VOL. VIII.

No. 3.

B

OW that the typefounders have given us reproductions of body types of a cruder epoch of the art, a short analysis as to their use will not be amiss. However standard they may have been to the earlier users, to us they present but one material claim, that of uniqueness. From this standpoint, then, I will discuss them, in so far as they enter into the realm of competition with other types, although, in my opinion, their reproduction is of more importance in another sense that of the educational. If space permits, the latter phase will receive due attention.

In the specimen sheets showing the black faces referred to, but one use is made of them, namely, a dense massing containing some elements of beauty in such use, but, on the whole, unsatisfactory, except as a novelty. This appears to be their sole object, and, unfortunately, will bring about their speedy demise. It may be taken for granted that, their novelty over, they will settle into oblivion, gathering dust in dark corners until the cycle of time again resurrects them to play an ephemeral part in the ebb and fashion of printerdom.

It is, however, no trivial matter when a new style becomes the vogue; in printing circles as well as elsewhere it entails an outlay of cold cash and a readjustment of taste. It means heartache or heartease

according as the individual succeeds or fails to keep in the line of march.

The early typefounders apparently forgot to make spaces for their types, or, at least, a sufficient amount of them; and one of the leading peculiarities of the newold black letter is a similar distressing fact. Not that our typefounders have forgotten to make spaces, but that the printer of now, trying to reproduce with these faces the beauties of ancient typographic art, loses sight of this predominant peculiarity. The successful use of the letter depends almost wholly on the liberal non-use of spaces. Sometimes, indeed frequently, whole lines look best when not spaced at all, or with no more than the thinnest of spaces. This necessity, however, brings their shortcoming vividly to the front, if viewed solely as attempts to reproduce the prints of past centuries. To the printer of today, imbued as he is with a reluctance to divide words, this becomes the greatest stumbling-block to its successful use, and he will more frequently than otherwise sacrifice this, its direst necessity, to his predilections. In other words, he will space as before, damning the whole ensemble by an incongruous attempt to harmonize the principles of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The type is accompanied by grotesque and often unintelligible initials, remarkable chiefly for the pat manner in which

they emphasize the peculiarity of the type, and their proper use is as distinct as that of the body. While the ordinary rule of a hanging indention is still followed, the indention is much modified; in fact, crowded. The type must all but touch the initial all around to gain the proper effect. Of course it is entirely unnecessary to say that leads are not wanted -that is, if the crudity is wanted. For the rest, band borders and florets in profusion accompany the stuff, and if properly used, aid materially in carrying out the grotesquerie.

The type thus far referred to is of a Roman cast of countenance, but a much more useful and decidedly beautiful reproduction of mediaeval faces is given concurrent with it. This is modeled on the text-like letters of the earliest printers, and is not unlike the gothics which were the parents of the earlier texts. That it has not "caught on" with the same rapidity as the Roman black-letter, is perhaps the best augury that it has come to stay. At any rate it can not be accused of being a novelty only.

It is a trite axiom that history teaches us more than the present. In this light these reproductions of former standards of beauty in type become interesting as educators. How few printers, who toil unceasingly at their chosen trade from the dawn of manhood until the grim reaper gathers them in, take the trouble to ac

quaint themselves with the origin and growth of the art is too well known to need recital. It is a matter to more than comment upon, that of job printers so small a percentage is familiar with the meaning of the names of types that fall so glibly from their tongues. Thus, then, when reproductions of former classics of beauty in type become the fashion, working themselves into every crevice of the trade, as in this instance, their educational value to the printer is at once vast and compulsory. The printer probably does not now exist in this country who is not familiar with Nicholas Jenson and his type, whereas comparatively few before knew such an individual existed. Such a knowledge begets a larger want, and presently we have Jack Printer delving deeper into the past until he is brought up short, with the alleged Coster to digest. Once he arrives so far in his research, he will not give up the study willingly. It is much too engrossing to lightly lay aside. The study of earliest models of type will become a revelation to him. In their crudeness and ofttime grotesqueness he will find the progenitors of many faces he now believes to be originals. He will become engrossed in studies in black-Speculums, Psalters, Letters of Indulgences— until his very soul will be lifted into a higher atmosphere, and he will become a better man-and there I will allow him to remain.

