1 847.] THE O BERLIN PRESS. 109 



had so far improved, that though he was but a bad speller and 

 grammarian (having had no education but that of a Sunday 

 school, and not having so much as seen a press or a type three 

 months before), he was able to set up a small tract, impose it, 

 correct it, and work it off without assistance. He was a cotton- 

 spinner by trade, but having been out of work seventeen con- 

 secutive months, through the stoppage of a factory, he was 

 anxious to devote himself to some other business.* As we had 

 found the press very useful, and hoped to make it still more so, 

 we entered into a co-operative society with him and a few others 

 who remained destitute of employment. We moved our 

 machinery to some premises belonging to the Mechanics' Insti- 

 tution ; got our press entered according to law ; and set up for 

 ourselves. Since that time we have exchanged our old press 

 for a new Columbian ; have obtained various additions of type ; 

 and have built Oberlin a new house, f We neither profess nor 

 expect to rival practised, well-taught hands in our execution ; 

 but we hope that our work will be both readable and read. We 

 hope that it will always be worth reading. Oberlin is glad of 

 'jobs;' but he will never print bills for publicans, or pawn- 

 tickets, or puffs of tobacco, or anything else that (whether 

 rightly or not) he deems injurious. 



" There is said to be no rule without exceptions ; and we 

 hope that our good friends who belong to unions, and can show 

 indentures, will consider this attempt of ours as one. We are 

 not opposing the unions ; but, under the extraordinary circum- 

 stances of the case, we had no power of seeking their protection. 

 We have, indeed, served an apprenticeship to correcting proofs, 

 of twenty years' standing; but we were never bound. The 

 only indentures we can show are careful hands and willing 

 hearts ; and we belong to the blest and blessing union of those 

 who are anxious to do good, who are anxious to be taught, and 

 who are anxious to be faithful to the cause of him who 

 commanded us to ' work while it is day.' " 



* Mr. John Howard is now " carrying on a nice little business, with a 

 little money in hand," as a printer, etc., at Facit, near Rochdale, 

 t Over the committee-room of the Cairo Street School. 



