Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, July 8, 1865, page 1


    A great many persons are in the habit of looking upon and speaking of printer's devils in a manner that reflects no credit on themselves. Those same printer's devils, in nine cases out of ten, are three times as well posted on the issues of the day as the person who slights and speaks lightly of them. There is no class of boys for whom we have a more profound respect than well-behaved printer's devils. They know something and are practical, which is more than you can say of all classes of boys. In that respect we place the boys who work in a printing office head and shoulders above most boys. Young woman, before you again elevate that delicate nose at the approach of a printer's devil, get someone who knows something of history to tell you the names of a few characters who were once printer's devils. For fear that you will dislike to show your ignorance, we will give you a short list of ex-devils of printing offices. If you have heard of any of them, quit your flirting and all nonsense in general, and go to studying. Did you ever hear of Benjamin Franklin? Ben was once a printer's devil. He was also one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President under Lincoln, was once a poor printer's devil. Schuyler Colfax, who has been Speaker of the House of Representatives for a number of years, now candidate for Vice-President of the U.S., and certain to be elected, was "nothing but a devil in a printing office" at one time. Horace Greeley, who is one of the first journalists on this continent, and is an ex-Congressman, was a printer's devil. United States Senator Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, was a "devil." Thurlow Weed, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in New York, and editor of the Commercial Advertiser, was a penniless devil in a printing office. United States Senator Ross, of Kansas, commenced his successful career as a printer's devil. Two-thirds of the editors in the "States" were once printer's devils. Permit us to tell you that the men who once did duty as printers have done more to advance the interests and sustain the good name of America than any other class.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 29, 1868, page 1


    THANKS.--Mr. Hull will please accept the thanks of the printers for a fine lot of cherries.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, June 19, 1869, page 3




    NEW PAPER.--We are informed that our cotemporary will start again today under the title of the Democratic Times. Under whose auspices it is to be published, or who is to hold the editorial quill with its duties and responsibilities, we have not yet learned, but if it earns its title, in this county it will be decidedly a "rich thing." Although opposed to many of our interests, to the "new paper" we nevertheless extend to it a hearty greeting and wish it success.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 7, 1870, page 3


    FINE CHERRIES.--Mrs. Bouschey will please accept the thanks of the printers of this office for some nice cherries. Printers know how to appreciate such favors.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, June 18, 1870, page 3


    THANKS, to Mrs. Horne, for a liberal donation of fine cake to the printers of this office.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, December 31, 1870, page 3


    MR. JOHN MOON will accept the thanks of the printers of this office for a keg of excellent cider.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, December 31, 1870, page 3


    AN AGREEABLE SURPRISE.--The printers of this office, in coming into the office yesterday morning, were agreeably surprised to find a keg of fresh lager, already tapped. At first they were inclined to approach it rather cautiously, thinking that it might probably be a torpedo in disguise, but upon closer examination the well-known initials S.V. were discovered on it, and all doubts concerning its identity were dispelled immediately, and attack was made on it at once. May Veit Schutz live as long as Methuselah, and his progeny be as numerous as Abraham's.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, June 17, 1871, page 3


    In a recent article on the subject of journalism, Horace Greeley--the very best authority--says that the practical printers make the best editors, as there is something in the early associations of the printing office which gives a sort of refined culture to the otherwise well-trained journalist. Upon the same principle that the most efficient managers of great industrial enterprises are those who have worked their way up through the subordinate training for the journalist, it imparts a kind of sympathy with letters which the mere scholar does not acquire. The practical printer who becomes an editor is apt to be a step of the craft; it is true that the school of the printery gives the best paragraphists. From having gone through the slow progress of picking up and depositing the individual metallic blocks that, one by one, spell out the words which express the writer's thought, the printer learns to place a value upon each letter and word, and is very naturally led to depreciate a useless waste of either. Whatever may be the achievement of schools for journalists, we believe that the schools are printing offices and active reportorial labors.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, December 9, 1871, page 1


    OBITUARY.--Among the notable events of the week is the death of A. Thomas Cat, for a long time connected with the printing fraternity of Jacksonville. He was born in Jacksonville some eight or ten years ago, and graduated in the Oregon Press office. A few years afterwards we find him in the Reveille, where he remained a short time, but not finding it profitable, vamoosed the ranch. The next we hear of him returning to his old quarters in the office of the News. Here he stood the kicks and cuffs of many a tramping "jour" printer, until it became obnoxious, and compelled him to take a walk. This journal having gone to the races, Mr. A. Thomas Cat seeing a bright future in the Times, returns to his old abode; but his end was drawing near. When it is remembered that he was but ten years old at his death, the energy and enterprise of Mr. A. Thomas Cat in accomplishing so much is apparent, and his death creates a vacancy in our household that will indeed be hard to fill. Requiescat in pace.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, August 3, 1872, page 3  Though employed at several printing firms, Thomas--born without thumbs--was not a printer


Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 4, 1873, page 3


    Those ladies who sent us that nice cake from the relief concert supper will accept our thanks therefor. Such remembrances make the heart of the printer happy.
"Local Gossip," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, April 26, 1873, page 3

    The good opinion of our cotemporaries and the public is an object worthy to be labored for and to be proud of. Our readers will therefore pardon us for copying these flattering notices:
    The Jacksonville Times has reappeared on new material and presents a very neat appearance. The Times is a good local paper.--Lafayette Courier.
    The Jacksonville Times has again appeared in its usual size and in an entire new dress, and presents a neat and tasteful appearance.--Benton Democrat,
    The Jacksonville Times, which was burned out last spring, has made its reappearance and presents a very fine typographical makeup and is full of news. We wish the proprietors better luck next time.--Oregon City Enterprise.
    THE JACKSONVILLE TIMES.--We are pleased to chronicle the republication of this valuable paper. Its typographical appearance is excellent, its editorials able, while its Democracy is unimpeachable. We extend a hearty welcome, accompanied with our best wishes for its success.--Plaindealer.
    DEMOCRATIC TIMES.--We were pleased to again receive this able Democratic cotemporary last Monday. We wish Messrs. Hull & Nickell the best of success in the future, and hope that they may soon regain the loss they sustained by the destruction of their office by fire. The Times is worthy of the support of the Democracy of Southern Oregon.--Oregon City Enterprise.
    THE "DEMOCRATIC TIMES."--After three months our cotemporary has again made its appearance, dressed in new type and looking very pretty. It is, however, as bitterly Democratic as ever, and its young editor has already again commenced harping about "enlarging in a short time." Notwithstanding which criticisms, we wish our cotemporary success, and extend to it the right hand of fellowship in promoting and fostering the interests of Southern Oregon.--Oregon Sentinel.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, August 2, 1873, page 2


    A feature of London is its bridges, and, while eminently practical in their special service of promoting travel and traffic, each has its library of tragedies and romances. Of all this history and legend are full, while each day's police record adds its quota. Quite out of the range of ordinary use, or misuse, of bridges is a practice connected with the Blackfriars, and one which I never saw mentioned in print.
    As I was one time talking with the night editor of the leading London daily, the foreman of the typographical department reported to him that they were half a dozen hands short.
    "How's that?" asked the editor.
    "Discharged for 'bridging,'" was response.
    After the foreman had gone, my Yankee curiosity caused me to inquire what this strange offense might be.
    "Bridging type is one of our principal sources of annoyance and loss," said he. "When a compositor is throwing in his case, if he happens to 'pi' a handful, instead of carefully sorting and distributing the type, he shoves it into his pocket; or, if a printer is transferring a stickful of matter to a galley and accidentally 'pi's' it, he also secretly thrusts the mass into his pocket and resets the whole; and the type these printers have secreted they quietly dump into the Thames on their way home at night, while crossing the Blackfriars Bridge, over which a majority of them pass. So extensively is this dishonest and lazy habit practiced, that there are tons upon tons of type in the bed of the Thames, and hardly ever is a body dragged for without the hauling up of quantities of type metal."
    This same habit prevails in the large cities of the United States, although not so extensively as in England, perhaps; and New York printers, who sink their "pi" in the East or North rivers, while crossing on the ferry boats to their homes in Brooklyn or Jersey City, are also described by the London phrase as having "bridged" their type.--Fireside Friend.
Albany Register, Albany, Oregon, October 16, 1874, page 3


    WHY PRINTERS DIE YOUNG.--A writer fully accounts for the reason why printers die young, and why they are continually tramping from place to place in search of quietude. He says that working for forty editors and scores of authors, every one of whom is as sensitive as a sore thumb, and as lively and as interesting as a hornet, no wonder the printers die young, and only pachydermatous, grizzly, mulish specimens get their share of life. The writer wishes that he could offer himself as an awful example of the perils which environ the man who meddles with cold type. A thoroughly trained printer should have a stepmother and then a stepfather, and then have been bound out to a tanner, and then have married a scolding wife and lived in a smoky house, and have a family of babies who were afflicted with the colic. He should have added to all this discipline a thorough knowledge of science and law, languages, theology, history and biography. If, in addition, he has a vicious-looking countenance and an amiable disposition, he may stand some chance with these authors; but the probabilities are, after all, that they will worry him to death. This picture will have a very depressing effect upon ambitious boys who are anxious to learn the "art preservative of arts." The picture, however, is a tolerably correct one.--Elmira Advertiser.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, June 23, 1877, page 1


