The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-03-25
Highest Of all Leavenng PowerLaet U. Govt Repor,
R3H!As!I! g! Rs%assz RRskiRs
ABSOLUTELY PURE
In Honor Of tie Printer.
From the Pittsburg News.

From tine PitisbGrg News.
''What am going to do with 1t? Put
il in the Carnegie library, to he sure.
THAT is very true. Nobody may care
10 read it, but many will want to see il,
ami that suffices. l am putting it where
it will keep green the memory Of the
printer. There were two of him, as the
title page shows
The reference was TO little volume Of
the abridged edition Of Jeremy Taylor's
famous Life of Christi printed in SOM
erset, Pa, in 1878. by j. Il L. Patton.
Look in the Century dictionary under the
word printer, and you may read this,
among other things The early printers
were generally also publishers, produc-
ing works on their own account and the
word printer long retained this extended
meaning" The Pattons, one may ven
ture To affirm, were Proprietors of
newspaper in Somerset, and as in 1878
there were no railways, no telegraphs,
no telephones, and as magistrates Of
fees were few and far between, they were
not rushed with news. But being dill
gent men, as all connected with news
papers now are and then were, they put
in their spare time printing good books.
IN the days of the Pattons it was long
distance from Somerset to Philadelphia,
and freight charges were high, while in
Somerset labor was cheap and time did
not fly rs now. That was true in case
-,
Pennsylvania. The printers in those
towns then could easily compete with the
printers in Philadelphia III the matter Of
book publishing. So examine the title
pages i'm any of the collections of rare
books hereabouts and you will be sur
prised 10 find how many of them were
printed hereabouts.
Jeremy Taylor, the author OF this one,
was an Englishman, born in Cambridge
and educated at the university there.
The troubles which eliminated in the
civil war had begun when he entered the
Ministry, or at least the runbling Of the
coming storm was heard; bat devout
loyalist, he stood braveiy by the King
until Parlisment se4uesterod his living,
VIXEN he went to Wales and taught
school. When Charles the Second WAS
given his throne he made Taylor Bishop
of Down and Connor, and he died in Ire
land in lG57. The son of barber, he
knew the common people better than
they knew themselves, and knew what
sort of religious reading they needed.
The proof of that was the long popularity
of his books. In the abridged form il il
small, but in the present instance there is
bound up with it ''fhe Lives, Acts and
Deaths of the Holy Evangelists and
Apostles, as recorded by the primitive
fathers and ancient writers of unques-
tiOnable veracity," IS also "a brief view
of the violent prosecutions OF the Chris
tians under the heather emperors, and
even by such as bore the name of Chris
tians, in Holland, France, England, Ire
land, Scotland and Spain," by Charles
Buck, ID. u. Buck was clergyman of
the Church of England, born in l77l, au-
thor OF a theological dictionary famous in
its day.
That is the kind of reading which
makes character. No wishy-washy nov
els those days, no poems of passion, none
OF the morbid stuff on which so many
brains are fed these days. And it was
on good paper. Although the leaves of
this volume have been thumbed for IS
years they crackle in the bending and
twisting like new government note. IL
is said that most of the books Published
at the present time will soon cease 10 be,
because of the rotten paper in them, and
it is a fac; that librarians often complain
of this. Honest old printers. let them
not be forgotten In coming years let
those who glance through this volume
and at the title page acknowledge the
debt of gratitude which the people of
Western Pennsylvania owe to such men
as the Pattons " ho furnished the fathers
such books