The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1910-10-20
--. 81 90 a year, IN advance
sEHMS Six Menths, so cents.

much interest, beautifying it and the
surroundings, melting Gutenberg by
her words and actions to greater
energy in his pursuits and encour-
aging him in the many troublous
times that he met.
While Gutenberg was devising
and trying to perfect his plans for
the economical production of books
and pictures, he gained a 1neager
living as a lapidary The front
room of the cottage was turned into
a shop and there during the day he
polished precious stones and mirrors,
and at night he labored over his
wooden blocks and made trial after
trial to get an ink that would print
from them properly.
He had no press as yet. A press
would cost money and that was the
rarest thing in the Gutenberg cot
tage. There were love there and
patience and perseverance, and in
dustry, but none of these were nego-
table, SO Gutenberg had not given
much thought to press. He would
daub some ink on one of his engraved
blocks. place sheet of paper on it
and by rubbing with smooth piece
OF wood get sufficient pressure to
make t b e impression. A second
sheet would go through the same
process on another block, the two
sheets would be pasted together and
there would be two pages of book
ready to be bound.
A slow process, eh? Yes, it was
so slow that John Gutenberg and
his wife Anna came to the edge of
starvation. Gutenberg wavered;
there was at least living in polish
ing mirrors and precious stones; but
the wife had confidence in Gutenberg
and his invention, so they starved
on and Gutenberg devoted still more
time to his new art.
It's long step back to the days
when printing was being invented.
There have been many changes and
improvements but t he starvation
feature as practiced by Gutenberg
and his wife has not changed a par
ticle. Printers starve now in just
the same way Gutenburg did five
hundred years ago.
OF course, Gutenberg could not
go on like this definitely. There
comes time in such cases where
the body refuses to be driven any
longer by the will and this was the
condition with Gutenburg when he
was solicited for partnership by
Andreas Dritzhn a well-to-do Stras-
bourger. Several 9TH er citizens
were taken into the firm and Guten-
burg found himself in possession of
means to prosecute his inventions
without the worry caused by his
former financial difficulties.
He soon worked out a model of
press and had one constructed.
Affairs were going along swim
mingly for Gutenberg now; the
prlntshop was very busy place
and though the demand for books
was limited in Strasbourg, they
were making small editions and sell
ing everything they printed but
fall their plans were disarranged By
the sudden death of Dritzhn. and
the action of two brothers who were
his heirs.
These two crafty relatives of an
honest man wanted to succeed their
brother as members of the firm and
although the partnership agreement
provided for just the contrary, they
started suit against Gutenberg to
force him to take them in. They
lost the suit, but SO much publicity
was given to Gutenburg's undertak-
ing that he decided to destroy his
plant.
1t was heart breaking finish to
such noble plans and Gutenberg, dis
couraged, determined to leave Stras-
bourg. Until just before the dis
truction of the plant at Strasbourp.
Gutenberg had done all his printing
from solid wooden blocks with a
full page on each block; but at this
time he conceived the idea of form
ing each letter on block itself.
This was the crowning discovery of
his life as it made possible the use
OF the type on many different books.
whereas the solid blocks could only
be used on the one book for which
they were made. Gutenburg's ban
ishment from Mentz had been raised
an d on leaving Strasbourg he
returned to his native city. In
Concluded m column 8 this poge.)