The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-01-15
About Apprentices.

Great care should be exercised in
| the selection of apprentices. 10 live
up to the full measure of his ability,
| to be useful to himself and the world
at large, the right man should be in
the right place. Not every boy can
become printer, even a fair one.
The boy of strong muscles and slow
brain is as unfit to become a printer
as is the slight-built, slim chap to
WELD a sledge hammer. If he have
not the natural aptitude to make q
| good workman in this business-tO be
demonstrated by fair trial-he should
be related to some other trade for
which he nay be better fitted.
The boy who would become good
printer must possess some qualifica-
| tiOns that may not be necessary in
many other trades. He must have
quickness of perception, a retentive
memory Especially of forms and
shapes), delicacy of touch, quickness
OF movement, some artistic taste, and,
above all, perseverance and industry.
He should have love for the BUSH
ness-not because it is a respectable,
or literary, or a fairly-paying BUSH
ness to the expert-but q love for the
work for the works sake. The. boy
who does not ike to study the work.
of other printers, to note styles and
pecularities, may be swift compost
tor and correct one, but he will new
er be q thorough workman. A COM
position who desires to learn should
frequent bookstores and libraries and
closely examine all L the features of
strange or foreign books, from ,title-s
page to index. 1t will not, do to be
conceited. One may be taught GER.
tain style and be led to think it is the
style-all others wrong. The best
wOrkmen are usually those who have
most studied the styles of other work
men, especially those coming from
other cities or foreign countries-not
for the sake of becoming servile imi-l
tators, but to note their merits and
dement's, so as to learn from the form
er and avoid the latter. -.--a
An important point in the qualifi-
cations of workman, young or old,
is teachableness. The tyrO is very
apt to think, after q few months
apprenticeship, that he knows all
about it," Humility is q virtue in
such cases, and il it Is not present, the
subject will be apt, in after years, to
be q sufferer from the effects of his
own cOnceit. The apprentice should
be content to learn a few things at q
time, and not think that he can mas
ter the whole business in a few months.
The best printers are willing to adj
NIT that, though they may have de-
voted lifetime to the trade, they
may yet have the opportunity to learn
something more.
There is not an atom of human
knowledge that will be sqperfiuOus to
q boy in q printing-office. Reading
all sorts of chirographY, upon all
manner of subjects, he will be greatly
assisted by whatever information he
may gather from books, and still
more so by thorough reading and
study of whatever useful works he
can obtain access to. A fair school
education he must have in reading,
writing, grammar, orthography |
(where his memory of forms and |
shapes will serve him welD and |
arithmetic; geometry may be added |
with profit. He ought to possess a |
sufficient knowledge of drawing to |
enable him to demonstrate his ideas |
and designs with the pencil. An
knowledge of Latin and |
French is almost a necessity, while |
he ought at least learn the Greek |
alphabet, with the names of the let
tiers. The more he knows of history,
and the ologies Especially |
him and the less likely he will be TO
make notifying mistakes, as any
and all of these may be brought be-
fore him at any time in ais career as
q workman. We do not mean that it
is q prime necess ty that the embryo
printer should have profound
of all the sciences, for this
IL impossible o. attainment except by
n lifetime study Of books. But he
ought to read at least one good book
upon each lof The leading scieneesI
that he may familiarlze himselt itht