Mexico weekly ledger., 1886-05-13

parent defects or create the necessary
Invention, 1t has already done every"
thing, but invest iron aud steel with
consciousness aud intelligence. The
highest attainabie perfection In all that
IL essential aud useful In the mechanics
Of printing has boen attained, The next
point to he reached or advance to be
made, Is toward the artistic and aesthet-
ic grade of the art. The incipient stages
of this have already been passed, and 1t
has reached a point where 1t Is universal
ly recognized a. an art, and where to use
the language of another Oh this subjsct,
sin its cultivation demands nj admits
all elements Of beauty, form, figure, pro-
portion, drawing, design, light, shade,
color, relief~~as much SO rs painting
and when all the possibilities of the art
are called into requisition, II Is difficult
To produce an art work from the paint
el's pencil or the sculptot's chisel more
beautiful than the Illuminated page that
falls from the printing press. In this
view printing is not only an art but Is
justly entitled to be ranked among the
tiue arts OF modern civilization as much
so as painting and sculpture" This ad-
vance has opened up a new field for the
press and has already done more to diff
fuse a love of art among the masses than
all the art expositions and galleries in
the world.
With tins brief a~llusion and epitome of
the advance printing has made, and of
the high position it has attained as Il fine
art, | p%roffer some hints as to the daily
practical operation of printing from my
own experience.
The practical printer is he who has
served years and years in unceasing toll
and labor, keeping pace with the various
improvements in the art, studying thi
point and that outline to saw labor and
expense, and to advance the aus of the
printing fraternity throughout the length
and breadth of the American continent.
Go into a well-regulated printing office
and there you will find the practical
hhAaNNi VIZ 10 mi aHo tliluSs
harmonize, and identifying the lily white
sheets that fall from his press. Go into
the office of a man who has no knowledge
of the printing business and there you
will find "pi' and general disorder
badly set advertisements and numerou
other things that would make you blush
with shame. We pity the man who is
trying to run a newspaper without the
knowledge of a printer. He is loose IL
his business and allows types, borders
etc, to be destroyed and thrown into the
"hell box" never more to be resurrecteG
from that ungainly named place-"hell.'
There are many editors who are no
printers, and to these we would say
employ sober, pa~instaking, industriou:
printers who understand the art and pay
them good wages, and our paper will
always appear in a good, smooth, clean
, readable shape. Think of this, brother
editors! Do not say, swell, l can EN-
!. ploy two or three boys for from $3.50 tt
So per week and get my paper OUT" Il
does not pay. We have tried IL and know
, whereof wsspeak. We would rather pa,
a man Sl2 per week and have the salts,
faction of knowing that the Telegraph
S would come out in good style than to pa,
! one So and know that it would appea
e like some blacksmith or wood butcher
had gotten it out for me. There is
i great deal in the appearance of a paper
i and for that reason alone employ practica
a printers in preference to devils an,
e blacksmiths.
THE DEVIL.
r As 500 as an apprentice entersa news
S paper office the proprietor should inform
u him that everything must be performe,
e with neatness and in order; and if tn
t "devil" does not comply with this re
%quirement, "fire him out of the bacl
, door" But if he is careful and shows
, disposition to try to keep the office clean
Il encourage him and you will have an or
nament to your composing 0
e JOB PRINTING.
This branch of the business is the s'pay
: ing part" to every country office, and TO
that reason every proprietor should hav
, a practical printer. Our experienc
teaches US that it requires time an
. thought to work neat and artistic jobs
We have worked with some of the bes
job printers in Missouri, and whenever
neat piece of work was to be performe
they took time TO study it before com
mencing the job, although they knew tn
run of the eases well. Often, when
very particular piece of work was to b
X done, we have known printers to put
off until they could sleep on it. TIL
% first and most important thing in a print
e. ing office is the rollers. Without goo
of rollers no printer can do good work. l
: numerous cases we nave seen well dis
played jobs spoiled or account of inferic
lie rollers.
err And, lastly, deliver US from the printe
,e who plays a jig on the types while plar
= ing down the forms. Never allow yor
"helP' to be larger than a pill box, ar
ct do not allow the 'tdevil' to "monkey
30 with your script cases.