Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-10-25
THE CONFEDERATE PRESS.
HOW SOUTHERN PAPERS WERE
PRINTED IN WAR TIMES.

terials-Straits Of Publishers Of Books
and Sheet Music-Song Books. Tracts
and Pamplets-New Novels.
Side by side with the reports of battles
and the records Of peace commissions,
congresses and legislatures. the blurred
columns Of the Confederate press were
won't to TEEN with domestic recipes for
cheap dishes. directions for raising and
utilizing various vegetable products. in
structions for making much Of little in
matters pertaining to every phase Of
household life. Hard by list Of dead
and wounded would stand a recipe for
tanning dog skins for gloves; while the
paragraphs just succeeding the closing
column Of the description Of q naval en-
gagement off Hampton roads were direc-
tions for the use Of boneset as a substi-
tute for quinine.
The journals Of that day were printed
usually upon the poorest paper. made Of
straw and cotton rags. and so brittle that
tho slightest touch mutilated it. The
ink, like the paper, was of the cheapest
and commonest, and left its impression,
not only on the face of the sheet, but on
the hands no less than on the mind of the
reader. Few fonts of new type found
their way into the Confederacy during
the war, and at the end of four years the
facilities for printing had come to q low
ebb. 1t was no uncommon thing for
publishers to issue half sheets in lieu of q
complete paper, with scarcely an apology
to subscribers for the curtailment of their
literary and news rations. 1t was gen.
orally understood that this happened only
through stern necessity, and not from
any disposition on the part of the news
paper men to give less than an equivalent
for the subscription price.
Sometimes the journal which on yester-
day appeared in all the glory Of six
column page was today cut down to
four column half sheet, or publication
was suspended with the announcement
that the stock Of materials had been ex-
hausted. and that as soon as the Office
could be replenished publication would be
resumed. Eagerly as the rough sheets
were looked for and closely as they were
read, a diminution of matter in them, or
failure to appear, caused only passing
comment or dissatisfaction. Mems minds
were so filed with the Thousand things
that each day brought forth about them,
there were so many rumors in the air, and
news few so rapidly even without news
paper aid, as to cause them not too greatly
to miss that which today has come to be
one of the veriest necessities of American
life-a daily journal full of all the doings
of all the world.
Sometimes even the coarse straw paper
failed the publishing fraternity when an
edition was absolutely imperative, yet in
such emergency the inventive talent never
deserted them. 1t was considered a won
derful journalistic feat on the part of it's
publishers for The Vickburg Citizen, dur
ing the siege of that city, to make it's ap-
pearance, when all other resources had
failed. upon wall paper.
Publishers of books and sheet music oc-
cupied a scarcely less helpless condition
than the newspaper people. Their sole
grounds of superiority consisted in the
fact that the demands upon them were
not so urgent. The girl who sang TO her
soldier lover the popular songs of that
time. 'Lorena," "When This Cruel War
is Over" THE Standard Bearer" or
Harp of the South" which were all duly
advertised ''at the retail price of 81 per
sheet; the trade supplied, however, at half
off, with an additional discount where 100
Of one piece are ordered, "did not experience
that immediate and insistent need Of the
song and its music which men and wo-
men alike felt for the newspaper that |
would tell them where the last battle had |
been fought, which army had been vic
torlous, who had been promoted and who |
had fallen. The fateful column might |
evil or good report of some dear
'ne, and it's coming was full Of interest
md apprehension. Yet the sheet music,
printed like the newspapers, in the rough
st style, upon the commonest paper,
With now and then caricatured itho-
,raphic likeness of some Confederate gen.
raj on the title page, continued to be
old and sung, even though its price ran
rom 81 to So per sheet.
War songs and war music were the or
Ter of the day, and the soldiers in the
amps and the small boys in ragged jack
It's shouted with an equal zest:
The despot's heel is on thy shore!
Farewell forever to the star spangled banner!
rom dirinutive paper covered books of
Martial ballads. The little song books
ost anywhere from two and half to
We Confederate dollars, and their con.
ents. with few notable exceptions,
'ere as mediocre as the paper on which
hey were printed. The sentiment was
here, nevertheless, and this was cared
or by the singers more than the music or
be lyrical or literary excellence of the
ongs.
The missionary and religious publish.
lg houses never ceased their praise !
orthy labor of printing tracts and
amphlets for distribution among the SOL
iers, but publications of a more ambi.
GUS or secular standard were very few. I
ow and then some adventurous firm in s
ichmond or Charleston or New Orleans t
ould issue badly printed edition of a .
ew novel, reproduced from copy snug I
ed in Through the lines" or brought BY G
le blockade runners from Nassau Still, G
zen "John Halifax, Gentleman, and '.Les I
iserables, which first appeared in the
nth in this way and this dress, lost t
uch of their attractiveness in their Con- f
derate garb of inferior ink, bad type .
ID worse paper.-A. G. Gordon in The 6
,ntury. q
Chicago's Garbage Cre,natory. o
Mrs. Schaffer. of Chicago. has lately in J.
nted garbage cremstory built on the =
an of large oven. 1t is fed from the 4,
p, the ashes sitting through iron CRATES =