Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-20

English alphabet has twenty-six; the (
Italian only twenty; the Russian forty
one; the Sanskrit fifty; the Chinese en-
ploy PA elementary characters. We also
use other symbols besides the letters-in-
Guiding the punctuation marks. numerals
and analogous typographical characters,
we have in our own English language
nearly 100.
Have you ever stopped to- ponder how
far and how fast the combat with ignor-
ance could have been waged had the evo-
luton Of the language halted at the pro-
duction Of an alphabet? What IL we still
had no way OF recording thought except
by the slow and burdensome formation by
hand of each letter of each word at a
timer That much could be accomplished
even by this laborious method must not
be gainsaid, but that we would have built
up our present Institutions on a founda-
ton of parchment and stylus is unthink-
able; widespread popular intelligence, the
consequence Of our almost universal lit
eracy that enables one and all to catch
up with and to keep abreast Of the cur
rent world events would be practically
impossible.
1t is no wonder, then, that for more than
1000 years after the perfection of written
language its possession was limited to the
very few; that the church and the learned
professions. and afterwards the universe
ties, alone preserved the priceless library
treasures Of the ancient poets and phil
osophers, and the costliness of the process
of recording or copying their volumes put
the education they afforded beyond reach
Of the masses. II, as Max Muller aptly
says, Language is our Rubicon, which no
brute will dare to Cross the art Of print
ing is the bridge which invites humanity
to pass over the abyss of ignorance in
safety.
Notwithstanding the fierce dispute waged
for the glory of the achievement, the in
vention Of printing is credited to some
nameless Chinese, who made multiple inn
pressions from engraved wooden blocks
as early as 80 B. c., although it was nearly
l 900 years later before the art was ex-
tensively practiced~ The Chinese are also
credited with having used movable types
as early as the twelfth or thirteenth CEN
turtles.
In Europe, as ] have already observed,
books were produced at first by TRANSCRIPT
ing. most usually on vellum or parchment.
The elaborate initials were often colored
or Illuminated by the monks or clerks who
did the lettering and finally about the
thirteenth century, In Spain and Italy,
these initials were stamped in outline from
raised blocks Of wood employed as a
labor-saving device and from this slowly
developed a complete system of type print
ing. Whether johann Gutenberg or
Laurens Janszoon Coster has the best
claim to be the inventor I need not attempt
to decide. While Coster printed with wood
type in 1923 and later with metal type.
Gutenberg's enterorise in bookmaking in
l4d is the one to which we owe the prac-
teal application. The first printing press
in England was set up in 14T by William
DCaXton and the first one in this country
by Harvard college.
Let us dwell briefly on the tremendous
significance to the future of civilization
which the invention of the printing process
and its successful establishment as a craft
held within it. We know almost nothing
Of the life or activities of the human race
up to the time of recorded written Ian
guage, and nothing Of human thoughts
and aspirations beyond what may be in
ferred from the purely physical environ
ment and CLEANED from meager remnants
Of archaic handiwork. What we know of
mans history and achievements from the
acquisition of written language to the In
vention Of printing is fragmentary and
unsatisfactory, derived principally from in
scriptions on monuments and buildings.
scrolls Of parchment and vellum, and IL
braries of handmade tones copied and re-
copied with accumulated errors. The most
valued works of the most noted authors
of the ancients which we have. have thus
come down to US in mutilated form and
many of the most important intellectual
productions have been altogether lost
Who knows but that hundreds Of the prob
lens which have exacted years of ex.
haustive toll from our most brilliant minds
had not been grappled and solved befort
Gutenberg put togther the movable type.
by which the solutions would nave beer
made indelible for all time to come? w,
must all agree that printing has been vel
defined as the art preservative Of arts
Tor since the invention of printing little
that would be a positive contribution t
the progress Of mankind has been lost t.
those to whom printing has been avail
able. and the ready accessibility of the re
suits previously achieved has enabled eacl
new expedition against ignorance to star
from the vantage point won by the las
skirmish~in the combat. 1t is because o
the invention of printing as much, il no
more. than any other one achievement tina
a present-day philosopher could truthful,
say:
Between the birth of human reason an,
, the invention of writing a long period o
time elapsed; when the art of writing wa
followed by that of printing, man thei
printed all that he had thought and writ
\ ten and at present we possess thousand
r OF volumes which will inform us on a.
e the truths and errors which nave alter
$ nately illumined and obscured the humai
mind.
a MANY things thai our ancestors coul
not fathom are clear to us; what was un
h known to them is known to us. Tha
o which prevents us from following up thi
line of progress through these phases
q that each reply brings forth anew fires
n questions and thus it will be to the en-
If the end should ever arrive"
But many other auxiliary engines of wa
e had to be directed against the f~ortresse
s of ignorance before we could clear tn
n path for operations on a bigger scale.
e Is often hard TO say which step in a for