CHAPTEE XX 



PRINTING 



A FTER a book is written, the author sends his 

 JL~\ work, his manuscript, to the printer, who is to 

 reproduce it in printed letters and in as many copies 

 as are desired. 



"Picture to yourself fine and short metal sticks, 

 on the end of each of which is carved in relief a 

 letter of the alphabet. One of these sticks has an a 

 on the end, another a b, another a c, etc. There are 

 others which have a full-stop, a comma, a semi-colon ; 

 in fact, there are as many distinct kinds of these 

 little metal pieces as there are letters and ortho- 

 graphic signs in our written languagew Besides, 

 each letter and each sign are represented a great 

 many times. Let us take note, too, that all these 

 characters are carved wrong side before; you will 

 soon see the reason. 



"A workman called a compositor has before him 

 a stand of cases, of which each compartment is oc- 

 cupied by a single letter of the alphabet, or by an 

 orthographic sign. The a's are in such a compart- 

 ment, the b's in a second, the c's in a third, and so 

 on. The letters, furthermore, aje not arranged in 

 the case alphabetically. To shorten the work, they 

 put in the compartments near to hand the letters 

 that occur most frequently, such as the e's, r's, i's, 



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