The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-04-12

WILLIAM BRADFoRD'S TOMBSTONE.
Of Wall street. Cross Broadway-and
in the business hours you cross it at o
risk-to the west side, enter the broad
gateway. and you are in an ancient Dutch
English colonial cemetery.
The noise of the traffic Is subdued to q
continuous and not u~npleasing oar It
is Just the same as Ii we were in q quiet,
rural graveyard, with q rushing river
near by or a waterfall just far enough
away for the murmur to afford a pleas
ing monotone in harmony with devout
or reminiscent thought. And here Is the
Westminster abbey of New York, If the
state can be said TO have such an institu-
tion. Scores of the old tombstones tell
in quaint lettering of the men and wom-
en- Of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and to almost every at
taches q fascinating story. There Is the
slab bearing the name Of Charlotte Tenn
Pile, whose woes so often moved our
grandparents to tears. There. too, Lis the
tomb Of Michael Cresap, most unjustly
assailed in the alleged speech Of Logan,
chief of the Mingoes, who died . soldier
in Washington's army at the early age
Of SO.
There also are the stone memorials of
Sidney Bruse, ancestor of 8. B. #. 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
Emmett; Montgomery, the hero Of Que
bee, and many more, one OF the latest
being that of our own honored Phil
Kearny. But just at present, when the
two hundredth~ anniversary Of the estab-
lishment 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 "a,
l7b2, aged 92 Years. He was born in
Leicestershire In Old England In 1850,
and came over to America in lG62 before
the City of Philadelphia was laid out. He
was Printer to this Government for upwards
of so years and being quite worn out
with Old age and labour, he left this
mortal State in the lively hopes offs
Blessed immortality.
Reader. reflect how soon you1l quit this Stage;
You'll find but few attain to such an Age.
LIES full of Pain: Lo! Here's a 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 8, 1871. aged 90 Years
Such is the record in stone Of this re-
markable man whose bicentennial now
interests the New York TypothetB and
all engaged in the art ~preservative, and
when the rude appliances employed by
him in 1893 are set alongside the great
sextuple press of today, the latest mar
vel OF u 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 to 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 300 years, or until demand
forced invention.