New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-03-14

pauer The black ink which is fosted on the pho-
lie is supposed to do it. but it will not Inc
manufacturers print glowing accounts OF no"
black their ink is on pieces OF paper ana Suck
these on the outside Of their bottles but the INK
remains the same Sometimes they blow their
Sindbad-like tales in the glass. or stamp IL IN
the hard Interchangeable surface of their stone Jugs:
but the ink remains pale and unsatisfactory
Often il appears black in the bottle though more
frequently it is a cold sickly green. or n muddy.
omnous blue: but in any case it is not black
when YOU write with it. Still. the manufacturers
90 on year after year assuring the public that
their inks are black. and they search the help
less dictionary for terms to aid their mendacity.
and declare that their ink is "coal-black, " ra-
vcn-blacL.r let black midnight-black." and
so forth
Alleged black ink may. like the earth we In
habit in the school geography, he DIVIDED INTO
two grand divsions-one which may he any
color, or no color when first used. and which
leads you with the false hope that some time
in the future it will turn black: the other which
unbIushingly takes on all the blackness IL ever
intends TO assume Immediately. and as it were.
laughs aloud Mt your discontinue MS it flows from
YOUR pen No one knows which is the more UNI
satisfactory. With the first kind, you write
YOU may or may not be able to see what you
have written You feel back over the sheet-it
is wet-you have filed it with sOmething-you
dash of another. At the end OF half an hour
faint tracings begin 10 appear at the top Of the
first sheet. Gradually they spread down the sheet
and begin AZ the top Of the second. Your letter
is coming 70 life. But il never comes wholly TO
hfc-not 70 n good. vigorous active life. Docn-
mcnts written in this kind 81 ink have been stored
I'm corncrstoncs and opened century after. and
still the writing only n dull. dark. grayish-
brown. II needed time. With the other
kind you a least. know the first. You
need not feel Of the sheet to see II il Is written
on But this kind is not usually so nearly black
as the othcr-after it has had few hours in
which TO make its debut. There is really third
kind Of so-called black ink. which ought to be
mentioned II seems to be composed of glue.
gum-nrabici Indla,rubbcr and lamp-bIack. IL
is really. perhaps, the darkest Of the of but it
is not black. and il lies in ridges on the paper
Sometimes il is harder n manage than ut others.
You lab your pen in the inkstand and when You
pull IL ont YOU find that you have only tho
holdcr-the pen is sticking I'm the ink Ike har-
poon in the back Of a whale. A clerk in Will
iam-st. law-oficc was once writing with this sort
Of ink. lie had finished n onc-page letter and
raised his pen suddenly. when Che always ran his
words together all he had written on the whole
sheet peeled of and hung before his startled
gaze from the point Of his pen. like the wreck of
wovcn-wirc bcd-mattrcs,. He tied the dntc-nc 10
the gas-fNturc and took hold Of the firm name
and stretched it out. and found that the writing
in his letter was eight feet long When hc
leased his hold il few back into place. He took
some mucilagc and stuck the writing back on
the paper, and the man who received the letter
never knew the difference
We read sometimes of prisoners In subterranean
dungeons making a pen from tcnpenny nail
and writing their memoirs with their blood. This
class Of people need never come 10 the man who
uses black ink looking for sympathy.