The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-08-02
ANCIENT WRITING MATERIAL.
Back Through the Paper Period to the
Days of Wax Tablets.

lay vi fVhA
Before the invention of paper, enor,
nous quantities of which are manufac-
tured at the present time, the material
on which people wrote then was a very
costly affair. For that reason it was
fortunate that our forefathers were
not as busy with letter writing as we
are at the present day.
The Oldest writing materials were
the wax tablets. These were made OF
wood or ivory, coated with a surface OF
wax, on which the writing was done
with pointed stylus, made of bone.
These tablets served as memoranda,
letter heads, bill heads, as well as for
writing exercises in the schools letters
ans documents. When it was no longer
necessary to preserve them, special
roller instrument was used for obliter-
ating the writing. and then the tablets
were ready for use again.
The old Greeks and Romans u-ed
these wax tablets generally. Tie
Roman poet, Propertius, the creates
elegaic poet of Rome, deplo'-as in a ten
der elegy the loss of his wax tablets en-
x ldNCb VIII llit iCllNlCi CplSlLtS VIA
passed between him and his inamorata
The present century has br0Nght tc
light many of the treasures of aINiqui,
ty. among them ancient Roman W.
tablets which heretofore were knowa
only by hearsay. These We're diScov-
cred in the gold mines of Siebenburgen,
which at one time We're worked by the
Romans ntha,S 1iSaA,-a,aA II,
Egypt. The tablets contained mostly
mercantile treaties and notes of accept
ance. They are very plain and simple.
The "diptycha," however, which
the Roman consuls were wont to dis
tribute among their friends when they
took the oath of office, were marvels of
beauty. They were made of ivory,
deliberately carved, and embellished on
the outside. Many of these carved tab
lets which were used during the middle
ages as bindings of books have been
preserved down to our day.
The Germans adopted the wax tab
lets from the Romans and they We're
very generally used during the middle
ages, especially in the schools and col
ltS6S DuElu1 Ine uIJeeHIH CeuIuIJ
such tablets were employed as the ex-
elusive writing material of the Univer
sity of Lubbock. Toward the close Of
that century the tablets were driven
out by paper, the manufacture of which
then became general.
But there were some localities where
they were used even at the beginning
of the present century, as, for instance,
in Halle an der Saale. 1t was in 1888
when they were abolished by royal
decree In Suabian Halle the state
passed law in 1872 abolishing the use
of wax ia blets. In the salt springs of
these two places certain expenditures,
such as the price of wood for the boil
ing of the salt or the distribution of
the salt dividend, could be recorded
only on these tablets.
Even as late as twenty years ago wax
tablets were used at the fish market of
Rouen. There the revenue from the
leftover fish, which were sold at public
auction, was recorded on wax ia blets.
Water, the most formidable. enemy. %
paper, has aided greatly in the reten-
ton of the wax tablets in certain
localities, until it was at last driven
out altogether. The photographic wax
tubes of to-day certainly prove that his
tory has knack of repeating itself
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