CHAPTER IX 315 How an Illustrated Newspaper is Produced--Wood-Engraving--Boxwood--Blocks for Illustrated Newspapers--Rapid Sketching--Drawing on the Block--Method of Dividing the Block for Engraving--Electrotyping--Development of the Printing Machine--Printing Woodcuts--Machinery for Folding Newspapers--Special Artists--Their Dangers and Difficulties--Their Adventures in War and Peace. CHAPTER X 355 Artists who have assisted in founding the Pictorial Press--Sir John Gilbert, R.A., G. H. Thomas, and others--Wood-Engraving and its Connexion with the Pictorial Press--Other Methods of producing Illustrations--Wood-Engraving in England before and after Bewick's time--Its wide Diffusion owing to the kindred Art of Printing--The resources of the Art developed by Pictorial Newspapers--Conclusion. Newspapers a Necessity of Civilised Life--The _Acta Diurna_ of the Romans--Early Newspapers in Venice, Germany, and the Low Countries--List of Illustrated Newspapers published Abroad. THE PICTORIAL PRESS: ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. CHAPTER I. The Pictorial Taste Universal--The Early 'News-books'--Development of the Newspaper Press--General use of Newspapers--Establishment of Illustrated Journals--Wandering Ballad Singers the First Newsvendors--The _English Mercurie_ of 1588--The Abolition of the Star Chamber and its Effect on the Press. The inherent love of pictorial representation in all races of men and in every age is manifest by the frequent attempts made to depict natural objects, under the most unfavourable circumstances and with the slenderest means. The rude drawing scratched on the smooth bone of an animal by the cave-dweller of pre-historic times, the painted rocks of the Mexican forests, and the cave-paintings of the Bushmen, are all evidences of this deeply-rooted passion. The child of civilised life looks with delight on his picture-book long before he can make out the letters of the alphabet, and the untutored Esquimaux treasures up the stray number of an illustrated newspaper left in his hut by the crew of some whaling ship, though he cannot understand one word of the printed page. But the pictures speak a universal language, which requires no teaching to comprehend.