    THE LOCAL EDITOR.--The position of local editor of a newspaper is one that, as a general thing, is not understood by the people. They expect him to know everything that is going on, as well as that that is not. They expect him to see everything. They expect him to give their stores, hotels and other places of business long and good puffs in the local column free of charge, but the store-keeper never thinks to give him a new suit of clothes, a hat or pair of boots, oh, no; they cost money; and the hotel keeper never gives him a week's board! oh, no! their grub costs money! but they seem to think his time is worth nothing and that paper and ink is worth nothing, and that it costs nothing to have printers set up the type, and that the room in the paper that is occupied by their local is worth nothing, but still they want the local notice, for it is a great benefit to their business. Persons getting up balls, parties and entertainments, where they expect to make money, want him to give them long and spicy local notices before the affair comes off, and then they want him to give them a rousing notice after the affair comes off, so as to help them in their next effort in the same line; but they never offer to give him a free ticket so that he can go and see what is done--they expect him to pay his own way, and then to give them a local notice worth to them as much or more than the price of a dozen tickets would amount to. If you want the local editor to notice what you have to sell, or what you are going to do, pay for the notices, or at least keep him free from expense while he is doing what he can to help you along in your undertakings. The laborer is certainly worthy of his hire.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 14, 1877, page 4


    A patron of a certain newspaper once said to the publisher: "Mr. Printer, how is it you never call on me to pay for your paper?" "Oh!" said the man of types, "we never ask a gentleman for money." "Indeed!" replied the patron. "How do you manage to get along when they don't pay?" "Why," said the editor, "after a certain time we conclude he is no gentleman, and we ask him."
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, September 7, 1877, page 4


    M. G. Foisy, of Gervais, died suddenly at his house on the 11th. He was the first printer to set type in Oregon.
"State News," Ashland Tidings, June 20, 1879, page 2


    The Ashland Tidings comes out with a patent outside.
    Veit Schutz has the thanks of the printers for some splendid lager. He knows how to make it.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, July 2, 1879, page 3


    Mr. and Mrs. Savage of the New State Hotel have the thanks of the printers for a pitcher of delicious sherry cobbler and a bountiful supply of cake. The boys say Charley can keep a hotel.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, July 9, 1879, page 3


    PRINTERS AND PRINTING.--Many of those that condescend to illuminate this dark world with the fire of their genius through the columns of a newspaper little think of the lot of the printer, who sits up at midnight to correct their grammar, faulty in orthography and worse in punctuation. We have seen the arguments of counselors, in high repute scholars, sent to the printer in their own handwriting, with many words--especially technical and foreign terms--abbreviated, misspelled, and few or no points, and these few, if any, certainly misplaced. We have seen the sermons of eminent divines sent to the press minus points or capitals to designate the divisions of the sentences; also the letters of scientific and political correspondents. Suppose all these had been so printed--the printer would have been subjected to scorn and contempt. No one would have believed that such gross and palpable faults rested with the ignorance or carelessness of the author. And no one but the practical printer knows how many hours the compositor and the proofreader are compelled to spend in reducing to readable condition manuscript that often the authors themselves might find it puzzling to read.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, August 1, 1879, page 1


    Mr. & Mrs. C. W. Savage have the thanks of the printers for a supply of cake furnished us yesterday.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 20, 1879, page 3


    Another keg of Veit's splendid lager made the hearts of the printers glad at this office last week.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 10, 1879, page 3


    Never send an article for publication without giving the editor thy name, for thy name oftentimes secures publication of worthless articles.
    Thou shouldst not rap at the door of a printing office, for he that answereth the rap sneereth in his sleeve and loseth time.
    Never do thou loaf about nor knock down type, or the boys will love thee as they do the shade tress--when thou leavest.
    Thou shouldst never read the copy on the printers' cases or the sharp and hooked container thereof, or he may knock thee down.
    Never inquire of the editor for news, for behold it is his business to give it to thee at the appointed time without asking for it.
    It is not right that thou shouldst ask him who is the author of an article, for it is his duty to keep such things unto himself.
    When thou dost enter his office, take heed unto thyself that thou dost not look at what concerns thee not, for that is not meet in the sight of good breeding.
    Neither examine thou the proof-sheet, for it is not ready to meet thine eye that thou mayst understand.
    Thou shouldst not delude thyself with the thought that thou hast saved a few cents when thou hast secured a deadhead copy of his paper, for whilst the printer may smile and say it's all right, he'll never forget your meanness.
Ashland Tidings, September 12, 1879, page 4


    Our friend Coolidge never forgets the printers. He feasted us this week upon the finest peaches and grapes we have had this year.
    Grant Helman has the hearty thanks of the printers of this office for a handsome treat of peaches, plums and pears from Capt. A. D.'s orchard.
"Local Brevities," Ashland Tidings, September 19, 1879, page 3


    The ladies who so successfully managed the festival on the evening of Thanksgiving Day have our thanks for a package of cake. It was delicious and duly appreciated by the hungry printers.
"Brief Reference," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, December 5, 1879, page 3


    The ladies of Rebekah Lodge will accept the thanks of our printers for some excellent cake from their bounteous table.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 7, 1880, page 3


    Madame Holt made the hearts of ye hungry printers happy Tuesday with some excellent refreshments, for which we extend thanks.
"Personal Notes," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 9, 1880, page 3


    The printers of the Sentinel office desire to return acknowledgments to Mr. and Mrs. McCain for a bountiful supply of wedding cake.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 18, 1880, page 3


    Mrs. M. Brown's little boys have the thanks of the printers for a treat of luscious peaches this week.
"Local Brevities," Ashland Tidings, September 10, 1880, page 3


    It was an exceedingly cold night, and Mr. and Mrs. Bunby hugged the stove closely--he passing the time reading a paper, and she sitting looking into the fire.
    Without any preface whatever, she dropped the poker.
    With so much force did it strike the hearth that Mr. Bunby stopped his reading abruptly and looked over the top of his spectacles inquiringly. Mrs. Bunby had a happy thought; quickly it was transferred to Mr. B.
    "John," said she, "you remember, some time ago, you promised to tell me how newspapers are made?"
    "Yes, yes; but some other time, love."
    "No, now, please, John."
    Again he tried to content her with a promise, but it was of no avail; she wanted to know then just "how the papers are put together."
    He hesitated.
    The longer he hesitated the more impatient she grew, and he felt it.
    Seeing that postponement was of no avail, he heaved a long sigh, laid aside his paper, and reluctantly began to unravel for his wife's edification the "inner life of a newspaper."
    "In the first place," said he, "the copy is sent to the composing room."
    "Where does the copy come from?" she queried.
    "From the editors and reporters, of course."
    "Oh, I see!"
    "Then it is given to the typesetters."
    "What do they do--sit on it?"
    "No, thunder, no! they are the compositors who set it up."
    "Oh, they compose the copy and then set it up. But how does it sit?"
    He drew another long sigh, and calmly replied:
    "The editors compose the copy, then send it in to the composition-room, and the typesetters put it in type."
    "What, the copy?"
    "Yes; they set the types up so that they will read as the copy reads."
    "Oh, I see."
    A pause ensued.
    "John," said Mrs. Bunby, "you stopped at the compositors setting the type. What do they set the type in?'
    "In a stick."
    "A stick! What kind of a stick?"
    "Oh, a stick is a device that is just the width of the columns of the paper, and holds seventeen lines of brevier."
    "And what is brevier?"
    "A kind of type that is pleasing to the eye and easily read."
     "Oh, I see?"
    "When the printers get a stickful," he went on, "They empty--"
    "Are the printers any different from the compositors?"
    "No," he replied, a little out of temper. "They are one and the same."
    "Oh, 1 see!"
    "When they get a stickful of type, as I was going to say, they empty on a galley--"
    "And, in throwing it upon a galley, don't it all go apart?"
    "No; they lift it from the stick and place it gently, very gently, on a galley."
    "And what's a galley?"
    "A long article made of brass, in which the matter is proved--"
    "What kind of matter, and how do they prove it?"
    "Will you wait a moment! If so, I will try and explain; but give me time," he said, nettled by her cross-examination.
    "All right, go on."
    "Type, when it is set up, is called 'matter,' and when the first impression of it is taken, they call it--"
    "Impression of what?"
    "Oh, bother--the type! when it is first printed on the galley, that is called a proof, and they call it proving the matter."
    "Oh, I see! Does the galley print it?"
    "No; the devil!"
    "Oh, John!" she cried, in tones of reproach. "Why will you use such words?"
    "I was not swearing. The apprentice around a printing office is known as 'the devil.'"
    "Oh, I see!"
    "The proof-sheet which he makes, after going to the proofreader, is returned to the printer, and corrections are made."
    "Corrections made of what?"
    "The matter my dear. It is then given to the foreman."
    "What, the proof?"
    "No, the matter."
    "And what does he do with it?"
    "Will you wait a minute? The foreman takes the matter and places it in the form."
    "What kind of a form!"
    "An iron chase, which, when it has all the news in it which is in type, and it is locked up, is called a form."
    "Locked up! How?"
    "With quoins and sidesticks."
    "Sticks and coins--ha, ha, ha! what kind of coins?"
    "Not coins, but quoins--q-u-o-i-n-s."
     "And what are they?"
    "Goodness gracious! any more questions? A quoin," he resumed, "is a small block, and is wedged between the chase and sidesticks with a shooting-stick."
    "A shooting stick! How does it shoot?'
    "Shoots the quoins into place with the aid of a mallet."
    She did not quite understand, but saw by the white of his eye that it would not be well to question him too much, so she bided her time, and he went on:
    "Sometimes the matter is 'pyed.'"
    "How is that?"
    "Why, when some type is knocked over or dropped on the floor, it is useless, and is called by the fraternity 'pye.' Well, when the form is made up, it is put on a printing machine, and the edition goes to press."
    "What do they press the papers for?"
    "They don't press the papers; press means printing and after they are printed are circulated throughout the city."
    "Oh, I see," and after waiting some little time for him to continue, Mrs. Bunby asked, "Is that all?"
    "Thank Heaven, yes!" he grumbled behind the paper he had resumed. Silence followed. He read on undisturbed for fully an hour. His wife, having regained her hold on the poker, was occupied in twirling it, at the same time murmuring, when looking intent at the ashes. "Types, matter, galley proofs, devils, quoins, presses."
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 29, 1881, page 1


