The Hayti herald., 1921-03-24

body of men who do not deserve to
be and are wrongly so designated. In
former days all printers were re-
cruited from three distinct classes
of apprentices The lines of cleav
age between the three were very
straightly drawn.
The first and most important c. :!
was composed of the elect; the we'll
born and well-bred; the amb .nus
young man who desired a higher edu-
cation and who entered printing
Office with the intention Of learning
the business thoroughly, and fitting
himself for a position of Importance
The printing Office was the poor
mans university, and highly esteem
ed as such.
A few generations ago college or
technical training was not easy to
acquire. Youths who today 81 To
colleges and advanced institutions
of learning are the class who for
merly became apprentices in printing
and newspaper Offices, and it was per-
fectly natural, as we'll as indicative
of good judgment and ambition, for
the youth with little money and no
means of getting any, to climb to his
house of dreams thru the medium of
the art of printing. By so doing he
not only acquired liberal education
and broad cultural foundation. but
he learned q most honorable trade
practically profession). at which
he was always sure of a good !iveli-
hood, but he sharpened his wits and
acquired initiative and an amazing
knowledge of human nature. A
newspaper Office was the natural TO-
rum and gathering place for all the
brightest thinkers and of men in
the public eye.
To now almost extinct class OF
American printers belonged such
shining lights as Bayard Taylor,
Bret Harte, Artemus Ward, William
Dean Howells, Ben Shillabar. Opic
Reade, Charles B. Lewis, and a whole
gayaly OF good men and good print
ers That the system of becoming
printers and writer's through the
fingers" was splendid one, the mere
recital of these few names among
many. is evidence.
1t was natural for men of this
stamp to seek to enlarge their Enovl-
edge by travelling about the country
while they worked at their chosen
calling, studying types, gathering
local color. and satisfying their de-
sire strange places to see. Travel
ing in those days was not as easy
and universal as now. Printers traN-
eled afoot when there was anything
to see, hear or learn thereby. They
pa patrorized the railroads when that
best served their turn. They were
respected and respectable, they pfNd
their way, and if they were not veal
thy-why nobody else was, either.
When they had absorbed the atmos-
phere or sights OF one place they took
the next in which they were interest
ed They were in no sense tramp
printers" rs most people understand
the term. When the travelling print
or of this frst class found his niche.
he settled down, and filled it.
II was in this manner that Bayarl
Taylor, famous author, traveller and
diplomat, covered the United State,
and Europe A more polished gentle
man and more graceful writer and
poet i. would be hard to find in his
day. and that his Views .Afoot"
were acquired while continuins
work AS a printer, added rather than
detracted from their value.
Most of the old-time printers were
writer's as well. They gravtated
naturally into the writing profess
sion. Not infrequently, too, these
newspaper men and the humorists
who conducted or contributed col
matter right outer their heads at
the case. 1t seemed at one time as
though every good American humor-
list had been a travelling printer at
one time or another.
Ben Shillabar's Mrs. Partington
and Ike made their debut in the col
umns of the Boston Post. Artemus
Ward hiked all the way from Port
land, Maine, to Boston and then by
easy stages to Cleveland, Ohio, En-
route he studied human nature
gathered local color, making the ac-
quaintance of theatrical and circus
people of every type, gradually Wis
ualizing in his own imagination that
Snowman through whose mouth he
later launched himself into fame The