-J. G. Holland.

When we come to view the vast number of improvements and labor-saving devices introduced in the past decade into almost every branch of industry, it is surprising to note how far that of printing-or, properly speaking, typesetting -has lagged behind the procession. True, the work of the press room has gradually undergone the process of a revolution, until today inventors seem at their wits' end for further improvement; but, prior to the introduction of the machine, the art of sticking type was the same as when our good brother Franklin was a devil in knickerbockers. Many of the greatest and most useful inventions had their origin and have become commonplaces while the printer has filled his stick and hustled for fat in the good old way of his daddies. And now there comes a man who views this primitive mode of composition in much the same light Mr. Robert Stevenson must have viewed the "rapid" transit vehicles of his day; so, grafting his experience to that of the many others preceding him, he presents the craft with what it is pleased to regard as a new devil-the machine.

Now, there are some doubtless wellmeaning but over-wrathy brethren who appear to delight in flinging great hunks of abuse at Mr. Merganthaler for contributing to the age one of its greatest and, doubtless, most useful inventions. If these brethren really derive benefit or pleasure in making faces at the giant progress, they should not select an individual, but all the progeny of mother evolution; for it must be remembered that the ablest men whose names have gone down to history in connection with great discoveries and inventions, have each in

reality advanced the sum of knowledge by a comparatively small addition. In the fullness of time, when the ground has been slowly and laboriously prepared for it by a vast army of workers, the great idea unfolds and the discovery is heralded. It is, in fact, not the work of one, but of a great number of persons whose previous work has led up to it. These great ideas are rather the product of the times than of individuals, for be it remembered there have been rival claims of authorship put forward by persons who, working quite independently, have arrived at like results almost simultaneously. Thus, rival claims have been made for the theory of evolution, the interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphics, etc., and the invention of the steam-engine, the methods of analysis, the telegraph, telephone, and many other of the greatest discoveries and inventions. No great idea can, in truth, be said to have been the product of a single mind, Mr. Merganthaler's not excepted.

We, as printers, are not more favorably impressed with the iron compositor than were our friends the teamsters of a half century ago with the iron horse, nor the spinners and weavers with the automata of their calling; and there was a time. when the seamsters prophesied dire results because Howe had struck a new note in the song of the shirt. But somehow these cataclysms were side-tracked and turned into blessings, and this new compositor will not prove an exception. To begin with, it has already done more to relieve an overcrowded trade than all the black balls ever cast, and our past and present low wages are simply the result of a glut in the print market. This fact may contain no comfort for those of us

who have been called upon to make the sacrifice, but it will do much to benefit and build up the trade and those who are to follow it in time to come. The outs have contributed to this condition what? Merely a situation. Does any man's existence on this orb depend upon one situation? one employer?, one rut to work in? The world owes every man a living and she generally pays her debts without discount. These are the facts we have to face, and they can't be dodged: If a printer can't print, he must lend his ability to other arts, and the sooner the better, not alone to himself, but the occupation which he leaves and the one to which he goes. That it is a fallacy to proclaim him unfit for other employment is clear to me from the fact that the most successful ones I know or have heard of made their success in other employment. Nay, say not that the compositor, with his quick perception and boasted intelligence, is fit only to gravitate from place to place in his gradual but sure retreat from the new era, seeking the unattainable, that Utopia of present aspiration-a steady situation. But many of these have been good and dutiful children in the past, and now, in the day of their misfortune, the International should be a good mother. Men who have, by their moral and financial support, devoted long years of their existence in building up a great organization, are certainly entitled to its generosity. in the hour of their need. Out-of-work benefits are well meant, but, I fear, misdirected. It appears impracticable to create a charity fund for this purpose in view of the fact that their number is steadily increasing, and must continue so to do for how long we can not tell; so that, in a short time, there would be more dependents than could possibly be provided for. If we had any assurance that this condition would be of short duration, an outof-work fund would not only become feasible, but appropriate as well. But,

unfortunately, as we have not this assurance, the scheme appears more humane than practicable; to be one more of theory than of condition.

