AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
(H’arixi, GrarcTen, and. Honseliold. 
‘‘AGRIOtrtTUKE IS THE MOST HEAETIIFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOA’MENT OF MAN.”—WitaiNoTon 
ORANGJG jriJBB & CO., 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. 
Office, 4rl Parle Row, (TimeB Buildings.) 
ESTABLISHED IN'1842. 
Pnlilish.ed also iu Ocrmair at $1.50 a Year. 
I lfel.50 PEB ANEUM, IN ADVANCE ! 
•< SINGLE NUMBEE, 15 CENTS. 
\ 4 Copies for $ 5; 10 for $12; 20or inore,$l eacl>. 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 186G, by Oeange Jedd & Co., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-Tork. 
VOLUME XXV—No. 6. NEW*YORK, JUNE, 1866. NEW SERIES—No. 233, 
THE “FIRST PROOF SHEET” — GUTTENBERG AND FAUST. — Painted by Hillemachek. 
^'■Proofs" are the first impressions which are 
•taken from types after they are set up, so that 
:the matter may he read, and corrections made, 
previous to printing. A proof was a great deal 
' 'more than that at the moment selected by the 
: artist for the above picture. Think, what were 
the first impressions of John Guttenherg and 
• John Faust, in that rude printing office at Mentz, 
in 1450, on examining the first proof-sheet 
taken, from t-y-p-e-s .—It was indeed a proof.—It 
.assured them of success, of fame, of honor, and 
perhaps it showed them some dim foreshadow- 
•ing of the results to the world of the art 
of printing. Guttenherg, the poor mechanic 
with his great genius, had struggled along since 
1438 alone, until he found in Faust a genial, ap¬ 
preciative, liberal patron. Faust’s face glows 
with surprise, pleasure, and interest at the de¬ 
monstration of the problem. To Guttenherg, 
however, it is the moment of modest triumph, 
the culmination of his hopes and labors. He 
offers to his friend and patron the proof that his 
claims are just. The lever that will move the 
world he places in his hands. Think of what 
this first “ proof” meant. Yet with true inven¬ 
tive instinct Guttenherg apparently takes no 
pride in it, hut is intent on pointing out some 
little defect, and is already planning to do bet¬ 
ter. There are two other characters in the pic¬ 
ture : one a sturdy laborer, who thinks “What 
fools there are in the world ! ” The other is 
Peter Schceffer, the scribe, whose facility with 
the pen rendered him valuable to Guttenherg in 
selecting styles for liis type, etc. He takes in the 
whole, and it was he who first cast metal in 
moulds to form type. Guttenherg first used 
moveable types of wood or metal, and made 
them up in forms for printing.—Tlie above is 
from a fine engraving at Goupll’s, on Broadway, 