    Joseph Rapp was in town yesterday with apples as sound and delicious as if just picked from the trees, and he made another white mark in Heaven by coming to see the printers. Thanks.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 7, 1881, page 3


    HOW PRINTING AFFECTS THE HEALTH.--Years ago there was a notion prevalent among those who were but partially informed upon the question that printing business was especially detrimental to health. There was a tradition about the absorption of poison from the constituents of which type metal was composed. This was and is true so far as it asserts the poisonous nature of some of the constituent parts of type metal; but that these poisons should necessarily be absorbed into the system of the one who handles type is simply absurd. Printers who have such habits of cleanliness and sobriety as a decent respect for one's self and the opinion of others might be expected to dictate may follow their calling for years without experiencing any further damaging effects upon their health than what will result from close application to any sort of hard work. More "poison" is absorbed by the printer when taking observations of his little finger through the bottom of a glass than in any other way.--The Chicago Specimen.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 21, 1882, page 4


    Geo. Schumpf on Wednesday last brought down nine dozen of fine trout caught in Squaw Lake by Henry Carter. He has our thanks for a mess.
"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 10, 1882, page 3


    It is a penitentiary offense for an outsider to waltz into a printing office and read the copy or proof sheets that may be lying upon the cases or table.
'Local Items,' Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, July 1, 1882, page 3


    "TOO THIN."--The editor of the Times says he "pied" the portion of the courthouse article left out of the papers sent to the "rural deestricts," and hadn't time to rearrange it in season for the Butte Creek and Sams Valley mail. Perhaps he will find someone who will believe him. Anyone who knows anything about a printing office, however, knows that the printers in the Times office could set up the matter in question in about fifteen minutes, and the mails for Sams Valley and Butte Creek leave Jacksonville on Friday morning, while the matter was "pied," Charley says, Thursday evening. This "pie" business is too old an excuse to cover such a case nowadays. Printing is not such a mystery to common people as it was 100 years ago.--Tidings.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 30, 1882, page 3


    Mrs. Wm. Kreutzer made us an exceedingly pleasant visit this week, bringing along a hot mince pie. Judging from the way it disappeared down the throats of ye hungry printer it must have been good. Thanks.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, November 25, 1882, page 3


    The Curry County Post has changed its day of publication from Saturday to Friday. The Post is a live, active, newsy little paper. Walter Sutton, its editor, began the life of a printer in this office many years ago.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 27, 1883, page 3


   MISTAKES IN NEWSPAPERS.--In an article on "How Mistakes Happen in Newspapers," the Poughkeepsie Eagle figures up the number of type used in a newspaper the size of the Eagle at 600,000; that is the actual number of bits of material arranged for each newspaper of that size for the press. We suppose few people think of the printing trade as one of the most exact and particular handicrafts. But it is. In making type, variations that might be allowed in the finest machinery would render type useless. It is very rarely that the type furnished by two separate foundries can be used together without a great deal of trouble, even though they should try to make it after the standard. We read once in a while of a wonderful piece of cabinet or mosaic work containing ten, twenty, or fifty thousand pieces, the maker of which has spent months and even years of labor in producing it, and the people go to see it as a curiosity; but the most elaborate and carefully fitted piece of work of this kind ever made does not compare for minute detail and accuracy of fitting with that which the printer does every day. The man who does the first is looked upon as a marvel of skill, and if a hundred of his pieces are put in wrong side up or turned around, it is not noticed in the general effect, but if the printer in putting together ten times as many pieces in a single day puts one the wrong way, everybody sees it and is amazed at the "stupid carelessness of those printers."
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, June 30, 1883, page 4


    Mr. Jos. Rapp has the thanks of the printers for some delicious watermelons. Rap again.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 18, 1883, page 3


    There was a wife, and there was a boy. Long before anyone now in the office had a "sit" in news-room, press-room, business office, or sanctum, and before the old man had begun to look out at the world through spectacles and his figure was as straight as it was tall, the typos and reporters used to hear him talk about buying a lot and building a house out on the hill, where he could have a patch of garden. And by and by he was going to quit "sticking type," and get into something that would let him stay home nights, and get acquainted with his family. And the suit of clothes he bought in the fall lasted a long way into the next summer, and then they came out again in the winter, and the old man "rushed" more than he ever did again while that dream of home was inspiring him. It is an old story, this struggle of a printer to get a home; any one of these restless mariners of the land, drifting from port to port and back again, lured by the ignis fatuus of so many cents more a thousand and a price and a half after two o'clock, and big bills with four or five nights' work. Never a wandering "jour" got a chance to stand at the old man's case while he was saving money for a house and lot, and the "subs" looked at him with the despairing glances of starvation. But it is hard, uphill work for the printer to buy a home. His pay is easily reduced and seldom raised; a long strike means taking to the road for him, and if he has a family and can't tramp, he breaks his heart, puts dust on his head, and goes "out of the union," and wearily works at the bosses' rates. So the old man worked bravely on, as many a printer has worked before and since his time, and the little plant in the bank began to grow brighter as the old clothes grew shabbier.
    And the boy growing into his tenth year used to be seen in the office after school, standing at his tall father's elbow, learning, in a very irregular, boyish, unapprenticed fashion, with a "cataract of questions," to "stick type." The old man never intended the boy should be a printer. And he was proud of him and of his standing at school. And once the boy wrote a ten-line account of a boy falling downstairs, and a good-natured reporter sent it in just as it came, although it was a dull day, and the scribe wanted awfully to make it a column and put on a hanging head. And the old man sent marked copies of that paper to every soul he knew in this world.
    But one day an unbidden guest came home from school with the boy, and sat down by the hearthstone in the old man's rented home. And the long days of fever and doctors' bills drew out nearly all that little bank account, and one black day the old man's case was empty, and the business office told the undertaker that all his bills would be paid there, and he mustn't take any money from the old man. And pale, and quiet, and sad-looking old and worn was the printer who came next day and took his old place at the case. The types didn't click very fast in that "alley" for days after that. And sometimes the printer's face would be lying on the boxes in his folded arms, and how pathetic looked the half-filled "stick" in the clasped hands, the composing rule fallen out of its place, and the pied type and leads all tumbling together. More than one printer, going by on his way to empty his stick in the galley, was a long time bending down to find the "take" his own followed; and more than one, looking across at the heartbroken picture of sorrow, leaned close down to his copy to read fair writing that was never blurred when it came off the hook, and brimmed his eyes with an unsteady hand, saying something about the dust or the glare of the light. And then, about five years after that the boy's mother, weary of the long pilgrimage, lay down to rest in a cool arbor, roofed with waving grass and blue violets, and awoke to kiss her boy.
    After that, streaks of gray showed plainly over the old man's head, and the broad shoulders stooped a little, and it was about that time the boys began to call him "the old man." The office was his home now. When I first came on the paper, I remember how he used to come into the sanctum every Saturday afternoon and run over the exchanges for his Sunday reading; and there were certain papers that were always saved for him. I soon learned his quiet ways, and many times I have hid his favorite exchanges for him, so that the senior editors might not cut them. And when the manager revised the exchange list, and cut off, among a hundred others, all the old man's favorite country exchanges, I was the guilty man who, by a mandatory note on the official letterhead, smuggled them right back again. And the old man always came into the editorial rooms to write letters to a half-sister, I believe, who was the only relative he had in the world. She was dependent, I think, for I know the business manager used sometimes to pay the old man in drafts when he wanted to send her money.
    He began to grow old now. His sorrows didn't make a morose man of him. He was quiet, save when he preached his little sermon on temperance to the boys, or expressed his views on the political issues of the day. When he preached or debated, he had a way of sitting at his case, or standing in the alley, his stick poised in the air, marking off the emphatic portions of his remarks. The great, big, solemn spectacles came upon the face now, and the boys occasionally suggested that he "open his windows and let in the air." He only worked four nights a week after a while, and fell into a habit of setting up a good deal of reprint in the afternoon. Nights, when he put on a "sub," he sat in the composing room and pottered around till midnight, for a man can't break the habits of a lifetime. In the winter he "stoked," because nobody else knew how to make the stove draw, and the old man would make things roar until the stovepipe was red clear to the ceiling.
    He had a fashion now, too, of singing snatches of old hymns as he stood at his case. I don't know where he learned them, unless when he was a boy. A printer on a morning paper, who goes to bed about 4 or 5 o'clock Sunday morning, doesn't feel much like getting up and going to church at half-past ten. Sunday night he goes with his family, if he has one, and if he has neither wife nor sweetheart to take him, it depends largely on the weather. If he can't stay outdoors, he goes to church; but if the weather is pleasant, he rather thinks that six nights a week in the house is enough. Slug Nine used to call the old man's case "The Meetin' House," and sometimes helped him sing, but Slug Nine's sacred music was always too vociferous in its character to please the typos, who made it a rule to "wood up" with their sticks and rattle him down.
    Sometimes the old man would lay down his stick, take off his spectacles in a thoughtful way, and stand looking out of the window a long time, forgetting there was a "galley" that couldn't be "proved" until he "emptied," looking away off, so far away from clicking type and the clatter of the mallet and planer that it seemed a pity to call him back, and the boys would say:
    "The old man's getting old."
    He never seemed to be very ambitious; never joined in the clamor to "have the markets go 'round"; didn't seem to aspire to the "ad" case, and I think he was a little bit afraid of table work. He seemed to feel, sometimes, his lack of early advantages, but he had a good print shop education. Slug Nine said the old man learned his letters right from the boxes, and grew up and learned to set type in one of those mustang offices, where they keep the type in a coffee sack, and chalk out the cases on the floor. He wasn't even a very fast printer; he didn't often rush, and he never "soldiered for fat on the hook," but took whatever came along with equal patience and good nature, whether it was a "pick up" or a great take of "blind copy," scribbled in pencil on blue foolscap on both sides of the paper and marked "solid," with never a break or paragraph from A to Z. But he would stand at that old case and  pick up type all night, pegging along on straight brevier as tranquilly as though he struck a display head on every take. He always made fair bills, and after a while, as the sixties began creeping on him, the boys had a way of "soldiering" for him, and maybe you don't know how hard it is for a printer not to drop a good many type, and fumble for the boxes, and let his thumb get most awfully sore, and have to hunt for the bellows and blow out his case, and study the copy very closely and find it dreadfully hard to read, and all that sort of thing, when by rushing a little he can get a "pick-up" as long as your arm, and a "leaded" take with a paragraph to every sentence. But they did that for the old man, and he knew it by and by, and loved the boys as though they were his own, every last "slug" of them.
    And so, year after year, he wrought among the boys on a morning paper. He went to bed about the time the rest of the world got up, and he arose about the time the rest of the world sat down to dinner. He worked by every kind of light except sunlight. There were candles in the office when they came in; then they had lard-oil lamps that smoked and sputtered and smelled; then he saw two or three printers blinded by explosions of camphene and spirit-gas; then kerosene came in and heated up the news-room on summer nights like a furnace; then the office put in gas; and now the electric light hung from the ceiling and dazzled his old eyes, and glared into them from his copy. If he sang on his way home, a policeman bade him "cheese that," and reminded him that he was disturbing the peace, and people wanted to sleep. But when he wanted to sleep, the rest of the world, for whom he had sat up all night to make a morning paper, roared and crashed down by the noisy street under his window with cart and truck and omnibus; blared with brass bands, howled with hand organs, and talked and shouted; and even the shrieking newsboy, with a ghastly sarcasm, murdered the sleep of the tired old printer by yelling the name of his own paper. Year after year the foreman roared at him to "remember that this wasn't an afternoon paper"; editors shrieked down the tube to "have a blind man put on that dead man's case"; smart young proofreaders scribbled sarcastic comments on his work, on the margin of his proof-slips; long-winded correspondents, learning to write, and long-haired poets, who could never learn to spell, wrathfully cast all their imperfections upon his head. But through it all he wrought patiently, and found more sunshine than shadow in the world; he had more friends than enemies. Printers, and foremen, and pressmen, and reporters, and editors came and went, but he stayed, and he saw news-room and sanctum filled and emptied, and filled and emptied again, and filled again with new and strange faces.
    He was working one night, and when the hours that are so short in the ball-room and so long in the composing-room drew wearily on, he was tired. He "hadn't thrown in a full case," he said. One of the boys, tired as himself--but a printer is never too tired to be good natured--offered to change places with him, but the old man said there was enough in his case to last him through his take, and he wouldn't work any more tonight. The type clicked in the silent room, and by and by the old man said:
    "I'm out of sorts."
    He sat down by the low window sill by his case, with his stick in his hand, his hands folded wearily in his lap. The types clicked on. A galley of telegraph waited.
    "Will anyone kindly tell me what gentleman is lingering with D 13?" called the foreman, who was always dangerously polished and polite when he was on the point of exploding with wrath and impatience.
    Slug Nine, passing by the alley, stopped to speak to the old man, sitting there so quietly.
    The telegraph boy came, running in with the last manifold sheet, shouting:
    "Thirty!"
    They carried the old man to the foreman's long long table, and laid him down reverently, and covered his face. They took the stick out of his nerveless hand, and read his last take:
    BOSTON, November 23.--The American barque Pilgrim went to pieces off Marblehead in a light gale, about midnight. She was old and unseaworthy, and this was to have been her last trip.
Daily Morning Astorian, Astoria, Oregon, June 15, 1884, page 1


