Paul and the Printing Press

rmingham High School but into the home of almost every child in the town. It was a good number, exceptionally s

page of alumn? notes; another page devoted to general school news; a section on school sports; another section on girls' clubs and handicraft. The drawing master

oungsters. He had not dreamed they could do so well. It was a great surprise to him. Why, the product was quite an eye opener! A paper for general home use might not be such a bad thing in Burmingham. There was actually something in this March Ha

nomenal and it spurred Paul, to whom it was repeated, to increased e

sted in and saw no reason for publishing anything else in the paper. Some thought more room should be given to athletics; some clamored that the "highbrow stuff" be cut out; others w

ment from which scars of bitterness might have survived, a harmonious body of workers finally stood shoulder to shoulder, each with enthusiasm to make

g together, each at the post assigned him-toiling for the success of the whole body. Was it such a different thing from football or baseball after all? Business managers, authors, advertising agents, were working quite as hard to do

especial role on the team, and as a result the second issue of

ry direction, began to write for the publication to be sent them; it was good, they said, to get once more into touch with their Alm

ay them gradually found their way. Many of these persons had done little writing and woul

,-a poem so amusing and so good-natured yet withal containing such a pitiful little refrain of disappointm

lly so hard as that to bring a good crop of fruit to perfection? If so, the boy was a

led themselves of this suggestion, and before a month was out there blossomed forth a host of stones of every imaginable hue set in rings or scarfpins of silver. Stone-hunting became a craze and the geological d

o wished either to make designs for jewelry, or

ones she had collected-common pebbles that had been polished-and it was the envy of the entire

begged to be allowed to melt up old water pitch

shness of subject matter and a freedom of expression in such complete contrast to other publications that even such an august medium a

d of Paul permission to reprint in the columns of his paper an arti

e should be glad to have him use it on the condition that he printed the source from which he had obtained it. One of his men told me afterward that we let him off too easy-that Carter was d

rankness had always been one

o put a price on your product. Mr. Carter has done quite a little to boost your undertaking and you can

you like it. I don't know but that when I'm through college, I'd like to go in and be a reporter. I'd like to write

s to it besides the badge and the pl

always envied those chaps who whispered some magic wo

st as bad at wanting what other people cannot

col

all enjoy having a pull and getting the b

ertheless, the impulse is a ver

Paul's bedtime. Outside the rain was beating on the windows; but inside a fire crack

if printing came soon after the illuminated books, and who invented it. I couldn't answer their question and as yet have had no t

ted and hand-penned manuscripts and books; but before printed books made their appearance, there was an interval when printers tried to say what they had to say by means of pictures. You know how we give a child a picture book as a first approach to more serious reading. He is too undeveloped to comprehend printed words; but he can understand

paused in hi

aking playing cards. A coarse, thick, yellowish paper was beginning to be produced-the first crude attempt at paper-making-and on this material were engraved woodcuts of varying degrees of artistic merit. Some of the designs were merely ugly and clumsy; but some, on the other hand, were really exquisite examples of hand-coloring, unique and quaint in pattern. Thus playing cards came speedily into vogue. The finest ones were painted on tablets of ivory, or engraved on thin sheets of silver. It is interesting, too, to note that the old conventional designs then in use have, with very litt

ere anything like ours?" ques

in those dull, monotonous days, when there were neither theaters, books, moving pictures, railroads, or automobiles. One day was much like another. Therefore even the clergy welcomed a diversion and devoted so much time to cards that the recreation had to be forbidden them. Now and then some great religious movement would sweep over the land and break up card-pla

to get arithmetic

knowledge of numbers c

se. But I never th

r. Cameron. "For years all its attention had been given to warfare, and learning and the

arithmetic by means of p

ur to learning. You will be interested also to know, since we are discussing playing cards, that the four suits are said to represent the four great social classes of society

nteresting

I thin

the i

image-prints served to perpetuate to a great extent things which they liked and knew; and the picture books, which gave not only these scenes in other form, but also reproduced stories from the Bible, did the same. No text was necessary. The picture told the tale to a people who could not read, just as the stained-glass windows and mosaics in the churches did. Everywhere the feeble literature of the period took the form either of verbal minstrelsy, drama, or pictured representations. You will recall how most of the early races first wrote in picture

an pa

to print reading matter; a third was suitable paper on which to print; and the fourth, but by no means the least important, a good and proper quality of ink. One afte