The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-01-04
We Old century--Ye New Century
Brought over from ye supplement.

Brought over from We supplement.
this, the commencement of the TWEEN
tieth century.
1t was possible to reproduce the
paper exactly, but that would have
spoiled the idea which we wished to
convey. 1t is remarkable to note the
likeness OF the faces of type then in
use and those now in vogue in
every modern and complete print
ing office. The heading was selected
from new specimen book of type
and headings shown by A. D. Farmer
& Co., of New York City, as were
the dashes between the articles.
Not thing used in the two pages
were cast excepting the symboD-
the whole paper being reproduced in
the Chronicle office-and the paper
bears close resemblance to the copy
no one but printer would be able
to tell the slight difference in the
faces of the type.
1t will be noted that the paper is
in mourning over the death of the
illustrious Washington and many ar
ticles will be noticed that eulogize the
father of our country. The Congress
sional news, foreign intelligence and
other articles were "boiled down" to
certain extent (but the text not des-
troyed) SO as to give prominence to
those items appertaining to Morris
town and the county
AS the foreman Of the Chronicle
was making up'' 1.-THE Genius of
Liberty" which was on New Years
day, the thought crossed his mind that
probably Mr.. Mann or his assistants
were similarly employed one hun
bred and one years ago and at the
same time of day.
Printing in those days was so i'm
perfect, particularly as to the machin-
cry used, that it took long time to
print few copies. Of course, that
was in the time of the Washington
hand press. The paper had to be
'twet dow" and after the forms were
"made up'' and ready to print, they
were placed on the bed of the press
and securely fastened or "locked. !"
Then the "devil," who in those days
according to tradition was powerful
ly built boy would use a hand roller
to put the ink on the form.
The pressman-probably Mr.. Mann
himself, carefully laid sheet of pa
per on the form, placed the tympan
over it, rolled it in under the platen
and then by using considerable
strength pulled the long arm and
pressed the platen against the paper
ON the form which made the impress
sion. The forms were then rolled back
and the paper carefully removed and
one side of "the Genius CT Liberty"
had been printed.
When one considers the work done
on each copy of a paper in those days,
printing today seems like play. We
now have the type-setting machine,
the large power presses which run any
where from 800 to 80, 900 impressions
an hour, and so many minor and use
full improvements, that were printer
asked to work in such an equipped
Office now he would quit the bust
ness rather than do so much work.
1t is impossible to say whether Mr..
Mann was good Christian or not,
but we can imagine that the air was
blue when it was discovered that the
paper bore the date of January 2.1799,
rather than January g. 1900, as it
should have done. The makeup, :"
the "devil" or whoever was respon-
sible, had probably been making
several New Years calls, which was
considered stylish in those days, and
imbibed too freely of hard cider or
apple-jack.
The paper is about the same in
quality and if you will carefully
preserve copy of our supplement,
after a number of years 1t will bear
the marks of age-the same as the
original copy now does.
One would hardly believe that a
paper printed in 1900 could be so
nearly reproduced in a modern Office
in the year 1901. 1t simply proves
the fact that the resources of the
Morris County Chronicle office cannot
be equalled in the county. New styles
of type and material are constantly be-
ing addei-and it means to continue
the leading paper during the TWEEN
tieth century, as it has been since it's
birth in the nineteenth century.