    The Sentinel office is not the only place in Southern Oregon where you can get A-1 printing done, but we are prepared to bid on and furnish any kind of work in that line at prices to suit the times, and without figuring on the length of the customer's purse before making the estimate. "Stick a crowbar in that spot."
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 23, 1885, page 3


    The man drowned in Klamath River last week was a tramp printer that worked in the Medford Monitor office a few days before the accident.
"Local Items," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 30, 1885, page 3


    "All things change in the procession of years, and it may be that I am among strangers. It may be that the printer of today is not the printer of thirty-five years ago. I was no stranger to him. I knew him well. I built his fire for him in the winter mornings; I brought his water from the village pump; I swept out his office; I picked up his type from under the stand; and, if he was there to see, I put the good type in his case, and the broken ones among the 'hell matter'; and, if he wasn't there to see, I dumped it all with the 'pi' on the imposing stone, for that was the furtive fashion of the cub, and I was a cub. I wetted down the paper Saturdays, I turned it Sundays, for this was a country weekly; I rolled, I washed the rollers. I washed the forms, I folded the papers, I carried them around at dawn Thursday mornings, I enveloped the papers that were for the mail--we had 100 town subscribers and 350 country ones; the town subscribers paid in groceries and the country ones in cabbages and cordwood when they paid at all, which was merely sometimes, and then we always stated the fact in the paper, and gave them a puff; and if we forgot it they stopped the paper. Every man on the town list helped edit the thing--that is, he gave orders as to how it was to be edited; dictated its opinions, marked out its course for it, and every time the boss failed to connect, he stopped his paper. We were just infested with critics, and we tried to satisfy them all over. We had one subscriber who paid cash, and he was more trouble to us than all the rest. He bought us, once a year, body and soul, for $2. He used to modify our politics every which way, and he made us change our religion four times in five years. If we ever tried to reason with him, he would threaten to stop his paper, and of course that meant bankruptcy and destruction. That man used to write articles a column and a half long, leaded long primer, and sign them 'Junius' or 'Veritas' or 'Vox Populi,' or some other high-sounding rot; and then, after it was set up he would come in and say he had changed his mind--which was a gilded figure of speech, because he hadn't any--and order it to be left out. We couldn't stand such a waste as that; we couldn't afford 'bogus' in that office; so we always took the leads out, altered the signature, credited the article to the rival paper in the next village, and put it in. Well, we did have one or two kinds of 'bogus.' Whenever there was a barbecue, or a circus, or a baptizing, we knocked off for half a day; and then to make up for short matter we would 'turn over ads'--turn over the whole page and duplicate it The other 'bogus' was deep philosophical stuff, which we judged nobody ever read; so we kept a galley of it standing and kept on slapping the same old batches of it in, every now and then, till it got dangerous. Also, in the early days of the telegraph we used to economize on the news. We picked out the items that were pointless and barren of information and stood them on a galley, and changed the dates and localities and used them over and over again till the public interest in them was worn to the bone. We marked the ads, but we seldom paid any attention to the marks afterward; so the life of a 'td' ad and a 'tf' ad was equally eternal. I have seen a 'td' notice of a sheriff's sale still booming serenely along two years after the sale was over, the sheriff dead and the whole circumstance become ancient history. Most of the yearly ads were patent medicine stereotypes, and we used to fence with them. Life was easy with us; if we pied a form we suspended till next week, and we always suspended every now and then when the fishing was good, and explained it by the illness of the editor, a paltry excuse because that kind of a paper was just as well off with a sick editor as a well one, and better off with a dead one than with either of them. He was full of blessed egotism and placid self-importance, but he didn't know as much as a 3-em quad. He never set any type except in the rush of the last day, and then he would smouch all the poetry, and leave the rest to 'jeff' for the solid takes. He wrote with impressive flatulence and soaring confidence upon the vastest subjects; but puffing alms, gifts of wedding cake, salty ice cream, abnormal watermelons, and sweet potatoes the size of your leg was his best hold. He was always a poet--a kind of poet of the Carrier's Address breed--and whenever his intellect suppurated, and he read the result to the printers and asked for their opinion they were very frank and straightforward about it. They generally scraped their rules on the boxes all the time he was reading, and called it 'hog wash' when he got through. All this was thirty-five years ago, when the man who could set 700 [ems] an hour could put on just as many airs as he wanted to; and if these New York men who recently on a wager set 2,000 an hour solid minion for four hours on a stretch had appeared in that office, they would have been received as accomplishers of the supremely impossible, and drenched with hospitable beer till the brewery was bankrupt ,
    "I can see that printing office of prehistoric times yet, with its horse bills on the walls, its 'd' boxes clogged with tallow, because we always stood the candle in the 'k' box nights; its towel, which was not considered soiled until it could stand alone, and other signs and symbols that marked the establishment of that kind in the Mississippi Valley; and I can see also the tramping 'jour' who flitted by in the summer and tarried a day, with his wallet stuffed with one shirt and a hatful of handbills; for if he couldn't get any type to set he would do a temperance lecture. His way of life was simple, his needs not complex; all he wanted was plate and bed, and money enough to get drunk on and he was satisfied. But it may be, as I have said, that I am among strangers, and sing the glories of a forgotten age to unfamiliar ears, so I will 'make even' and stop."
Daily Morning Astorian, February 3, 1886, page 3


