Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-03-13


man TO enable him to commemorate events,
the old records do not mention: but we do
| know that fourteen hundred years before the
! Christian era Moses gave TO his people the
first five books of the Bible, and that five
hundred years before Christ the prophet
! Ezekiel, being miraculously informed Of the
siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, com
municated the news TO his fellow exiles by
| writing on tiles. Bits Of crockery and
| broken pots covered with hieroglyphics are
| still found among the ruins of eastern cities
notably on the Nile On one OF these speci-
mems, the fragment Of an old vase, is scrib-
| bled soldiers leave of absence. Before the
time of Mohammed the Arabs used to carve
| their annals ON the shoulder blades of sheep.
After while sleeps bones gave place to
sheepskns, from which followed in the course
| of time the manufacture of parchment.
Skins of fishes, intestines of serpents, backs
of tortoses and the inner bark of trees were
also used for writing.
The first tool employed for recording his
tory on stone, wood and metal was the chisel.
In our TRANSACTIONS of the Old and New Testa-
ments the word pen refers either to an iron
stylus used with wax tablets or to reed split
and shaped to point and, as the latter is well
adapted to the Arabic character, 1t is still in
vogue. The writer in old times was COM
PEELED to burden himself with enough acces-
series to fill gripsack. He carried sponge,
knife and pumice stone, compasses for meas
uring, scissors for cutting, puncheon to point
out the beginning and end of each line, rule
to draw and divide the lines into columns, a
glass containing sand and another for holding
the writing fluid. The latter was character.
lied by great permanency, its basis being
finely divided charcoal mixed with some mu-
cilaginous or adhesive material. Indian or
China ink is of this quality, and for centuries
has been applied in those countries with a
brush.
The ancient manuscripts were written on
parchment or on paper, the Egyptian paper
being prepared from the papyrus shrub, and
If we could decipher the inscriptions on some
of the old mumnies we should probably know
more of their family gossip than we do now.
The mixture of cotton and silk in paper was
invented in the east about the year 706, and
used until the introduction of linen paper,
which took place in the first half of the Thir-
teenth century. These manuscripts were Of
ten Illuminated in the most brilliant manner,
and are scarcely excelled by the best work of
our modern typographical artists.
Paper was made by the Chinese from old
rags, silk, hemp and cotton as early the
Second century, but English manuscripts on
linen paper were not known anterior to 1910.
Paper produced on an endless web was first
made in England in 1901.
Quilts, except among few old fashioned
scriveners on both sides Of the water, have
become neArly obsolete. They were known
early as the Sixth century, the principal
supply being from the geese, swans and
crows of Russia, Poland and Germany. Crow
quilts are sometimes still employed in fine
etchings, on account OF the fine point to
which they can be brought. Before steel
pens became common, a number of pens
were cut out of the barrel of a quill just as
they are ROW cut out of sheet steel.
The first notice Of steel pen for writing is
found in 1903. For years the little instru-
rnent was costly luxury, but with the i'm
provements of the age it has become cheap
necessity. OF its various forms and uses the
name is legion. Now. ~ is a giant with a
barrel attachment; again, it is a liliputian
that in the dainty hands of milady makes a
stroke as delicate as the fairy like lines of
cobweb, and gross would scarcely fill nut
she'll. In 1881 an oblique pen was brought
out, in which the slit was inclined al an an