The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-01-10
THE HILBERT HUBBARD LEG
 TIRE

| Ahhi| I-LbEItI I1UBbAfLD biAS' TURF.
 The tickets for the Ebert Hubbard
 lecture on "The Work of the Roycrof.
 ters, to begin In Harmonic Hall neX
 fflday evening, January 11th, have ar
 rived and are on sale at Judd's book
 store. They are printed "Roycroftic,'
 and were made by hand at the Roy
 croft shop in East Aurora. This shoI
 IS the headquarters of the Society of the
 Phll1stines, and from it is issued every
 little while"-that most eccentric ano
 interesting little monthly known as the
 Phllistine Magazine, but it is for beau- tltul work in bookmaking that the
 Roycrofters have gained their fame. Nowhere else in America are such ere
 ations in bookcraft put forth. The pro
 duction of the Shop is not large, for | the work is all hand done, but the vol | umes that do go forth all have on them | the stamp of delicate and affectionate
 workmanship. This little country town printing plant gives free instruction to
 the natives in water colors, crayon
 drawing and hand Illuminating, and
 whenever young man or woman on probation shows that his or her work
 is valuable, the shop at once hires the 1 new artist, pays wages for work done
 and at the end of the year divides prof I it's. At present there are two hundred
 workers in the Roycroft shop busy in making and adorning books, and all Of these book-makers are Hubbardized
 East Aurorans. The only importation in the Roycroft shop is a Leipsic book binder, who works miracles in leavant and teaches to the young Roycrofters the mysteries of his art.
 Roycroft books are not for the people with whom yellow covered novel suf- fees. They are the best in literature and they are the best in dress Some people are so choice of them that they do not try to read them, or, they buy two copies, one to read and the other to keep in a glass case. And it Is de- light to own thing that was made simply to be beautiful. The paper is strong and fine and has the Roycroft Watermark: the covers are sometimes of gray boards and gilt lettered, which is perfectly simple and agreeable way to bind book while others are flexible leather with satin Things and letters and designs in relief. Recently crushed Ievant has entered into the stock of the shops and some gorgeous bindings will be put upon the new one hundred dol lar copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets, hand illumined and printed on real vel lum-the only book ever published in America with leaves of vellum. None of the books are copies of one another. The illuminations all vary as regards 1,a ,o1o oai, af l,o+ of a Roycroft volume has one that Is unique,
 Such books are luxuries, of course, but they are luxuries that never pail upon one As in the case of the Kelm- scott books, they are so few in number that copies are not distributed to the press for notice they are not sold in bookstores, they are not advertised. Who wants one must send for fit. It Is in the fact that every book is different that the meaning and value of thls ex- pertinent in art colonization consists.
 Here is a village, without ideals, without industries of consequence, with no great amount of money, and 1t is one of the last places on the earth that one would pick out as the seat of an en- terprise like this. Commonly the best things to expect from country village is a chair factory or a woolen mll where people grind away at the same | old tasks year after year, never grow ing wiser or abler or developing in any way.
 In the Roycroft shop the farmers | boys and the boarding house walters and the mechanics girls are learning to become artists. There is a quiet faced daughter of the village black smith, who, two or three months ago, did not know a paint brush by sight She went to the free art school institu- ted by MT. Hubbard, and now she has )ne of the ta bes in the Illuminating de- oartment and is doing work that shows aptness. Nobody in the shop has finer feeling for color and nicer delicacy of taste than she. One thing in the shop is that here are no bosses, no heads of depart nents. All are on equal terms. MT Jises, but never commands. He never las to. This is an industrial commune md no member of it feels himself breed to stay All are working not merely for money but for art. And hey take joy in their work, carrying 'nt Hubbards s first Roycroft principle, hat Art is the expression of mans joy Il his work"