Ashland Tidings, May 28, 1886, page 1


    No mere machine would ever fill the place of the old-fashioned printer, commonly known as a tramp. He belongs to a separate species of the human race. He has no hesitation in correcting the editor's manuscript, and making him say things he would not say. It is idle for the editor to say he is right. The old-fashioned printer has traveled more and knows better. If the editor, by pertinacity, does finally succeed in getting a passage corrected the way he wants it, it is disagreeable to see the old-fashioned printer slam his rule down on the case and start off with the galley toward the imposing stone with the remark that there are a number of chumps in the West who imagine, because they are able to write a few lines, that they know more than the universe. He doesn't say so, but we instinctively feel that he means us, and necessarily he must be the universe. Whatever may be the politics of the paper on which the old-fashioned printer works, his are invariably the opposite. This is to show that he is not to be coerced. He will borrow a dollar from the proprietor, and then go off and vote against the proprietor's interests, just to show his independence. He can umpire a baseball game, conduct a class meeting or give a temperance lecture while he is full up
to the neck. He is consistent in one thing. He opposes Chinese labor, and never patronizes a Chinese laundry. It is true that he rarely patronizes any other laundry, but that does not deteriorate from his consistency. He will borrow a quarter from the editor, and then denounce the editor's greenness for lending it to him. He would rather steal a ride on a freight train than to travel on a pass in a palace car. He has a profound hatred for boarding house keepers, and with not a cent in his pocket does not hesitate to criticize the bill of fare in the most severe terms. Give him a quarter to buy drinks, and he may spend part of it for something to eat; give him a quarter to buy victuals and the money is sure to go for whiskey. And yet, with all these contrarities, we should hate to see the old-fashioned printer supplanted by a machine. When almost starving himself he will divide his last penny with a brother printer. Memories of a mother and sister cause him to respect womanhood. And when he lies down to die, it may be in the bottom of a freight car, or in the corner of a fence, with nothing to wrap his shivering form but his dilapidated clothing; a generous heart often ceases to beat with his last breath. Who shall say that in the hereafter there is not a better future for the old-fashioned printer?--Peoria Transcript.
Valley Record, Ashland, November 1, 1888, page 1


    The hand press used in printing the first paper ever published on the Pacific Coast, Col. T'Vault's Oregon Spectator, is still in use in the Journal office at Eugene, and is said to be one of the best hand presses in the state today. The press has been in constant use for more than 43 years, the first number of the Spectator having been issued on the 5th day of February, 1846.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, May 2, 1889, page 2


    This issue closes the first year's existence of the Valley Record. Although we have not been in the habit, which prevails among newspapers generally, of devoting our space largely to "tooting our own horn," on this occasion our readers will please indulge us a little. Besides being a success from the start, the Record's circulation passed the 1000 mark some time ago and is now on a good start towards 1500. This is a circulation that many interior papers of older establishment don't generally exceed, and for rapidity of growth in that length of time is seldom outdone by papers published in places of this size and its surrounding population. Additions have been made to the office which amount to three times the cost of the original plant, including a job printing outfit. We have sent for smaller type (minion size) and will put the Record in a new dress as soon as it arrives. This is done so as to get more news and reading matter on each page of the paper. A mailing machine, in order to get the mail up quicker, something badly needed, and which will allow us a couple hours later in going to press, has also been ordered and will soon be in operation. Should our business "keep up its lick" by next year [we] will put in a mammoth power printing press (to be run by an electric motor, from the Ashland Power & Electric Light Co.'s plant for transmitting power throughout the city, which will be in operation by that time), to take the place of our Prouty cylinder press.
    Just as soon as we feel convinced that a good daily paper would receive enough support to be a paying enterprise, a daily edition of the Record will be issued. A paper that can't make money is of no service to a community, and there is no use in running dailies unless they pay.
Valley Record, Ashland, May 9, 1889, page 2


    Wm. Mills, of the Star Bakery, has the thanks of the Tidings printers for a treat of his excellent ice cream this week. He will sell lots of it when the mercury begins to rise again.
"Brevities," Ashland Tidings, May 17, 1889, page 3


    Rev. F. B. Ticknor and Ira Phelps, of Medford, printed this week the first issue of their new paper at that place. It  is a six-column paper, one side patent, issued semi-weekly, and the first copy is neatly printed and newsy.
Ashland Tidings, September 6, 1889, page 3


    When I think of the towel, the old-fashioned towel, that used to hang up by the printing house door, I think that nobody in these days of shoddy can hammer out iron to wear as it wore. The tramp who abused it, the devil who used it, the comp who got at it when these two were gone, the makeup and foreman, the editor, the poor man, each rubbed some grime off while they put a heap on. In, over and under, 'twas blacker than thunder, 'twas harder than poverty, rougher than sin; from the roller suspended, it never was bended, and it flapped on the wall like a banner of tin. It grew thicker and rougher and harder and tougher, and daily put on a more inkier hue, until one windy morning, without any warning, it fell to the floor, and was broken in two.--[Robert Burdette.
Valley Record, Ashland, October 31, 1889, page 2


    OLD PRINTING PRESSES.--Our Scott Valley News friend claims a couple of the oldest presses in the state, a Ramage which was purchased from the Yreka Journal by Hamilton Carlock, to practice as an amateur printer before the News was started, and the other a Smith press brought from Trinity County by Evans, who started the News in 1877, assisted by Norcross, a Weaverville printer. Neither of these presses had the credit of printing the pioneer paper of the state. When coming to this state in the spring of '52 we visited Sonora in Tuolumne County, and worked a few days on the Herald at that place, where the publisher claimed to have the Monterey Star press, an old Ramage, of considerably larger size than the one now in the Scott Valley News office, which had a wooden frame, iron platen and stone bed. Whether the press in the Herald office was the pioneer press we cannot say; but it looked venerable enough to be the press used by old Ben Franklin, over a century ago at the least. There was a still older Ramage press in Siskiyou County than the one at the Scott Valley News office, which was sent to the Yreka foundry some 8 or 10 years ago. It was the pioneer of  Siskiyou, on which was printed the Mountain Herald, of Yreka, by Thornbury and Slade, 1854 to 1856, and was also used in printing the National Democrat, a Breckinridge paper published in Yreka during the 1861 campaign, when Leland Stanford was elected on the Republican ticket as Governor. The Journal, under our control, supported Stanford, Republican candidate; the National Democrat advocated McConnell, Breckinridge candidate, and the Union was for Conners, the Douglas Democratic candidate.--Yreka Journal.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, February 27, 1890, page 1


    More printers are in the House of Representatives than members of any other single occupation or profession, except the law. Amos Cummings, of New York, was a tramp printer, and says he has set type in every state in the Union. Senator Plumb was first a printer, then an editor, and finally a banker. Gallinger, of New Hampshire, was a printer, but afterward studied medicine. Farquhar, of New York, is not only a printer, but was once president of the U.S. Typographical Union. "Tim" Campbell was a compositor on the New York Herald when he was elected to the New York Legislature. O'Donnell, of Michigan, learned the printing business, and has always kept at it. Dingley, of Maine; Noran, of Ohio; Nicoll, of North Carolina; Wickham, of Ohio; Hudd, of Wisconsin; Yost, of Virgina, were all printers.--[New York Tribune.
Ashland Tidings, December 5, 1890, page 1


    Harry Temple is setting type in the News office.
"Central Point," Medford Mail, April 28, 1893, page 2


    As time moves on, in a way it got into the habit of doing years ago, and the Mail's subscription list grows larger, the need of a new and more modern printing press becomes more noticeable, and every time our old Washington press is handspiked around--over two thousand times each week--with a muscular movement which gives one "that tired feeling,'' we disclaim our loyalty to the man who invented this great boon to county newspapers and extend our reach ever into the arena of modern machinery and power presses. Our reach over into that realm hasn't come in contact with anything in the press line as yet, but if our subscribers who are owing us will sort o' wend their way in our direction with the necessary collateral we will strive mightily to place the Mail office on a level with all other things modern in this garden spot of the great Rogue. 
Medford Mail, June 23, 1893, page 2


