HE remarkable progress made in late years in the quality of zinc etching has caused some pangs of regret among printers, whose work it in a measure supersedes. Especially is this true of the old-timer who clings with fond remembrance to the erstwhile habit of embellishing his work with rule-made scrolls. Such ornamentation, as a distinct style, has passed away, perhaps forever. It is no longer the thing, and except some jayhawker from the extreme backwoods wants a reprint of a job done ten years ago, no one indulges in it. Nevertheless, the memory of it lingers, and hence the regret. But zinc-etched ornamentation, scroll and otherwise, continues to flourish apace, growing more in use every day, and this fact only serves to emphasize the old-timer's regret. It is, in truth, somewhat exasperating to find a new shrine building on the foundations of an old one you have helped to lay, and to know you can not hope to approach sufficiently near to worship at it.

But all this regret does not alter the fact that this new order of things is fraught with benefits to the printer man. It is an unnecessary-to-state truism that all progress tends to an aim. Progress needs no elucidation; it is natural. For a time it may occasion or seem to occasion hardships, but its aim and fulfillment in the end is progress. This particular stride,

too, is a step in the ladder of fulfillment which began when printers first saw the gleam of a rational art struggling through an atmosphere of puerile ambiguity. It has greatly helped to simplify the output of the stick. If for nothing more than the impetus it has given to make the printer's product direct and legible it should be commended.

We are coming back to primal principles, like the devotees of every other art that has had a rise and fall. Simplicity is becoming our chief characteristic, and if any other branch of the trade sees fit to take our incongruity and emphasize it, so much the better for us. This lapse into the former directness of the art is the underlying cause of the recent reproductions of the mediaeval black letters now the fad. They themselves will not last long, because too crude to satisfy the more exact tastes we have developed with these many years, but as primal types. they are unalterably the best examples. If you want to see the truth of this statement, just take a specimen book and study the black faces therein. You can take any one type and trace it back to some former distinct make.

But to come back to zinc etching. The mere thought of a zinc etching carries me back into an atmosphere filled with the nauseating odor of acids. It is a considerable number of years since I began at the trade, but one of the earliest recollec

tions I have of it is a group of anxious faces bending over a piece of common tinners' zinc on which was limned something or other in black and which was wet with the aforesaid evil-odored acid. I do not clearly remember what success they had in their attempt, but I know that the boisterous quality of that acid was something wonderful. It searched into every nook and corner of the place, and as an exasperator, ammonia or even binders' stale paste wasn't in it. I suspect now that it also searched too deeply into the white metal, and that my colleagues in failing to check its too deadly work failed to discover the real secret of the process. But whether they found the secret or not matters little now, since to the printer having occasion to adapt to his work the finished product of the process it must be immaterial whether the manipulator succeeded in checking the nitric corroder at the proper point or not. The fact is here that zinc-etched work has come to stay, and, having come, it remains for the printer to adapt himself to its use. he can go further and adapt it to his use. Especially is this true in large establishments where time is saved all around by having an engraving department as part of the plant. Zinc-etched plates are an excellent medium for reverse work, as the hardness of the metal is unknown in any other. In this field alone magnificent opportunities are offered to do striking and effective work, for, somehow, the beauty of a face of type is greatly enhanced by bringing it into a white relief on a dark ground. Three-colored work is easily done in two impressions by etching a little larger than the type face, and printing in direct from the original type, the extra vacuum showing white between the solid background of the reverse plate and the type face.

But

When in addition to wellselected colors the type color is embossed the effect is the richest imaginable, and he would be a fastidious customer indeed who would cavil at the product or the increased price it necessitates over ordinary

work. As a matter of fact it needs but slight additional work beside the embossing, as the corroder will at any rate eat away slightly more than the face of the type, and with a little enlarging by the engraver will answer the requirements. Of course this should not be attempted with very small faces of type. Panel work can also be done in conjunction with the above, and when the panel itself is of the kind recently seen so much in engraved ad work, that is, of a scroll nature (I don't mean the Aubrey Beardsley kind) the effect will add to the general whole. Surely here is a grand field to harness this much-abused new factor!

At the present time, however, the principal use made of the process seems to consist in designs too intricate to be encompassed by the use of rule; in other words, the class of work frequently seen in commercial lithography. Initial letters are also largely made from this material, as well as pure embellishments. The output thus occupies a somewhat hackneyed if distinct field, and can perhaps be best described as a cross between a legitimate engraving and a non-chromatic lithograph. This gives a semblance of justification to the printers' growls on the encroachment, despite the fact that the zinc-etched output is far superior to his own clumsy attempts in the same field.

But as the field will surely broaden by new adaptations of its use we need not quarrel with its growth. To the really artistic printer nothing is unwelcome which marks a step in advance over crude conditions pertaining. A point to illustrate this is the pleasure we feel when seeing a beautifully engraved ad page in any one of our trade journals. Some, of course, will maintain that such an ad takes away just that much work from the printer, but who can measure the impetus it gives to advertising itself? And is not that a gain to counterbalance a loss? The subject is broad, and if you quietly think it over perhaps you won't feel as gloomy as before.

According to promise, I continue my story concerning the organization of our "country cousins," which really consists of a reconstruction of our present systems, inasmuch as benefits in other lines are also striven for and would naturally follow the adoption of the plan here submitted.

The proposition is divided into four parts, but the first three are to be understood to be concurrent, not to follow each other.

PART I.

Let state and district unions be established throughout the entire jurisdiction of the International Typographical Union -state unions in states large enough to maintain a union, and district unions where it is desirable to combine two or more states. Let these state and district unions have the power to adopt a constitution and make such laws as may be desired for government in such states and districts, providing that no laws be passed conflicting with the constitution and laws. of the International Typographical Union. Let these unions meet annually to discuss and enact into law such measures as are found to be wanting, and for the special purpose of devising ways and means to organize the country printers and push the label into every printing office in their territories. Let one of the

officials of such unions be an organizer to be named a state or district organizer, as the case may be-he to devote his spare time to the work of educating, by letters, circulars and literature, and organizing the country brethren. Some plan should be adopted whereby county unions could be organized in counties in which there are no union towns, to which all such country craftsmen should be admitted.

Such state and district unions should be privileged to levy upon all subordinate unions in their jurisdiction a per capita tax, say from ten cents to twenty cents per year, for each member of such subordinate unions, with which to pay the legitimate expenses connected with the maintenance of such state and district unions. The International Typographical Union should pay the expenses connected with the work of the organizerspostage, stationery, literature, instituting subordinate unions, and a fair amount to those officers for the time they devote to the work. Each state and district union should be allowed one delegate to the conventions of the International Typographical Union, and jurisdictions having over a certain number of members in their territory should be allowed two delegates.

Note. There are at present seven state and district unions existing-California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and the First and Tenth Districts— but they are absolutely unable to do anything like the amount of good they could do under a system like the above. Article xx of the International Typographical Union constitution, which relates to such unions, is simply no good, and I may here say that a substitute has been prepared which will likely be indorsed by the above unions and presented to the International Typographical Union convention for adoption. A copy of this substitute will shortly be mailed to each subordinate union, and I hope it will be carefully considered and acted upon as per request accompanying it.

PART II.

There should be at International Typographical Union headquarters an official to be called chief organizer. He might be elected with the president and secre