
making Photogravure and the wonderful
Ives process, by which fac-simile plate Is
produced directly from the object, have come
to the publishers aid. Etching has taken the
place of the old steel line engraving to cor
tain extent, and probably there arc not one
tenth as many steel eneravings produced an
nunlly now as there were ten years ago Only
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nromi.e Tho hooL os tho frt,'ra vii ;ndoad Ia
q marvellous D Ions nroduct,on ' - ''''''e' 80
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