    Notice is hereby given, that under and pursuant to the provisions of a certain chattel mortgage executed and delivered to me, the undersigned on the 15th day of February, 1893, by the Astorian Columbian Publishing Company, upon the personal property hereinafter described, to secure the payment of the sum of $11,925.86, and interest thereon from that date until paid at the rate of eight percent per annum, I have taken possession of the said chattels because of default made in the payments in said mortgage provided, and will, on Monday the 28th day of August, 1893, at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon, at the Astorian office in the city of Astoria, in Clatsop County, State of Oregon, offer for sale and will sell at public auction for cash in hand to the highest bidder therefor, as a whole, the following described chattels in said mortgage described, to wit:
    1 sitting desk, 4 bricks, 4 maps, 1 standing desk, 4 Shannon files, letter size; 1 bill file, 3 small spindle files, 2 clips, 1 letter press, 1 chair, 2 stools, 1 coal stove, 1 scuttle, 1 poker, 4 joints stovepipe, 3 picture frames, 1 pen-wiping glass pot, 1 book rest, 4 ink wells, 1 mucilage bottle, half full; 1 Amberg letter file, 1 duster, 1 hat rack, 1 letter box, 22 paperweights, 1 pair shears, 200 letterheads, 100 envelopes, 50 J. G. Blaine pictures, 50 sheets proof of publication, 50 statements Astorian, 6 large envelopes, 50 billheads Astorian, 1 wastepaper basket, 1 daily paper pigeonhole rack, 3 blueprints, 25 yards oilcloth (on floor), 2 yards twine, 3 copying clothes, 1 gas fixture, 1 red ink pad, 6 pen holders, 2 rubber erasers, 1 12" rule, 1 18" rule, 1 ball twine, 1 ink stand carpet, 2 doz. Dickens paper novels, 1 D.G. coal box, 9 office books, acct., 4 blinds with cord attached, 1 view, 1 National cabinet file, 3 maps, 2 pigeonhole racks & contents, 4 newspaper files, 1 wastepaper basket, 2 blinds, 29 books, 1 blotting pad, 12 square feet of linoleum, 1 gum pot and brush, 4 spindle files, 1 editor's desk, 4 bottles ink, 1 cupboard, 6 old letter files, 1 gas fixture, 1 rocker, 1 chair, 1 paper case, 1 diary, 1 calendar, 1 spring lock, 1 breeches stretcher, nickel plated, 1 House and Senate bill file, 25 newspaper cuts, 1 whisk broom, 1 high cupboard, containing: 35 single person acknowledgments, 10 appointment of road supervisors, 60 old acknowledgments, 25 corporation acknowledgments, 40 secretary or administrator's accounts, 25 affidavits of attachments, 13 affidavits for publication of summons, 9 affidavits on claim and delivery of personal property, 30 appointments of road viewers, 4 assignments, 46 agreement of sale of real estate, 72 administrators of exc. bond, 75 letters of administration, 75 writs of attachments, 25 articles of co-partnerships, 28 bond of guardian sale of real estate, 40 bond of guardian, 30 bill of sale, 20 bench warrants, 40 bond of road petitioners, 80 general indemnity bonds, 150 bill of costs, 15 county clerk's certificates, 50 certificates of election, 75 bill of costs and disbursements, 50 regular term circuit court proceedings, 50 certificates of naturalization, 9 com. to take deposition, 10 regular term of circuit court proceedings, 5 special, ditto; 100 cover of judgment roll, 35 certificates of transcript, 30 creditor's claims, 40 citation, 35 clerk certificates of official character, 35 certificates of record, 20 deposition, 12 exc. fr. circuit court on judgment rendered in justice court, 75 executions, 40 trial discharge, 20 inventory and appointment, 15 indictments, 35 letters testamentary, 35 letters of guardianship, 25 lease (long term), 12 mortgages, 8 percent and taxes, 1 ditto 11 mortgage covenant of warranty, 30 ditto chattel, 30 mechanic's liens, 60 notices to judges of election, 30 ditto to clerk ditto, 30 ditto of appeal, 40 ditto sheriff's sale, 35 orders of publication of summons, 60 official oath and bond, 35 order appointing appraisers, 30 ditto administrators, 25 orders granting writ of habeas corpus, 30 petitions for appointment of guardian, 20 orders ditto, 50 power of attorney to sell real estate, 17 petitions for probate of will, 20 power of attorney, 25 petition for writ of habeas corpus, 35 ditto letters of administration, 70 grand jury subpoenas copy, 100 ditto original, 75 subpoenas (copy), 20 ditto (original), 10 ditto criminal (original), 100 ditto criminal (copy), 50 sheriff's certificate of sale & foreclosure, 225 ditto on execution, 60 summons (original), 20 transcript of judgment, 50 testimony of sub. witness to will, 15 undertaking on appeal, 2 ditto injunction, 10 ditto for attachment, 20 venire, 40 ditto special, 12 verification of claim against estate, 20 wills, 12 writ of habeas corpus, 40 ditto review, 1 folding machine, 1 cylinder press complete, 1 gas engine, 1 monkey wrench, l shooting stick, 1 fret saw,1 14" file, 1 6" file, 1 box copper rivets, 1 roll press tape, 3 oil cans, 1 dipping table, 5 paper board, 1 cockroach bellows, 5 pieces pipe, 1 stove, 5 roller moulds, 2 lamps, 1 doz. cans lye, 2 cans machine oil, 6 bdles. paper, 2½ rms. ea. 24x36 30-lb., 33 bdles. paper, 2 rms. ea. 23x32 23 lbs. 2 rms. flat news 40 lbs., 1 folder's table, 5 stones, 7 frames, 3 batteries, 2 galley rack, 1 barrel ink, 1 counter, 1 book case, 2 sets shelves, 1 elevator, 50 feet shafting, 7 pulleys, 6 hangers, 175 feet of belting (about that), 1 cabinet, 1 stepladder, 1 desk, 1 chair, 2 stools, 1 proof press, 14 chases, 1 folder table, 1 box "wanderings" type, 8 brevier cap cases & type, 4 ditto lower cases & type, 8 minion upper cap cases, 4 ditto lower cap cases, 4 nonpareil cap cases, 4 ditto lower cap cases, 54 cases advertising type--italic full cases, 44⅔ advertising type--19 single galleys, 5 double galleys, 9 gas fixtures with 150 ft. pipe, 1 smoothing plane, 2 planers, 1 mallet, 1 shooting stick, 1 set Hempel's quoins, 2 keys, 2 lead cutters, 1 miter machine, 1 Webster's dictionary, 2 newspaper files, 1 slug case & lead, 1 boxwood quoin, 11 galley sticks, 2 iron lockup sticks, 1 lot type sorts, 1 handsaw, 1 miter box, 1 box wrapped brevier type, 1 dust pan, 12 boxes stereotype plate, 1 gl. oil can, 1 shovel, l pan, 1 wastepaper basket, 1 sponge, 4 news sticks, 100 pounds leads, 12x13 em, 25 pounds slugs, 12x13 & 26½ em, 350 dashes & rules, 125 warranty deeds, 45 quit claim deeds, 62 New York bill of lading, 35 for sale cards, 16 for rent cards large, 9 house for rent cards, 39 for rent cards small, 220 bonds for deeds, 50 chattel mortgages, 250 bond for deed large, 200 lease, 60 criminal subpoenas (copy) circuit, 60 ditto (original) circuit, 75 civil subpoenas (copy) circuit, 125 ditto (original) circuit, 100 ditto (copy) justice, 125 ditto (original) justice, 40 writ of attachment circuit, ditto 100 ditto justice (original), 75 ditto justice (copy), 40 summons ditto (copy), 60 summons ditto (original), 130 writ of arrest ditto, 30 warrants ditto, 200 affidavit for writ of arrest circuit, 40 ditto attachment, 300 writ of attachment, 300 undertakings for attachment, 300 subpoenas civil, 25 undertakings on bail before indictment, 100 summons (copy) circuit, 75 ditto original ditto, 35 search warrants, 20 commitment after indictment justice, 25 subpoenas, 125 executions (original) justice, 25 garnishees, 100 undertaking for costs, 25 information, 100 complaints, 75 bonds for costs (justice), 40 shipper's manifests, 25 ditto coasting, 100 marriage certificates, 30 county disbursements, 75 marriage licenses, 75 notice of protest, 30 protest, 2 file backs, 75 for rent cards small, 9 road supervisor's notice books, 200 relief of tax applications, 22 furnished rooms to let cards, 12 "This awning is dangerous keep off" cards, 5 "All statements etc." cards, 9 "Positively no credit etc." cards, 5 "No soliciting etc." cards, 11 promissory notes, 50 teacher's agreements, 50 hotel call lists, 100 complaint backs, 1 half med. Challenge job press, 1 nonpareil press, 1 paper cutter, 1 card co., 1 lead do., 1 miter machine, 3 stoves, 1 coal stove, 18 ft. stove pipe, 1 perforating machine, 1 glue pot, 2 composition buckets, 3 half medium chases, 1 chase, 17 24x17 5 nonpareil chases, 6 half med. rollers, 2 galley racks, 75 feet gas pipe and fixtures, 2 stapling machines, 1 handsaw, 1 screwdriver, 1 pair compasses, 1 half med. roller mould, 1 quarter med. roller mould, 1 rack wood and furniture, 1 single galley, 6 double galleys, 1 job galleys, 5 job sticks, 3 stools, 24 Hemple quoins with key, 1 bellows, 1 broom, 1 rule shaper, 5 wrenches, 1 butcher knife, 1 punch, 1 hatchet, 1 coal bucket, 7 tin lamp shades, 1 bird cage, 1 short stepladder, 1 looking glass, 1 funnel, 1 dust pan 1 planer, 1 lye brush, 2 oil cans, 2 ink knives, 1 proof roller, 2 dust brushes, 1 job elevator, 1 wash stand, 1 paste pot and brush, ½ paper steel wire brads, ½ paper copper tacks, 2 small screw drivers, 1 box (500) small staples, 2 spools thread, ½ box McGill's paper fasteners 10 lbs, 1 awl, ⅔ qt. diamond dye, 2 cans roller composition, 2 cans green copying ink, 1½-lb. can purple copying ink, 1 pound ultramarine blue ink, ½ pound bronze; ½ lb. printer's gloss ink, ½ lb. steel blue ink, ½ lb. photo brown ink, ½ lb. gold size ink, 3 lbs. red ink, ¼ lb. blue ink, ¼ lb. gold ink, 1¼ lb. white ink, ½ cardinal red ink, 3 lbs. poster red ink, 2 lbs. ultra blue ink, 1 lb. red ink, ¾ lb. Rose Lake ink, ½ lb. green ink, ½ lb. yellow ink, ½ lb. Queen City red ink, 1 ounce purple ink, 1 blue-black ink, 30 lbs. book ink, 53 packages grocer's statements, 49 packages single statements, 21 packages double statements, 28 packages merc. bond paper, letterheads, 9 pkgs. Ulster linen letterheads, 52 pkgs. Pacific Mills letterheads, 13 pkgs. heads, 9 pkgs. ledger statements, 12 pkgs. packet heads, 18 pkgs. linen noteheads, 16 pkgs. No. 6 billheads, 8 pkgs. No. 4 billheads, 10 pkgs. No. 2 billheads, 45 pkgs. No. 2 close ruled billheads, 32 pkgs. No. 4 close ruled billheads, 5 pkgs. No. 2 close ruled billheads, 26 pkgs. memoranda, 20 pkgs. cold press lines, 11 pkgs. Atlanta Mills, 9 pkgs. No. 2 Atlanta Mills, 1000 six and one envelopes XXX, 6 boxes No. 6 XXX envelopes, 2 boxes No. 6 yellow envelopes, 15000 wh. XX envelopes, 250 wh. wove XX, No. 10, 9000 No. 4 shipping tags, 6000 No. 3 shipping tags, 6000 No. 1 shipping tags, 200 sheets white cardboard 22x28, 800 assorted colors cardboard 23x28, 125 sheets R.R. board, 71 pkgs, thin China cards No. 9, 11 pkgs. ditto No. 9, 18 pkgs. tough check cards No. 9, 12 pkgs. tough check No. 12 cards, 35 pkgs. R.R. board, 6 reams chromatic folios, 1 ream gum paper, 6 reams white folio, 17x22 20 lbs. 1½ ream pink folio, 77x22 20 lbs. ¼ ream yellow folio, 17x22 20 lbs. ½ ream linen folio, 17x22 20 lbs. 1½ ream Japanese linen folio, 17x22 20 lbs. ½ ream Super Royal folio, 17x22 20 lbs. 1 ream cap, 14x17 3 reams book folio, 200 sheets cover paper, 600 sheets glazed paper, 1000 sheets ruled folio paper, 15 sheets stencil paper, 7 sheets straw board paper, 9 sheets heavy manila paper, 50 sheets thin straw board paper, 200 sheets black cover paper, 3 reams colored poster paper, 3 drawers scraps paper, 200 lbs. labor-saving slugs, 1 font labor-saving leads, 2 fonts dotted rule, 2 fonts face rule, 3 fonts brass rule, 17 fonts border, 10 ft. border, 15 $ logotypes, 15 No. logotypes, 6 shears, type, 8 bought of type, 1 rec'd. of type, 1 dollars type, 3 sets card ornaments, 47 boxes assorted sizes, 1 drawer cuts, Gr. Pris. Ex. Cond. No. 3, Ronaldson Cond. brevier wide gothic, French Clarendon, 3 fonts, nonpareil, long primer, pica, steel plate gothic, pica, 3 L np. 2 L. pica, tinted, pica, 3 L. pica, Celtic minion, brevier, gr. pr. gothic, No. 9 pica, L. prim. Aquatint, gr. Prim. 2 L. pica, pen text 3 L. pica, 2 L. nonpareil, haw italic brevier, L. primer, manuscript pica, gr. primer, double paragon script, 1 gr. prim. Boston, Canon, Boston, Payson script, black cond. No. 3, Ronaldson extra cond. nonp., brevier, pica, 12 point gothic, wide, lining gothic No. 14, Venetian pica & L. prim., 24 point handard, 24 point dado, 11 point fancy Celtic, 24 point Edson, gothic condensed & poster, gr. pr. paragon, dbl. pica, gr. pr., 4 L. pica, paragon, 5 L. pica, 59 fonts type, 3 cs. small pica, 150 lbs. 3 cs. nonpareil 150 lbs. 2 cs. brevier 100 lbs. 1 c. italic small pica, 10 lbs. 1 20 A font gr. pr. post ionic, 1 10 A case paragon ionic, card ornaments, Palmer & Rey's typographical charm word ornaments, borders No. 22½ N.P., 14½ N.P., 33½ N.P., 29½ N.P., 21½ N.P., 207. N.P., 215 N.P., 228 N.P., 217 N.P., 4 N.P., 212 N.P., 207 pica, 1 N.P., 321 N.P., wood border 10 ft. plain, 10 ft. 10 ft. fancy, 10 ft. fancy, wood type 2 fonts 36 li. pica, 2 fonts 20 li. pica, 2 fonts 15 li. pica, 2 fonts 12 li. pica, 5 fonts 10 li. pica, 5 fonts 8 li. pica, 2 fonts 6 li. pica, 1 font 5 li. pica, 2 fonts 4 li. pica, 4 rule cases, 2 slug cases, 6 frames, 1 cabinet, 21 cs. 107 full-size cases, 32⅔ cases, 1 set initial letters, 1 set ornaments, 25 lbs. metal furniture, 2 sets shelves 1 set pigeonholes with sorts, 1 table with drawers, 1 low table, 50 lbs. leads, 8 yards binding cloth, 100 sheets binding paper, 25 cents glue, 1 small work table, 250 misc. cuts., 1 strip clothes hooks, 1 mallet, 1 shelf stand, 1 proof planer, 1 font circular quad, 1 numbering machine, 1 Linotype, 1 engine & boiler, shafting pulleys & belting, 1335 lbs. type metal, 1 pig of tin, 1 safe, 1 galley rack, 51 type racks with old type, 1 old Hickok press and fittings, 1 lot pulleys, odd pieces machinery, etc., 1 lot old lamps & shades, 150 books (about), 20 bundles old Astorians (about), 4 bundles salmon colored paper, 1 box Kinney salmon ads, Astorian building, situated at corner (S.W.) Cass & Squemoqua streets, Astoria, Oregon. Western Associated Press franchise. The franchise & good will of the Daily & Weekly Astorian newspapers, published at said city of Astoria, to satisfy said sum of $11,925.86, and interest as aforesaid, and the costs and expenses of sale, August 10th, 1893.
Daily Morning Astorian, Astoria, Oregon, August 23, 1893, page 4


