The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-06-18
MANY GREAT MEN
FORMER PRINTERS
Continued From Page One)

visited the city where his brother
lived, and where he held an impor-
tant federal Office. He had seen a
man pointed out as his brother, leave
the federal building and take a car
out home. The man had walked
near him, only few feet separated
them, but there was no sign of re-
cognition. John Kelley. white-hair.
ed with long flowing white beard
bore no resemblance to the smooth.
faced man who went out into the
world from Cincinnati more than a
third OF a century before. The
brother, who had often wondered
where the wanderer was, had not
the slightest intimation he was at
that time so near.
/ have often wondered where John
Kelley landed. or where he ended
his days. He was growing old the
last time I saw him, but was still
vigorous and active. He said he
would never go the Printers Home
in Colorado, but would die true to
his vow of loyalty to his girl wife.
Therefore it can be said that to be
only printer means something af-
ter all. for
Just somehow or other, l don't know just how.
Our civilization hung green on the bOugh
Some dozens of centuries, refused to get ripe
Until Gutenberg made the movable type.
1t is strange how those versatile pieces of wood
Proceeded at once on their jobs to make good.
How those characters, angled. crossed, dotted
and curled,
In the hands of the printer enlightened the
world.
Spread knowledge abroad. as it were. on the
breeze,
Through highways and byways. DER mountains
and seas,
Monopoly greatest the ages has wrought.
Since it owned the one line for the transfer of
thought;
Yet it taught prince and peasant and pauper
to read.
And reading, to think, and in thinking to heed.
And so assert the world never grew ripe
Till Gutenberg made the first movable type.
The astronomers study, historians lore,
Geographers knowledge of sea and of shore;
The wisdom of sages. the epigram of terse,
The science of numbers. the rhymth of verse;
Love tales of ages. delightful to youth,
The novelists fiction. philosophers truth;
Tales told by the genii of candle and lamp;
The glory of battle. the story of camp.
The splendOr and power of the great of the
earth,
The pleasure, the passion, the sorrow, and
dearth.
All of life. all of DEATH since creation began
And God breathed the first breath of life into
man,
Nay even the knowledge of God and His laws,
Are common to all, and are common because
OF the printer, embalmer of thought and whose
trade,
Is due to the type DR.. Gutenberg made.
With his rule in his pocket. his foot and his hand
This printer knight Grant r0amed every land:
The giants of ignorance he knocked in the head.
And set up temple of knowledge instead.
And with only stick for a weapon, he made
The heaven-bom rulers of Kingdoms afraid.
Raised liberty up and pulled tyranny down;
Laughed divinity out of both king and his
crown.
Made .lexicons, grammars. and Strengthened
And then by his art placed them all within
reach,
Thus taking from sources of knowledge the ban,
And making the savage a civilized man.
An Ismaelite he. since the day of his birth
Distributing news and himself round the earth
A troubador. smoking. not playing his pipe,
In the plan of creation, the movable type.