In this connection I have a modest and not altogether original suggestion to offer -one which I believe the craft would do well to consider in a purely business sense: A remedy for this condition would be to take advantage of the vast extent of arable land which this country affords. Millions of acres hunger and thirst through the dewey spring and parched summer for the tillage of the husbandman. All, of course, could not go west or come south, but many quite enough to relieve an over-stocked trade-could do so; and in this view I would suggest that certain sums of money could very reasonably be given those willing to migrate from mechanical to agricultural puruits. I believe something like this exists in the older countries; certainly in England the sum of £15-about $75—is given to any mechanic belonging to certain trades-unions who will either emigrate to Australia or enter into the farming business. This example might not be a bad one to follow here. The scheme may be attended with many difficulties, but I believe them capable of being overcome. I mention this occupation because it appears to be the only one that has not already too many followers, and because, as a printer friend remarked to me (he has himself adopted farming, without previous experience, and has done well), it is the only honorable occupation a poor man may follow and be free and absolutely independent—a condition peculiarly commendable to a printer.

When we shall have come to consider these remedies seriously, and cease contending with the inevitable, I believe the majority of printers alive today will yet have reason to regard the machine not alone as a wonderful invention, but as a beneficial one also.

A report recently issued by the Detroit agricultural committee on the cultivation of idle lands in the city limits by the poor and unemployed shows some interesting results. This plan of assisting poor people originated with Mayor H. S. Pingree, and was first tried in 1894, after much opposition and ridicule. Its object was to assist people with families who were in poor circumstances, "by permitting and encouraging them to cultivate idle land lying within or near the city limits gratuitously offered for that purpose by charitable persons."

The committee cites that there are in Detroit a great number of workingmen with large families who are not able to secure continuous employment and whose wages are not sufficient to support their families, and in consequence are driven to ask aid from the organized charities during the whole or a portion of the winter months. To assist such persons to be self-dependent, and also such other able-bodied persons who were, for various reasons, objects of charity, was the purpose of the plan.

It is stated that there are lying idle within the city of Detroit over six thousand acres of land, portions of which, if cultivated in small pieces by the classes mentioned, would more than suffice to make them comfortable and independent of charity.

In 1894 about 430 acres were secured and parceled out to 975 families, the necessary funds $3,600-to carry out the plan being raised by subscription. Altho igh operations did not begin until the middle of June and the cultivators had to contend with drought, crops to the value of from twelve thousand dollars to fourteen thousand dollars were harvested.

The plan having proved so successful the common council readily appropriated $5,000 to carry out the work in 1895, and the agricultural committee, headed by Mayor Pingree, was early in the field. About 455 acres were secured, which was staked off into 1,546 parcels, the lots lying in various parts of the city, principally in those portions where the workers lived. The committee turned the land over to the cultivators, plowed, harrowed and staked off into parcels of from one-quarter to one-half acre each. The planting was done under the direction of foremen, with seed largely furnished by the committee, and two mounted policemen watched over the small farms, which were unfenced. Comparatively little trespassing was reported.

The lots were given out mainly to such deserving heads of families as were recommended by the city poor commission, 1,258 of the 1,546 applicants being on the commission's books. It is stated by the committee that no difficulty was experienced in getting people to take lots, it being even necessary, for want of sufficient land, to refuse a number of applicants. This experience seems to clearly indicate that it is an error to conclude that the poor and destitute in general will decline to embrace opportunities to help themselves.

A great variety of vegetables were raised by the cultivators, which were from time to time consumed for food, the principal crops, however, being potatoes, beans and turnips. The crops were as carefully cultivated as those of the best market gardeners. In fact the care was so uniformly meritorious that it was impossible to award some contemplated prizes for the best-kept tracts.