The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-11-14
TYPOS THEN AND NOW.
THE CRAFT IS NOT WHAT IT
USED TO BE.
Printers ON Morning Papers We're Once Noted
Only for Dfssolute Habits and Rowing
Disposition-They Arc Now the
Salt Of the Earth.

It one of the old time printers could
come back to life-say one of the men
who helped.set type from the::telegraph
copy OF tho emancipation proclama-
ton for the morning papers-he would
hardly feel at home, says the Chicago
Herald Iu bis day the printer was
rather tough citizen in more ways
than one, and he was the last man in the
world to be.ashamed of the distinction.
Above all else, he was hard drinker
No man who could not drink had any
sort of business in the composing
room. Men who could hold the mos
fred liquor" without allowing it to
interfere with the accuracy of their
work were considered the best men.
Profanity was fine art then, and q
finished abandon in the style wearing
Of clothes was one of the first induces
of excellence at the case.
It was almost as much as the typos
weekly string was worth to appear
In the composing-room in a new suit
Of clothes. And even if the garments
did bear some evidence of having
been purchased at one time and in a
single store. they were pretty sure to
reveal, when the men stripped for the
work of the night, that suspenders
and other garments of a quasi-con-
cealed nature were wholly wanting.
The printer of that day was above all
suoh trifes. His trousers could hang
In any fashion they pleased, and he
contented himself with hitching them
up Into a place of safety every time
he returned from ''dunping'' a stick.
There were, it is true, few men who
did wear good clothes all the time,
and who were known in every city in
the union for that singular habit. And
now and then one could find one who
did not drink, although that sort
OF man was likely to be very
poorly considered. But no one pre-
tended to know a printer who did
not chew tobacco. It seemed to be
one of the things which went with the
first days at the trade. Apprentices
were informed with gravity that did
not seem to be mock ut all that they
could never hope to amount to any,
thing at the trade unless they could
chew. And so willing is human nature
to accept any sort of excuse for deprav-
ity that the boys learned to chew even
before they had thoroughly learned the
case.
Go into composing-roo now and
you will find all the olden ideas of the
place must be revised. In the first
place, the men are no longer the
''bums" they once appeared to be-
though they never really deserved that
appellation. They have all the ap-
pearance of sober and we'll kept mon.
They wear good clothes, and not few
of them have better grade of jewelry
than the men who hire them can pre-
tend to wear. They have the clear
skin and bright eye of men who know
good habits and regular hours.
Undoubtedly the best newspaper men
graduate from the case. They have
a knowledge OF the needs of the
mechanical end of the Office which can
be gotten in no other way. They can
not avoid tolerably close acquaint-
ance with the events of the day, since
they must set in type something about
the world at large every night they are
at work; and then they have at least
the general knowledge of grammar
and the construction of sentences that
comes of intelligent reading. 1t seems
that as rule they are more successful
than are college bred men. This fur
nishes another door for the prin ter of
to-day. 1t Is a long step from the dis
solute, irresponsible man of twenty
years ago to the clean, well-dressed,
well-behaved printer seen in these
later times, and the development does
not seem to have reached its conclu-
sion. The trade is safe one, since no
machine can ever take the place of the
intelligence required to get out morn
ing paper. and it is as far from its for
mer disreputahle surroundings as one
can we'll imagine.
RIGID MORAL LAWS.