Amador ledger., 1905-08-11

must nave been d bette paying bu-
siness than it rnsidered today us
he was Il rio h sexton and lived in "a
fashionable houS on the market
place, opposite the royal palace.
We know of printers, poor devils,
nowadays, who are not 50 well heeled.
They may live on the market, or on
th' town, but not always in fashion
able residences.
Well, this sexton used to vile
away his leisure time, between bell
ringing and dusling out the church,
walking through the woods near the
city. He began to cut letters on the
bark of the beechtree; and with
these letters he stamped marks upon
paper in contrary direction, some
thing like seal, | presume. until
finally he formed, or carved out d
few lines for his own amusement and
playthings for the children of his
brother-in-Iaw, for this we'll to-do
grave-digger was sort of an "Un-
Gle Heine.
The result of this experiment sue
ceeded SO well that it surprised the
thinking and inventive Holauder,
and, encouraged, he attempted
greater things.
1t seems his brother-in-la Thom-
as Pietrisou, father of the Katzen-
jammer kids who used to 90 walking
in the woods with Uncle Heire, also
secreted considerable gray matter,
and he assisted in mixing up a thick
er and more adhesive ink, as the
writing fluid was too thin and made
blotted marks when the impression
was taken.
Then he was able to print blocks
figures to which he added letters.
He printed on one side only; and
finally after infinite pains and inces-
SAINT labor actually turned out a
book-the tirst'one ever printed.
1t was called "Spiegal enser Be-
houdenisse,' and | cant blame the
authorities for suppressing it, | be-
lieve would, with that title, unless
some one told me what it meant.
The leaves were pasted together,
back to back, that the naked OF
blank sides might not offend the
eye.
This new and wonderful invention
attracted great attention; as all the
books before that time had to be
written by hand.
Work poured in upon Mr.. Lauren
titus, and he was obliged to hire extra
help. One of these workmen was
named Jan Faust or Faust Jan, I've
forgotten which Anyhow he turned
out to be anything but d square
typo, and had there been Il chapel OF
of the Union at Haarlem, he would
certainly have been called to the
mOurner's bench.
One Christmas eve, when Uncle
Heine was celebrate with his fam,
! lily and trimming the tree, this un-
grateful Jan hastily packed up the
types, ink pads and Washington
hand press, and made off with them.
He first fled to Amerstam, then to
Cologne, and finally brought up al
Mentz, where he opened up a shop,
hung out his shingle and began tc
reap the fruits of his dastardly
deed
Another of the workman taught
the secrets of the art by Laurens,
was John Gutenberg, who told the
secrets to his nephew, John G., Jr.,
an expert mechanic also of Mentz,
who in turn was backed by u wealthy
money lender by the name of John
Fust, who, realizing that he had
really struck good thing, watched
his opportunity to put the blocks tC
Gutenberg when he was caught nap
ping on a payment, and foreclosed
the mortgage.
Getting the print shop in his own
control, Fust hired Peter Schuffer,
an apprentice of Gutenberg's, as
foreman. This young German turned
out to be such an inventive genius
and so valuable to John D. Rock K
mean Fust, that he not only took
him into partnership, but permitted
him to marry his granddaughter,
thereby falling into line for some Of
old John D.'s ill-gotten Doodle.
This same Peter Schpifer invented
casting type from metal, a process
still in use.
This was about 1860.
1t is too bad that the Haarlem
sexton, Laurens, is not more gener
ously recognized as the real inventor
of the art of printing, but somehow
the prevailing impression is thai
Gutenberg, Fust and Scheffer were
the immortal trio to whom the wOrlC