The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-13
of stones into monuments. affairs or pill
lars and the conducting of games and

OF stones INTO monuments affairs OF PHI
lars and the conducting of games and
festivals.
AS soon as the art of writing was dis
covered, or simply the art of conveying
thought by arbitrary signs. the ancients
began to seek for vehicles for these
signs which should be everlasting.
To this end they used bricks and
stones. and even melted metal to take
their impressions. Josephus avs that
the descendants of Seth fOund out by
study and observation the motions and
distribution or order of the heavenly
bodies, and hat their discoveries
might not be lost to men knowing hat
the destruction of the world had been
foretold by Adam. which should be
once by fire and once by water, they
made two pillars, one of brick and the
other of stone. and wrote n engraved
their discoveries thereon. so that if the
rains should destroy that of brick, the
other of stone might continue to show
mankind their observations.
Job exclaimed: 20 hat they CHS
words) We're even craven with an iron
pen n lead in the rock forever
The best Bible tudents interpret this
as meaning the engraving of the rock
with an iron instrument and the filling
of the letters with melted lead. so that
the contrast in color might be so strong
as to attract every passer by.
GREEKS M ROMANS.
At an early period in their history
oObtA oAOSho aiA LII d0Co CAlI1G
plain wooden boards or boards covered
with wax. The Egyptians used the
palm leaf, the Chinese sized silk. and
the Arabians used the shoulder bones
Of sheep, into which they cut their
events and then hung them up in long
rows in their cabinets.
The great library at Alexandria is
said to have contained 700. 900 volumes
written in letters of gold on serpents'
skins
Parchment or the dried skins of
early period. The rolls of this material
were written within and without"
That is. the reader tool the roll, and
as he peruSed its words he unrolled the
sheets of parchment till he came to the
stick or staff on which it was rolled.
Then he turned it ound and read the
other side, rolling it up as he went.
Papyrus. the plant from which the
old paper was derived in Egypt. has
since those times completely disaD-
peared. To be sure. there is a species
of papyrus which still grows, but it is
not of the old noble variety that shot
clean ten feet into the air without so
much as a branching fiber on it's stalk.
One curious thing is connected with
the history of paper making. There
is absolutely no possibility of ever ar
irving at any conclusion as to the ex-
act time when modern paper began to
be made.
The Royal Society of Sciences in Goet-
tingen offered liberal rewards for any
data bearing on this point in ITS. and
again in 1858. Nothing, however, came
OF the diligent researches set on foot by
the hope of winning the generous re-
wards.
1t is said, and with perhaps the best
show of authority, hat China gave to
the world the art of making what is
now modern paper. 1t is certain that
paper made. from vegetable pulp was
it was known in Europe.
The Chinese rice paper is in reality
but a membrane of the bread fruit tree
obtained by cutting the stem spirally
roundt hea axis and f1attening it by pres
sure.
Paper mills moved by water were
known in Tuscany at the commence
ment of the fourteen century.
In some countries, notably Holland,
the manufacture Of paper was a secret
art. and the men who made it in the
mills had to swear to their employers
that they would not betray any of the
details of the industry. In fact, the
penalty of breaking this oath was
death.
Finally paper has been assumed to
have an aesthetic significance and to
have certain characteristics. Fuller
says in the course of some exceedingly
curious observations or the paper of his
t.me: I
Paper participates in some sort Of
the character of the country which
makes it, the Venetian being neat.
subtle and courtlike, the French light,
Slight and slender and the Dutch thick,
rpulen and gross, sucking up the ink
with the ~SpOngineSS thereof"