Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-04-22

WILLIAM BPApTORD's TOMBSTONE.
of Wall street. Cross Broadway-an
in the business hours YOU cross it at a
risk-to the west side. enter the broad
gateway. and you are in an ancient Dutch
English colonial cemetery.
The noise uf the traffic is subdued to a
continuous and not unpleasing roar 1t
is just the same rs if we were in quiet,
rural graveyard. with a rushing river
near by or a waterfall just far enough
away for the mTrmur TO afford pleas
ing monotone in harmony with devout
or reminiscent thought And here is the
Westminster abbey of New York, if the
state can he said to have such an institu-
ton. Scores of the old tombstones tell
in quaint lettering of the men and wom-
en- of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. and 10 almost every one at
taches fascinating story. There is the
slab bearing the name of Charlotte Tenn
pie, whose woes 50 often moved our
grandparents TO tears. There. too. is the
tomb of Michael Cresap, most unjustly
assailed in the alleged speech of Logan,
chief of the MiRgoes. who died a soldier
in Washingtons army at the early age
of SO.
There also are the stone memorials of
Sidney Brusc, ancestor of :. b. f. Morse
of the telegraph: Of Alexander Hamilton
and Albert Gallatin and many of their
noted contemporaries; of James Law
renee of the Chesapeake; Thomas Adds
Emmet; Montgomery, the hero of Que
bee, and many more. one Of the latest
being that Of our own honored Phil
Kearny. But jus, at present, when the
two hundredth anniversary of the estab-
hshment of the printing press in New
York city is exciting men of our profess
sion, unusual interest attaches to a
quaint old stone which bears this letter
ing:
Here lies the Body OF Mr.. WILLIAM BRAD
FORD
Printer who Departed this Life May %.
l552, aged 81 Years. lie was born in
Leicestcrshirc in Old England in l6Be
and came over 10 America ia l6S before
the City Of Philsdcl phia was laid out He
was Printer to this Guvcgumcntfo for upwards
of 20 years and being quite worn out
with Old age aud lahour he left this
mortal state in the lively hopes of a
Blessed Immortality.
Reader. reflect how .ooa you'll quit this Stage:
You'll find but few attain 10 such an Age.
Life's full of Pain: 10! Here's u Place of Rest,
Prepare TO meet your GOD, then you are blest.
Here also lies the Body of Elizabeth Wife to
The said William bradford. who departed
This life July +, 1871. aged Is Years.
Such is the record in stone Of this re-
markable man whose bicentcnnial now
interests the New York TypothetR and
all engaged in the art preseryative, and
when the rude appliances employed by
him in 1893 are set alongside the great
sextuple press of today. the latest mar
vel of our art, which prints and folds
$4,000 papers per hour, one is lost in
amazement at the progress Of two cen
turtles. The story has been told ten
thousand times, but still a few facts
may interest the general reader as show.
ing how little had been done before the
days of Bradford compared to what has
been done since. 1t is scarcely an exag.
geration 10 say that civilization had but
Just begun and made very little progress
before printing was invented. yet the art
of printing progressed with amazing
slowness for 800 years. or until demand
forced invention