The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-10-10
Methods Of Native TypeSet-
terS Employed by Uncle Sam
NEARLY ALL STUDENTS
Former American Employee Of the Ma
Mia Office Says the Natives Operate
Linotype Machines With Very
Fair Success.

An interesting statement descriptive
Of the government printing Office at
Manila and Of the Filipino typos en-
ployed there by Uncle Sam was made
recently to Washington Star report
er BY Arthur r. Ferl, a recent EN-.
ployee of that far away institution, but
who is now setting type in the govern
ment printing office ia Washington.
"The government printing Office at
Manila, said Mr. Eerl, employs near
" 300 people, fifty Of whom are Amer
leans, The balance being Tagalogs, VI
sayans, Bicols, Igorrotes and represent.
atives from various other tribes from
one end Of the archipelago to the 9th.
er. 1t is no uncommon thing to find
two or three boys working side by side
who cannot converse in their native
tongue, and these generally resort I'd
Spanish, switch nearly all understand.
They are nearly all students and readi-
ly acquire a knowledge of the English
language The employees of this OF.
fee are required to attend night school,
SO that now every native who has been
in the office any length of time speaks
English.
1t should be borne IN mind that the
Manila printing office is one of the
most modern institutions in the world,
having all the latest and most inn
proved machinery for printing, folding,
binding, electrolyping, photo engrav-
ing, etc Many of the machines would
puzzle an American unless he was mp
to date, and yet the natives are han
ding all these machines with such
success that very few of the Ameri-
can employees are required to do more
than oversee the work.
In the front Office may be seen
native clerks, bookkeepers. stenog
raphers and typewriters and messen-
gers The work in the proof room is
done by Americans with lady copy
holders and a few native readers and
eopyholders, who handle the dialects
and most of tile Spanish Ii the com
posing room are an American fore
man, two or three linotype operators
and several others in such positions as
makeup imposer. etc, all Of whom are
Instructors while the fifty or more
natives in the room do the work Here
may be seen a native operating Al
double deck Mergenthaler with such
ease and comfort as would make IN
antimaehine mans eyes pop out Of
his head, and. while the average native
cares even less than we do for hard
work, they take to the machine as il
they were made for each other
.Of the twelve linotype machines in
the office ten are operated by our little
brown brothers, and with very fair
success. All jobwork and blank work
is done by natives; the copy must be
carefully prepared, Of course. and us
everything is printed in English and
Spanish on the same sheet this is
quite a task About the same proper
ton Of printRrs make good job printers
as Is found among Americans
"There Is an American printers
union in Manila to which the natives
do not belong but they have a society
among themselves which takes tile
place Of a union, as evidenced by an
incident thgt happened about year
ago We were very busy in the Office
and did not propose to recognize a Ger.
tain church holiday, SO a number Of
the employees (nativesl sent note to-
the public printer, which, while it was
hardly English, meant, We under
stand that we have to work tomorrow,
but as it is holiday we do not intend
to do So And they didn't
"All Filipinos who do no hard work
have three long finger nails the thumb
and fore6nger on the left hand, which
the printers use as tweezers, and the
little finger on the right hand.
1T looks quite picturesque 70 see
two or three hundred natives coming
TO work in the morning, all dressed in
white hut go through the building iif-
teen minutes after enc whistle blows,
ana what DO we sect The white suits
have all disappeared. ana we behold a
motley collection Of skinny brown
arms ana bong legs clad III d scanty
suit OF underwear
While the office hours in the Ma
Mia office are from s to Y q M and ?
to ; r. m. which would seem easy
enough FOR any one il is hard to keep
the native, nc work lie mnst take d
rest Of two OF three days every few
weeks. and on this account 1t i ny
most impossible 70 put q native in o
| position where there is any RESPONSE
bllity or where be has charge Of a
number Of men When he wants to
stay away from the Office he Is re-
/ quired to furnish an excuse and | re-
call one mum in particular who buried
seven children, his mother and father
and several brothers and sisters in one
year They are all like lot Of chill
dren and have 10 be treated as such'
Denth IN Comb.
A woman recently fell from tram
/ xt+n4y aa4. "a Afuui91, and dfa3 from in