Chapter VII: THE COALVILLE NEWS, Vol. I, No. 1

Harry went upstairs and sat down to write an article about the discharge of the home miners as a result of the foreigners having been given work in the Annex Mine, then he went to work and set it up in type-form. It was the middle of the afternoon when he finished and there was a galley and a half in all. This, added to the local news items that Tommy set in the meantime, would be enough to fill the rest of the space in the forms, and Harry felt very well pleased.

“I’m going to make up the forms now, Tommy,” he said, “and have them all ready so we can go right to printing the first thing in the morning. We may be able to get the papers printed by noon.”

He went to work making up the forms, as he had said, and soon had the type all in and evened up at the bottom, so that the foot-stick would fit up evenly against the lower ends of the seven columns of type. The foot-stick is of iron, and is about half an inch thick and two-thirds of an inch wide. There is a side-stick, also, that fits against the type lengthwise of the form. Between the foot-stick and the side-stick is a space of about half an inch, and in this space quoins are placed.

These are cast-metal, nearly half an inch thick at the large end and sloping down to only about an eighth of an inch at the other end. They have indentations and ridges in their top, these indentations and ridges alternating, and there is a key, as it is called, with a handle at the top and indentations and ridges in the other end, which is about one-third of an inch in diameter. There are only four of these indentations and ridges in the end of the key, and they fit into the indentations and ridges in the quoins. When the key is twisted around and around by the handle, the two quoins, placed face to face with the large ends in opposite directions and the thin ends pointing toward each other, are spread apart.

The flat, straight sides of the quoins pressing against the iron chase at one side and against the iron foot and side-sticks at the other, compress the type in the form and tighten it so that even though it consists of several thousands of little individual pieces of metal, viz., the type, spaces, quads, etc., it is all pressed together like one solid piece of metal. The form thus locked up, as it is termed, can be lifted off the imposing stone and carried and placed on the press to be printed from, or taken off the press and carried and placed back on the imposing-stone and the quoins loosened; this frees the individual pieces of metal from compression and the type can be taken out and thrown back into the cases, ready to be set up and be printed from again.

Harry, having filled the forms with the type and fitted the sides and foot-sticks in, placed the quoins in between the foot-sticks and the side of the chase. These forms that Harry’s paper was to be printed from were seven-column ones. A form of that size requires two pairs of quoins at the foot, and three pairs of quoins at the side, to compress the type in the chase sufficiently, to hold them all in place and make the type as compact as one solid piece of metal.

Harry had learned all this in the office in Allentown, and he placed two pairs of quoins at the foot and three pairs of quoins at the side of each form, and pushed the two pieces constituting each pair of quoins together with his fingers. This was tight enough for the present, as he would not lock the forms up until ready to go to press in the morning. To lock them up tightly and leave them overnight caused the chases to spring. They are strong, but bend slightly when the forms are locked up tightly, and if the forms are left locked up too long and the chases thus become sprung, the whole form will “cave in.” A bushel or two of “pi,” or mixed and jumbled type, is the result.

It is too tedious a job and takes too long a time to sort out and distribute such a large quantity of this mixed type. It is therefore thrown into a carton labeled “Old Metal,” to be sold back to the type foundries at the rate of about eight cents per pound. At the same time the publisher writes an order to the same type foundry to send him a hundred pounds of new type for which he pays about sixty cents per pound. Therefore printers have to be careful of their printing paraphernalia so that the profits of running their printing business will not be appreciably diminished.

“I almost forgot something,” said Harry, turning to Tommy. “Run down to Mr. Merwin’s carpenter shop and get the ink-board that I had him make for me. It has been done several days, but it won’t be needed till the time comes to print, and I didn’t think to get it.”

“All right,” said Tommy, and he went on the errand, returning in about ten minutes with the ink-board.

“That’ll do first rate,” said Harry, taking it and looking at it. It was made of two thicknesses of pine board nailed together crosswise, and was covered with a sheet of zinc. “It can be placed on that box you stand on to set type, when we go to print. You’ll have to do the inking, Tommy, by hand. See, here’s the ink-roller,” and he set the ink-board down against the wall and lifted the ink-roller out of a wooden box.

The rollers used in printing are a composition composed principally of glue and molasses, soft on the surface and at the same time tough enough to stand a lot of use if carefully handled. This surface is smooth and at the same time slightly grainy, as it might be called, and the ink, when distributed on some smooth surface, adheres to the roller. Then when the roller rolls across the top of the type, the type is inked; and when paper on which anything is to be printed is placed on top of the type and strong pressure brought to bear upon it, the type-conforma--local news items, advertisements or whatever it may be--is impressed on the paper, this constituting the printed sheet.

Ink-rollers have to be cleansed of the ink, and of dust or anything that gets on them, by benzine, which removes the ink, etc., without injuring the surface of the roller. Lye-water, diluted to the proper thinness, will remove ink from type-forms, but will ruin the surface of the ink-rollers, as the lye will eat into the molasses and glue compound.

