Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-08-15
INVENTOR OF PRINTING.
FIVE AuNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE BIRTH Of. GUTENBERG.
Re Was Native of the Old Rhanish
City of Mayence-A Patrician by Birth
Learned the Printing Trade and Rev.
olutionized 1t with Movable Tyre.

-Learned the Printing Trade and Rev.
olutionized 1t with Movable Type.
Germany has just celebrated in
most fitting way the five hundredth
anniversary of the birth of Johann
Gutenberg, the inventor OF printing,
one of the most notable and character
istic of her sons In the beautiful
old Rhenish city of Mayence, the
birthplace of the Inventor. there was
an exhibition of the best and the most
curious which the printers art has
produced during the past five hundred
years. There was an historical pro-
cession through the old streets in
which tine costumes of Gutssberg's
time were reproduced. Hundreds of
scholars and specialists in printing
came from all parts OF Germany to
do honor to the great mans memory.
There were festal excursions on the
historic river and illuminationS in the
evenings-altogether a worthy and
dignified celebration. No one can ac-
cuse the Germans of neglecting the
memory of their great men.
1t is impossible to state With accu-
ltNy tIt tAaiNl VI .
birth, but there is strong reason for
believing that he first saw the light
some time near the close OF the four
teenth century. His real name was
Gensfeisch, Gutenberg being only his
cognomen- probably the name Of the
place whence the family came He be-
longed to a partrician family of May
ence, his father seems to have been
man of political Importance. for we
hear of him as involved tn the
turmoils which at that time were
chronic between the Bishop Elector
of Mayence and the guilds and burgh
ers. With his family he was obliged
to fly to Strassburg. and it was in the
Alsatian city that Gutenberg learned
the arts which he was afterward to
turn to such good account He de-
voted himself to goldsmith's work, to
the manufacture of mirrors, and to
experiments in iron. copper and lead.
During GutenbergS residence in
Strassburg we get one or two curious
glimpses of him, but nothing that is
sufficient. He had q legal dispute with
! some citizens as to certain plant in
which he was interested, but of more
human interest is a complaint made
against him to the Bishop by certain
Anna of the Iron Gates for refusing
to fulfill a pledge he had mQde to
marry her.
This is all we know Of Gutenberg
until we again hear of him In May
ence, man of matured middle age,
probably fifty years old. Mayenoe at
that time was a great ecclesiastical
centre, and likely enough Gutenberg
had returned to his paternaI city to
manufacture goldsmith's work for
the Bishop Elector and his clergy.
But he must have had other views as
wei. While in Strassburg he had his
attention turned to the tedious pro
cesses involved in the printing of the
Donati, as the elementary Latin gram
mars of the time were called. The let
ters were engraved on large block of
wood, much as our wood cuts ore at
the present time We do not know
Gutenberg's processes Of thought, but
the idea had evidently struck him that
this cumhrous method of production
would be vastly simplified If movable
metal letters were employed instead CT
engraved blocks of wood. In Strass-
burg he had set himself the task of
molding these letters Of various de-
grees of hardness, and It is evident
that when he returned to Mayehce he
brought with him q considerable sup
ply of these movable types.
Gutenberg was always a poor man,
and evidently thriftless. So on his ar
rival in Mayence he mode the ac-
Quaintance of a certain Johanp Fust,
fifteenth century capitalist, who for
consideration was willing to set up
the inventor as printer In a properly
equipped printing Office. Gutenberg
anxious to get work. accepted Fust's
Offer But the business association of
the two men was a failure Guten-
berg could pay neither capital nor in
terest, and Fust was compelled to
cast about for more business-like
partner, whom he found in the cele-
brated Peter Schoffer. Poor Guten-
berg was deprived of much Of his best
| type, and had it not been for the mer-
ciful interposition of q wealthy Ourgh-
er, who believed in him, he would
have suffered complete commercial
shipwreck. He never, however. was
able to get his head above water, and
after two or three years Of painful
struggle he gave Up the contest
against the powerful firm OF Fus, s.
Schoffer.
Toward the close of hts life. prob
ably broken down by cares and dis
appointments, he seems to have Joined
the confraternity of lay brothers of
St Victor and to have led an ascetic,
prayerful life His friends managed
to procure for him a position as one
of the Electors Servitors, nomina-
ton which secured for him a new suit
of clothes every year. and sufficiency
of corn and wine for his necessities.
Once a year he went to the Electors
castle at Eltville to obtain his suit of
clothes. He was over sixty when he
| died an ,rDnotined man and fe-- of