    D. L. FRY, the young man for a few months connected with the Medford candy factory, left Monday morning for San Francisco, where he expects to establish a job printing office. Mr. F. is a capital good printer and a fine gentleman. We wish him success.
"Purely Personal," Medford Mail, June 1, 1894, page 3


    The Salem Democrat says: "The Oregonian has now eight setting machines, which will be used to set type for that paper and the Telegram. They will probably be in full operation by the first of the week. This will throw at least twenty-eight printers out of employment, which will come hard on them. Most of those who will lose their places are men who have grown old at the case, and it will be hard for them to find employment. The Oregonian will save from the workmen thus dispensed over $600 a week, and in a few months will have enough money to put another story or two on its building. The result of this movement on the part of the Oregonian will probably be the establishment of another morning daily in Portland," and yet the Oregonian talks about being the friend of the laboring man. What will become of the poor fellows thrown out of employment? If they are too poor to buy a ticket to hunt up work they will have to walk. Will the Oregonian denounce them as tramps? asks the Salem Independent. 
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, June 14, 1894, page 2


    During the past eighteen or twenty months the Mail's subscription list has grown from 500 to very nearly 1200 names. It now becomes necessary that we procure a larger and much faster press upon which to print our paper--and this week we gave our order for such an implement. This will necessitate an outlay of about $900, which is just a dollar and four bits more than we have deposited in the bank. Perhaps we could coax some of our subscribers to "chip in" this small amount, in return for which we will give a receipt for a year's subscription. Look at the date as printed opposite your name on the paper or wrapper and see how your account stands. Perhaps you will then want to change those figures. If you do, drop in and see us--bring a dollar and a half, or six bits, and we will fix it for you. If you don't happen to have the coin handy don't say a word about it it will be all right some other time.
    Here is how those printed dates work:
It indicates that John Doe has paid his subscription to January 1, 1893. Does yours look like that? Let us put a 4 where that 3 is, or if you insist we will make it a 5. 
Medford Mail, October 12, 1894, page 2


    This issue of the Mail is the first paper ever printed in Medford on a cylinder press. The much-talked-of new machine is here and is doing good execution. The paper is a little spotted, but we'll overcome all that by next week--can't expect too much all at once. We are brimful of gratitude to those who have made it possible to so nicely equip our office.
Medford Mail, November 23, 1894, page 2


    "It was Saturday--a big day in the Mail office. Messrs. Bliton & York bought--you bet they did. It is not best to be going around town asking what these gentlemen have done, just go and take a look at their fine cylinder press. I have seen men delighted when getting coupled and when the baby--the first baby, of course--was born, but when this fine press began to shape up its anatomy in the best print shop in Rogue River Valley, the bosses just issued bucketsful of delight from their eyes. I was there you see, can't fool me. Then there were the boys that sling type, my, my, they were away up in the third story, working like beavers to get the big press in place and grinning like opossums all the while. Everybody "kinder" likes the Mail and have had it hinted to them more than once that the proprietors are hustlers from away back and no one is surprised to see the Mail break the newspaper record in this valley. Grit and brain is what makes the dust so thick back where the other fellows are. I have got pretty well acquainted with the boys. Go around and see them, they will use you right, and while you are there don't forget to subscribe for the liveliest paper in Southern Oregon."
    No one knows who wrote this, but it's about straight goods all the same. If you don't believe it just go around print day and see and be convinced.
Medford Mail, November 23, 1894, page 3


    R. A. Fry, a typo, has severed his connections with this office. Dick is a cracking good printer and a very fine gentleman. Any shop that wants a good, steady "print" can do no better than to engage Mr. Fry.
"News of the City," Medford Mail, July 12, 1895, page 5


    N. A. Jacobs saw F. G. Kertson, ex-Medford Mail publisher, when at Portland recently. Says he is working in a job printing office. Kertson was not satisfied with Medford--too small a town and too much work for what money there was in the business. The Mail then had 500 subscribers--have 1500 now, is worth three times what it was then--and still "climbing up higher and higher." As State Printer Leeds remarked a few days ago--"there didn't anyone want the Mail three years ago, but there are lots of the boys who would like to own it now." A proposition is ofttimes a good thing if you can get someone to place it on a paying basis. Nothing short of staying qualities and hustle will do this.
"News of the City," Medford Mail, August 2, 1895, page 5


    Our new 10x15 Chandler & Price Gordon Jobber was put in last Friday. As we stated in last issue, the press is a brand new one, just from the factory in Cleveland, Ohio, and is the BEST and latest improved job press ever brought to Ashland.
    The press may be seen in operation any day of the week, from Monday morning to Saturday night, and all are cordially invited to call around to see it--the best job printing machine in the city.
"Editorial," Ashland Advertiser, October 30, 1895, page 2