The ink-roller that Harry had purchased was fourteen inches long and about three inches in diameter. At the center, extending through from end to end and projecting half an inch or so, was what is termed the core, this being an iron rod about half an inch in diameter, and such an iron rod, or core, is in all ink-rollers. The projecting end of the core fitted into holes in the ends of an iron frame, to which was fastened a handle to grasp while distributing the ink and rolling the roller across the form.

“You can handle this ink-roller and ink the forms without difficulty, Tommy, as the roller isn’t very heavy.” He handed it to Tommy, who tested its weight and nodded.

“Yes, I can handle it, I am sure,” he said. “It isn’t very heavy.”

When five o’clock came Harry looked at the two seven-column forms with satisfaction, and nodded his head.

“Everything’s ready, and we start printing the paper the first thing in the morning,” he said to Tommy, who nodded. “I hope the people will like the paper,” he added.

“I’m sure they will,” the boy replied. “It’ll make the place seem livelier to have a paper.”

“Yes, it’ll help some,” Harry remarked, and then they went out and to their respective homes.

Next morning they began work promptly at eight. Tommy placed the carton beside the table on which the press stood, and placed the ink-board on it, and then in accordance with Harry’s instructions placed some ink from the ten-gallon can on the ink-board. He rolled the roller back and forth and crosswise until the ink was distributed thinly and evenly. Meanwhile Harry had locked up the first form, the one with the heading of the paper, and had placed it on the iron bed of the press; and this made the preparations for printing complete, as in addition to making the forms ready to print from the evening before, Harry, assisted by Tommy, had folded the four hundred and eighty sheets of paper. As it was only possible to print one form at a time, the paper had to be folded. It was the “ready print” kind, one side of it, or two pages, already being printed, and consisting of foreign news, as opposed to local news. The four hundred and eighty sheets were stacked up on a table at the side of the press.

“The paper is half printed already, Tommy,” said Harry. “Now let’s see if we can print the rest in half a day. I don’t know how fast we can print, nor how long it will take us to run these papers through, but if we don’t get it done by noon we’ll surely be able to do so by the middle of the afternoon. Now let’s get to work.”

Harry placed one of the papers up against the heavy ducking, which, being sewed around a thin iron frame, constituted the tympan, as it is called. It was the proper size to fit down over a seven-column form, the iron flanges fitting around the form, thus not coming down onto the type, and the thin metal frame called a friskit, fastened at the top pivotally so it could be lifted up and down. He pulled down until it fitted against the paper all around, thus holding it in place. Then he laid all three--the tympan, paper and friskit--down onto the top of the form, Tommy having inked the type from one end of the form to the other as Harry had instructed him to do.

Then taking hold of the crank at the side next to him, Harry turned it around slowly, the iron bed with the form on it moving through beneath the iron cylinder, which was adjusted to exactly the right height so that it pressed down tightly on the type-form, thus making a printed impression. This iron bed was moved along by strong steel cogs on the end of the cylinder next to Harry, these cogs fitting into cogs along the entire length of the iron frame of the press. A small press such as this needed only cogs at one end, as the cylinder had a steel projection at the other end about half an inch in diameter, that fitted into the hole in a portion of the iron framework of the press that extended upward, somewhat like a flange.

When he had turned the crank till the bed of the press and the form had passed completely through and somewhat beyond the cylinder, Harry stopped and lifted up the friskit, the paper lifting at the same time, and there was the front page of the first issue of “The Coalville News,” printed neatly and clearly, staring him and Tommy in the face.

“How’s that, Tommy?” asked Harry, smilingly. “How does that look?”

“Great!” said Tommy. “Jinks! I didn’t know it would look as well as that!”

“I was sure it would,” said Harry. “You see, I worked in a newspaper office in another town, and helped print the paper, so I knew about how it would look.”

Tommy nodded. “With the other page printed, it’ll be a nice paper,” he said.

“You’re right, Tommy,” Harry agreed.

He took the paper off the tympan and sat down to look it over to see if there were any errors that would have to be corrected. He did not believe there were any, as he always corrected each line of type as soon as he set it, and Tommy had done likewise, in accordance with Harry’s instructions. Tommy had made a few errors, but Harry had corrected these while making up the forms.

At the top of the first column Harry had placed his salutatory. It was brief and consistent, simply stating that “The Coalville News” was started with the hope that it would please the people of the town and vicinity, that they would subscribe for and read it; that he, as its publisher, would make it as interesting and newsy as possible, and that he would do his best to make it a benefit not only to himself, but to the town and community as well. At the bottom his name, “Harry Weston,” and the words, “Editor and Proprietor,” appeared.

At the top of the next two columns, the type set double-column width and in large type, was the article of protest Harry had written--the protest against the foreign miners being given work in the Annex Mine and the home miners being discharged. On the top line, in twenty-four point type, or type one-third of an inch wide, Harry had printed the main heading of the article in the following words:

NOT FAIR TREATMENT!

Just below this, in eighteen-point type, was a secondary heading line, as follows:

“Foreign Miners Employed in the
Annex Mine--Home Miners
Discharged!”

