The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-01-02
The Genie of TO-day-An AllegOry.

and gnomes who decided mortal destinies and
against whose fiat. for he p hindrance, there
was appeal. Even crowned heads bent in hon.
age to wonde rful ogre capable of turning the
most powerful scepter into a beggar's staff and
happy indeed was the ruler who was looked upon
with lenient eyes by the controlling spirit of the
place. Good and bad fairies contended for the
mastery, swaying each wight by their potent IN
fuences. and genii, those gigantic monsters, were
invoked TO earth. and made to WELD their fearful
power over mankind, disappearing only at the
command of the terrible necromancer by whose
magic they sprang into existence.
In the calcium light which intelligence throws
upon those far off days Of yore, dim with the m st
of ages we look doubtingly upon the sweet tradi-
tions of the past and scott at them myths and
idle tales Once having laid aside the garb of
Lilliput we let the struggle of the present, the
noises of commerce, the roar of trade. the vibrant
voice of progress dull to the lovely be.
lefs of youth, when every little stream possessed
a language of its own, flowers nodded and whis-
pered to each other in sylvan converse and all nat
ure broke forth in melodious expression, speaking
a thousand tongues untranslatable by man.
Foreseeing the rise of unbelievers, knowing with
the wondrous insight into the future that powers
were work revolutonizing the world-powers
ing-the mystic beings in conclave assembled. for
the purpose of selecting some to whom the
others should yield their influence, and who, pos
sessng the entire combination of wonderful at
tributes, could withstand the ravages of time and
innovation, living forever monument to their
pristine glory and power.
Rhetoric would be called upon for her most
fowery and prismatc tributes to depict the scene
that ensued while the balloting for a candidate
was in progress, and long and loud were the argu-
ments pro and con. the patterns were being
marked out in the web of fate. At last great
giant arose and laid before his audience the ne.
cessity of selecting who would make their
names imperishable by some other than oral his
tory immortalizng them so that ages hence their
memories would still exist triumphing over OBJ
livion.
Already simple mortal, native of Mentz,
Germany, Johann Gutenberg by name, had at
tracted the attention OF the mystics. being stu
dent of "secret and wonderful arts" who sought
in the seclusOn of his closet the perfection of a
scheme by which his constant companions. ira
diton, story and legend might be perpetual for
ever. Him they selected as the instrument
through whose agency their objects could be
complished. and their powers for good or evil be
handed down to unborn generations. detailing
three of their most renowned members Science
Genius and Invention, to assist him in his labors
From stored east to frozen north, from sea to
sea. from mountain top to mountain top, trooped
all the inhabitants of the elin re lin, dwarf and
giant. brownie and fay, goblin and gnome and
swarming into the secret workshop of the toler in
mysteries, one by one yielded up their magical be-
ings, until from the infusion of all these wonder
full elements there arose before the triumphant
Gutenberg crude but shapeIy mass, the slave of
the lamp of education, the last, the greatest the
most powerful mystic of them all, that genie of
today-the printing press. the honor and pride of
every land over which intelligence reigns supreme
During the hundreds of years which have
elapsed since the birth Of this ennobling art
practced at first in secret and under great diff
cultes, we can steadily trace the influence of that
triple ssterhood whose immortality has survived
their humble coadutor, and in the newspaper,
that social balance wherein communitys stand
ing can be accurately weighed see the mystic
power of the primeva fairies ever displaying it.
self.
The old struggle for supremacy of goblin and
gnome. elf and sprite, goes INCREASINGLY, which
is why we often find among the wheat of our
journals such chaff as spring poetry grey-headed
jokes, moss-grown che ,tnuts, and other intellect.
ual bar-sinisters which distinguish many pilgrims
on the road to Parnassus. Notwithstanding nat.
ure takes scores of quilts to make goose writer
can make goose of himself with only one
The tiny wires which band our glorious CONT.
nent like sensitive nerves of STEEL bridging space
the wondrous cords that creep beneath unfathom.
able seas, those twin progeny of invention, the
telegraph and cable are but the servants of the
great press genie to do his bidding. and from the
remotest confines of the earth flash an endless
chain OF events which after being laid within the
embrace OF his mighty arm. emerge therefrem q
magic mirror, rejecting light and shadow, joy and
SUFFERING and all the annals of the passing day
Thus the life-work of the inventor Gutenberg