    It has been nigh unto three years since the Mail changed hands--a length of time which has never before been credited to the office, since its first issue, eight years ago. Having broken the record, Messrs. Bliton & York feel they can break up shopkeeping with a certain degree of pride. Three years ago we were printing 500 papers--today we are printing 1600. We have worked shoulder to shoulder with the citizens in every enterprise that would tend to the upbuilding of the city and its citizens' interests. We flatter ourselves that success has perched itself upon the pinnacle of our efforts. The old firm is willing to retire with the record it has made--be it good or bad--in either case we have been honest with every patron, every citizen of Medford and county. The business men have patronized us liberally--for all of which here is expressed gratitude--in quantities where limits are lost in measurement. We know we have done them good.
    The paper has always been independent--in fact, as a gentleman remarked but yesterday: "The Mail has kept nearer the middle of the road than even the best populist could hope to." That same degree of independence will continue under the new management. The success which has come to the Mail could not come through any other channel than that of independence.
    Mr. York will engage in the real estate business in this city, and will have desk room in the Mail office. He has some excellent bargains and would be pleased to have his friends--and their friends--call upon him.
    The new firm is Bliton & Batterson. Both are all-round newspaper men--both are printers, publishers, editors--at home any place inside of a print shop. Mr. A. A. Batterson is recently from Ellensburg, Washington, where he very successfully conducted a newspaper for five successive years. He is an old-time acquaintance of the undersigned, every inch a gentleman, an able writer, and an honorable citizen in any community. Treat the new firm as kindly as you have treated the old and your confidence will never be misplaced.
Medford Mail, November 1, 1895, page 4


    The other day she glided into the office and gracefully and quietly approached the editor's desk. "I have written a poem," she began. "Well!" exclaimed the editor in a tone and look intending to annihilate, but she wouldn't annihilate worth a cent and resumed: "I have written a poem on 'My Father's Barn' and--" "Oh!" interrupted the editor, with extraordinary suavity, "You don't know how I am relieved. A poem written on your father's barn, eh? I was afraid it was written on paper and that you wanted me to publish it. If I should ever happen to drive past your father's barn I'll stop and read the poem."
Medford Mail, June 26, 1896, page 2


    The doggerel that there are more ways than one to strangle a cat is only too true in this highly artificial age of the world, and the same was very forcibly exemplified in Jacksonville last week in the case of W. Kahler against Chas. Nickell. Mr. Kahler had brought suit against Mr. Nickell and had obtained judgment against him for $2250 and the Times printing house and all presses, type, in fact everything belonging thereto was advertised for sale to satisfy the judgment. Everything was progressing serenely until Christmas morning--the day before the sale was to take place--when Mr. Nickell with a force of men and teams commenced the work at three o'clock in the morning of moving all the material out of the building, and it being a holiday, nothing could be done to prevent the rather queer proceedings. The matter was further complicated by Mr. Nickell giving a bill of sale to three separate parties of the printing presses, etc. Injunction proceedings have been commenced against him to prevent any further complications of the case, and bonds amounting to $3400 have been demanded by the court. The final outcome of this case is only a mere conjecture, but that there will be a bitterly contested case there seems to be no doubt. A great deal of hard feelings among friends of the parties is said to exist. The Times did not appear Monday, but it is reported it will be out today. 
"News of the City," Medford Mail, January 1, 1897, page 7


    GOLD HILL's new paper, the News, is out, and it is a good one. Editor Churchill is all right. The paper is well gotten up--in fact a long ways ahead of the average weekly. The ads are well set, the makeup is first class, and the printing is well done. if the Gold Hill people are alive to their interests they will give the News a hearty support.
Medford Mail, February 5, 1897, page 2


    Wednesday the pupils of the ninth and tenth grades were given a chance to go to the Mail office and watch the printing of the paper. So we took advantage of the opportunity and marched down in a body. We found Mr. Bliton, the editor, in the office, and he kindly gave us all the information asked for.
    The Cottrell cylinder press, weighing about four thousand five hundred pounds, is used in the Mail press room. It needs only one person to manage it, and that one feeds the paper into the press above the cylinder. The blank paper is caught by the grippers and carried around the cylinder and meets the type under the cylinder. The type rests on the press bed which is run backward and forward by a cog wheel attachment which reverses itself. The jar of the press bed is relieved by buffers and air cylinders at the front and rear, thus saving much noise and wear of the press. The paper is then delivered in the rear from the cylinder on a rack or fly, which piles the papers evenly, ready to be folded. The amount of ink flow is governed by thumb screws at the rear of the ink well and is evenly distributed to the type by a set of rollers placed at different angles to each other. This machine will print from 1900 to 1400 papers an hour. Usually, however, it taken nearly two hours to run through the weekly edition of 1920 copies.
    After we had watched the printing of the paper the editor described the cases of type, which are placed in what are called job and news cases. Each letter has a separate box, and the boxes for small, or "lower case," letters are not arranged in alphabetical order. The box in which "e" is kept is larger than the others, as this letter is used more than any other. The letter "j" is used very little. The letters used most frequently are nearest the typesetter's hand. All cases of English type used in any country are arranged in the same manner. The letters "fi" are made on the same type, also "fl," "ff," "ffi," and "ffl." The capital letter boxes are arranged in alphabetical order except the letters "J" and "U." Years ago when the present order of the letter boxes was fixed, "J" and "U" were not used, so when they came into use it was easier to place them at the end of the alphabet than to put them in their regular order. There is what is called the printer's stick in which the letters are arranged. The type is set in this so as to read, to the one working, from left to right and bottom side up; this makes the printing on the paper right side up. When the type is arranged on a table there are six columns to a page. The advertisements are the same every week unless the persons for whom they are printed wish them changed.
    We were shown a small press for printing bills and small matter such as the report cards of the school. Another machine is used for cutting paper.
    After thanking Mr. Bliton for his kindness in answering our numerous questions, we left knowing much more than we did an hour before.
Medford Mail, December 17, 1897, page 3


    Ira Phelps, formerly of Medford, has secured a position in an Albany job printing establishment.
"A Grist of Local Haps and Mishaps," Medford Mail, February 25, 1898, page 7


    Miss Myrtle Woodford was visiting Ashland friends Sunday and Monday. The young lady is now setting type in the Times office--Jacksonville.
"Purely Personal," Medford Mail, March 25, 1898, page 6




    Thos. Harlan, formerly publisher and founder of the Mail, was in Medford this week doing missionary work for his paper, the Register-Democrat, published at Portland, and also endeavoring to reorganize the Democratic Party in Southern Oregon. It was on December 14, 1888, that Mr. Harlan, together with his son, Newell, put the first "types" in line for the Mail and presented it to the public as a Republican newspaper. Since leaving here in '92 Mr. Harlan has been engaged in farming in a small way near Mosier, Oregon, until a few months ago when he established his Democratic paper in Portland. Newell Harlan is now at Selma, Calif., where he is operating a large job printing establishment--and making money. His eight-year-old daughter, Libbie, who was born in Medford, died last December. Milton Harlan is associated with his father in the newspaper business.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, January 19, 1900, page 7


    Jeweler McFarren, of Gold Hill, was in Medford Monday. His son, Harl, who was a printer in the Mail office something over four years ago, has dropped off te earth, evidently. Four years ago next March he left Gold Hill for Astoria, since which time his parents have had no information as to his whereabouts, and it is thought he is dead, but even though he be dead it is strange indeed that his parents have had no news of the fact.
"Purely Personal," Medford Mail, February 2, 1900, page 6


    Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Roach left Monday evening for their new home at Roseburg. Mr. Roach has been a printer in the Mail office for the past six months and has proven himself a very able printer--in fact, an all-round newspaper man--and aside from this a pleasant gentleman to have around. He is every inch a square, honorable man, and the Mail is congratulating Roseburg upon having secured so worthy a gentleman and estimable family for permanent residents. Mr. Roach has purchased a half interest in the Roseburg Plaindealer, and hereafter the paper will be published by Conner & Roach. Mr. Conner, who has been principal owner of the Plaindealer for several months, is a splendid gentleman and will hitch well in team harness with our good friend Roach.
"Purely Personal," Medford Mail, June 15, 1900, page 6


    Jas. D. Fay, the Mail's job printer, has moved his family from Jacksonville to the F. M. Stewart residence in West Medford.
"Additional Local," Medford Mail, February 1, 1901, page 6


    A large quantity of newspapers, suitable for wrapping, pasting on walls, putting under carpets, etc., can be obtained cheap, in quantities to suit, at the Times Printing House.
"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, April 18, 1901, page 4


    The Enquirer admits having swiped a news item from the Mail and then accuses the Mail at being a fakir for having published the imaginary item in question. The item served its purpose--did good service in its special field--proved conclusively that the Enquirer "cribs" its news from our columns, which may be legitimate procedure with blacksmith printers, but with professional men of the art preservative it is considered dirty, disreputable business. However, we caught the purloiner in his cribbing act and have proven the fact--and while somewhat surprised at his wholesale pilfering we cannot but commend his good judgment in selecting the Mail as his medium of authority for local news.
    The Enquirer questions the Mail's circulation. We publish below an affidavit which ought to convince our readers that we are making no idle boast when we say our circulation is 2200. Will the Enquirer make affidavit that he prints half that number--we don't think. Here is the affidavit:
STATE OF OREGON,
        County of Jackson.
    I, A. S. Bliton, being first duly sworn, depose and say that I am the publisher of the Medford Mail, a weekly newspaper published in the town of Medford, Jackson County, Oregon; that the number of Medford Mails printed each week is 2200, and that this number has been printed each week for no less a period than twelve months last past.
    Subscribed and sworn to before me this 18th day of April, 1901.
    This same Enquirer asserted in a recent issue that the Mail put in two bids on a certain piece of job printing and that upon being confronted by the parties interested we were told that we did put in two bids. This is a falsehood in every sense and detail. Upon going to the parties in question we were told in the presence of Mr. Mann that we did not put in two bids. If the Enquirer insists that we did we will produce evidence from the parties in question refuting the statement made in its columns.
Medford Mail, April 19, 1901, page 2


    Last week in a Brownsboro item, published in these columns, the word "intelligent" was written by the correspondent, but the printer who put the item in type, unintentionally, of course, put in the word "delinquent," and the proofreader--who didn't read the proof--failed to catch the error. We regret very much that the error occurred, but it was one of those little mishaps which will occasionally befall the most careful and painstaking publications.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, August 23, 1901, page 7