Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850.Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
"Penny-a-liners" are unknown in Paris; the foreign and home intelligence
being elaborated in general news' offices, independent of the
newspapers. It is there that all the provincial journals are received,
the news of the day gathered up, digested, and multiplied by means of
lithography; which is found more efficacious than the stylet and oiled
"flimsy" paper of our Penny-a-liners. It is from these latter places
too, that the country journals, as well as many of the foreign press,
the German, the Belgium, and the Spanish, are supplied with Paris news.
England is a good market, as most of our newspapers are wealthy enough
to have correspondents of their own.
My first visit to the "Constitutionnel" was in the day-time, and I
caught the editor as he was looking over some of his proofs. Their
curious appearance led me to ask how they were struck off, and, in order
to satisfy me, he led the way up a dark stair, from which we entered
upon the composing-rooms of the premises. These, in appearance, were
like all other composing-rooms that I had seen; the forms, and cases for
the type, were similar to those in London; the men themselves had that
worn and pale look which characterizes the class to which they belong,
and their pallor was not diminished by their wearing of the long beard
and mustache. Their unbuttoned shirts and bare breasts, the short clay
pipe, reminded me of the heroes of the barricades; indeed, I have every
reason to know that these very compositors are generally foremost in
revolutions; and though they often print ministerial articles, they are
not sharers in the opinions which they help to spread. The head printer
contracts for the printing, and chooses his men where he can find them
best. As a body, these men were provident, I was told, and all
subscribed to a fund for their poor, their orphans and widows; they form
a sort of trade union, and have very strict regulations.
I found a most remarkable want of convenience in the working of the
types. For instance, there were no galleys, or longtitudinal trays, on
which to place the type when it was set up; but when a small quantity
had been put together in column on a broad copper table, a string was
passed round it to keep it together. Nor was there any hand-press for
taking proofs; and here I found the explanation of the extraordinary
appearance of the proofs I had seen below. For when I asked to have one
struck off, the head printer placed a sheet of paper over the type, and
with a great brush beat it in, giving the proof a sunken and embossed
appearance, which it seemed to me would render correction exceedingly
difficult. The French, it seems, care not for improvement in this
respect, any more than the Chinese, whom the brush has served in place
of a printing-press for some three thousand years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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