Below this he printed a third heading, in twelve-point type, as follows:

“The Business Men of Coalville,
Including the Publisher of This
Paper, Protest! They Hope to
Get Mr. Morgan, the Annex
Mine’s Manager, to
Reconsider!”

Then followed the article, printed in eight-point type, the size used throughout for the news portion, where Harry explained all he had learned about the employing of the foreigners by Mr. Morgan and the discharge of the home miners, that he had talked with all the merchants in Coalville, who were unanimous in declaring Mr. Morgan’s actions as unfair treatment of the home miners; and that they one and all, including the publisher of “The Coalville News,” protested, and approved of a protest being printed. This being the case, he, Harry Weston, the editor and publisher of the Coalville newspaper, had written and printed the protest; he hoped it would have considerable effect in getting Mr. Morgan to reconsider his unfair treatment of the home miners, and that it might lead to his discharging the foreigners and re-employing the home men.

It was a good article indeed, well-written, and would make a good impression undoubtedly, as Harry had written it carefully, and it was couched in calm, conservative language.

There were no errors to correct, so they went right ahead printing; in an hour and a half’s time they had printed the first page of each of the four hundred and eighty papers. Harry then took the form off the press and put it back on the imposing-stone. The form was not too heavy for one to handle, as it weighed only about eighty-five pounds. He then washed the ink off the face of the type with a cloth moistened with benzine, unlocked the form by loosening the quoins, and then locked up the other form and put it onto the bed of the press.

“The ink on the first hundred or so of the papers we printed is dry enough by this time so it won’t offset,” said Harry, “and by the time we get those printed the rest will be dry enough.” “Offsetting” means the smudging of the white, unprinted paper by the moist ink from the printed paper.

They got the four hundred and eighty papers printed a little while before noon, and after he had taken the form off the press, put it on the imposing-stone, cleaned off the type with benzine and then unlocked the form. Harry turned to Tommy:

“I’ll tell you what I want you to do, Tommy,” he said. “You can do it after you have eaten your dinner. I want you to get at least three other boys and have them come to the office with you. Get them here as soon as you can after dinner. I want you four to distribute these papers into the homes of the people here in Coalville. You see, I haven’t any real list of subscribers as yet. I have them still to get, and I don’t know of any better way to get them to subscribe than to hand them sample copies until they do subscribe; and in due time I will have a regular bona fide list of subscribers and can send the papers through the post-office.”

“Very well,” said Tommy. “I can get three boys to help, easily enough. We’ll be here soon after one o’clock.”

“Good, and thanks, Tommy. Tell them I will pay them a fair price for the work, and will hand them their pay as soon as they have finished.”

“All right,” and Tommy hurried out. Harry followed, and locking the door, made his way downstairs and to the Tompkins home, where he ate quite appreciatively of Mrs. Tompkins’ good food.

He had not been at the office more than ten minutes before Tommy arrived, accompanied by three other bright-looking boys.

“Here they are, Harry,” he said. “These boys’ll help distribute the papers.”

“All right. I’ll divide the papers among you. There are four hundred and eighty papers, but I want to keep sixty of them, as I am going to distribute the paper in all the business houses at the same time you boys are distributing them in the homes. That leaves four hundred and twenty, which will be one hundred and five for each of you. I’ll count them out.”

He did so, and found that there were fifteen extra copies. “They put these in for good measure, I suppose,” he said. “I’ll keep them in the office, as I want two to put on file, and there may be a few people who will come in and want an extra copy. Now go ahead, boys, and be sure and leave a paper at each house. The best way to do will be to divide the town up into four sections, and each deliver papers in his section. That will be more systematic than haphazard delivery and you will not be so likely to miss any houses.”

“All right,” said Tommy, and the other boys nodded. They went downstairs, discussing among themselves which boy should deliver papers in each of the different sections.

Harry then, with the sixty papers under his arm, went downstairs and made his way from store to store, then upstairs into the professional offices and into the city clerk’s office. He did not stop to talk to the merchants, but simply handed them the paper, or laid it on the counter, and went on. It was done in three-quarters of an hour. He returned to his office and sat down to rest, as he had worked pretty hard and was tired. Taking up one of the papers he began looking it over while waiting for the boys to return.

They did not get back till nearly four o’clock. “We delivered the papers at all the houses,” said Tommy. “We only had three papers left, and I brought them back.” He handed them to Harry, who placed them on the table.

“That’s good,” he said. Then turning to the other boys, he added: “How much do I owe you for distributing the papers?”

They glanced at one another, and then one said: “I guess fifty cents apiece would be about right.” He glanced at the other two and they nodded.

“That is all right, and reasonable enough,” said Harry, and he handed each of them a fifty-cent piece.

“Thanks,” they said, and then the one who had spoken up added: “If you want us to carry papers each week, we will do so.”

“Yes, I will want you to do so for a few weeks at any rate,” was the reply. “Come up to the office every Friday about one o’clock.”

“All right, we’ll be here,” the same boy said, and the other two nodded, then they left the office and went down onto the street.

At five o’clock Harry and Tommy went to their homes.

Harry’s paper, “The Coalville News,” the first issue of which the people read with interest, pleased them very much and was the subject of much favorable comment.