The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-05
A MUSIC PRINTERS SHOP.
a Curious Trade That Calls for Skill
and Judgment.
From the Boston Herald.


When a reporter was sent recently to
inquire into the mysteries practiced by
the music printer, he first made inquiry
at a music dealers, and soon afterwards
was stumbling up five fights of stairs in
an old business block on a busy down
town street. There, occupying a loft, he
found q shop crowded with forms and
cases of type. There were only two or
three men at work. doing what they had
to co quietly and easily.
The proprietor was sitting at his desk
in retired corner, reading over the doc
uments of his business. After explaining
his errand, the reporter asked: What
is the special difficulty in setting a page
of music2 Is it anything regular com
positor could not do, at least after little
practice2"
ITO be even a fair musical printer"
was the answer, you must be genius,
in the first place. You need not know
| music, to be sure-perhaps it is better
that you should not, for then you may
think you know more than the composer,
especially as no two men ever read har-
mony alike, and try to improve his score
for him. but the business requires in
slant and accurate judgment perfect IA
miliarity with every box in the case, be-
Z 2
in actually setting your type. You must
know everything regular printer knows
and ten times more besides
In the case which holds the necessary
sorts there are no less than 400 varie-
ties Of type, by far the greater part of
which must be used in setting a large
piece of music-one of the songs, for in
stance, sometimes printed on a page OF
tho Sunday papers.
n pnft NVrr an NErou oh
various characters, and how intricately
they must all be made to combine so as TO
print without break or a crack any
whore to be seen, he did not wonder to
hear the proprietor continue; you can
not conceive how much labor is involved
in setting singls sheet. Why, it would
require an expert and half do en- news
paper columns TO describe it In all its
minute details"
But if the reader will call to mind a To-
comotiVe puzzle he will get general idea
OF the operation. The reporter saw q
measure set up for his special benefit.
There must have been fifty pieces put in
before it was perfect.
The printer takes his stick in hand. like
all printers, and adjusts it by means Of
the screw to the required length. Some
times it is more. sometimes less; so that
TO measure by the stick" as is done in a
Then he looks at his copy and sees
the model for the puzzle which he has to
solve by means OF the 40 characters in
the box in front OF him.
He is an experienced and skillful work
man, let us suppose, and win not take long
in getting practical answer.
Every symbol which tho author has
used is ready at his hand, the more com
mon ones in the middle Of his case, those
fTnn11CnflU ctr ~,
the farther corners.
But it is not so simple as all that The
author may have used one sort of symbol,
or he may have used any one Of the
twenty others Each one that he has
used makes necessary some peculiar ar
rangement of the ncxt line and of the
succeeding symbol, so that the whole may
come out even at the staff
There is the dificulty-to come out
even. To do this a note may be divided
into little pieces, to which other little
pieces arc to be joined, that everything
may be syuared Off in the end. Lines TO
I'LL in with must be of the proper length
Stems d.heads OF notes must be exactly
combined, and, in o word, everything
must be fitted with the most perfect
nicely, so that when the printed measure
struck of from the electrotype plate,
which is finally made from the type. ap-
pears, there must be no crack or break
10 be seen, Tut the whole must look as
perfect almost as il it were a process re-
production from a carefullywritten score.
No wonder the machine has not been in
vented which can accomplish this diff
cult task.
Yet, after all, to do this is not the
greatest achievement of a music printer
| To 10 able TO Judge swiftly and suro y,
when he is given page of copy and told
TO accommodate it TO an entirely different
scale, is a much rarer and more essential
faculty. The spacing must be accurate
and approximately equal all the way
through
On the first piece Of spacing the spacing
all the way through necessarily depends.
For this the printer makes no elaborate
calculations Of measurements; he comes
to reckoning by guess work so prac-
ticed and trained that the result is as ex-