The Glenwood post., 1924-01-17
and considerate Of othsrsss aad was
loved and respected by all who knew
him, It can truly be said of him that
he never had an enemy.
SLOW IN GROWTH
Interesting to Trace Evolution Of
Printed Picture.
Engraving Really Antedates civiIIxa.
tln-lnvention Of the Printing Prees
Step In Upward Move.

Engraving a design on bit Of per.
tory there exists piece Of mammoth
ivory on which is deeply scratched the
portrait of the mammoth itself, and
not by any means inadeQuately, by
some prehistoric artist. But the art
of taking impressions from the en-
graved surface, of printing this de-
signed matriX, was only discovered
during the Fifteenth century, writes
VIII Simmons in Arts and Decora-
ton. The first real prints, as we
know them today, came in response to
the demand for visualized ideas In du-
plicates, frcm budding democracy,
newly formed with the guilds that
were organized for self-protection by
the middle classes of the feudal age.
From the beginning the print was the
product of the people, for the peo-
pie, as opposed to art made for
the churches or for the nobility; for
In feudal times, in the Fourteenth CEN
tury, only the priests could read and
write, only the mobiles could own books
and pictures; the others were peas
ants and "varlots."
The INSTALLATION of ideas, ideog-
raphy, Is one of the most potent forms
of education, and so, as the people be-
came more and more informed the de-
mand for art grew, new processes
were invented to supply more exact
ing criticism, and these new forms
of art created increased demand, up
to this day. Ever since the Dark
ages. the story Of the print is par
allel with the story of democracy, and
the evolution of the graphic arts is
the evolution of the thought of the
people, through various modes, but al
ways from the definite, the concrete
to the abstract idea; from the state
ment of illustration to the suggestion
of art.
Speaking of democracy, the thought
occurs of those ancient republics of
Greece and Rome-did they have
prints to speak for the people? Ap-
parently not. But they had pottery,
the terra Gotta and bronze statuettes
in duplicate, and Saint Paul speaks
of the large trade in little silver SOU
venirs of Diana, of Ephesus, evidently
prototype of religious prints of the
Middle ages, and truly democratic
form Of art. In ancient Egypt the i'm
mense number of scarabs. found, and
small images of the strange divinities
of the Nile valley, seem to show that
even in that forgotten era there was a
supply to meet the demands, however
crude, of the populace.
1t may seem large order to say
that the greatest invention in history
is the print, the picture in duplicate.
but so 1t is; and this has often been
noted, as, for example, by our own
Ben Franklin. For the invention of
the printing press did not come from
the open sky, but was evolved from
the old wood-cut print And all that
printing implies, good and bad, period
icals, illustrations and calendars,
books without end in sight, and, in
deed the very sciences whose growth
is so largely due to the spreading of
information by the printed word; all
this first originated in the attempt of
some humble artist to sell his wares
n duplicate, much as the etchers try
q do today.