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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
ij C|e dEhtnttur. 
|; ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING. 
| BY WILLIAM T. COGGESIIALL. 
| Tiik city of Mentz, in Germany, is entitled 
5 to the honor of being the birthplace of Print- 
} ing. Strasburg and one or two other cities 
5 have laid earnest claims to this high honor, 
| but it is generally conceded by historians that 
> it belongs to Mentz. 
Guttemburg invented and first used separate 
| letters or movable types in 1442. As early as 
> 1423 he had printed with lines cut on wood, 
| but this was only a small mechanical advance 
| on what had been done for many years. 
| Xylographic printing, or the taking of im- 
l pressions from wooden tables, on which letters 
( or figures were engraved, had previously been 
I f practiced in Germany. This was an Eastern 
| invention. It came from China and Japan, 
| where it is still in use. Among the Japa- 
S nese, from time immemorial, the art of taking 
| impressions in wax has been exercised, and 
| these curious and isolated people claim the 
5 merit of having originated Xylographic print- 
* ifg- 
Typographical printing, or the taking of 
impressions from movable wooden or metal 
types, began properly in 1449. The oldest 
work typographically executed, was a Latin 
Bible, which was published in 1455. 
A man named John Faust, or Faustus, be- 
3 came associated with Guttemburg, and did 
3 much to improve Ihe art the latter had invent- 
^ ed. The Bibles then extant were in manu- 
3 script, and the writing of them gave profitable 
| employment to many Monks. In 1462, Faust 
( went to Paris to sell the Bibles he had print- 
5 ed, when the Monks, fearing his business would 
} so interfere with theirs a 3 to render their copy- 
| ing labors unnecessary, opposed him bitterly, 
> and appealed to the prejudices and supersti- 
) tions of the people, by declaring that he was 
l leagued with the Father of Lies. Faust be- 
5 came alarmed, on account of the violence of 
| their persecution, and fled from Paris ; hence 
l arose the tradition that Satan mysteriously 
3 conducted the printer to his invisible kingdom. 
\ From Germany, printing was first carried 
5 into Italy; it was next practiced in France. 
> It was introduced into England by William 
| Caxton, about the year 1471. 
i Guttemburg, at first, took impressions from ; 
5 his types, by fastening them upon a table— 
l coloring them with writing ink—spreading 
* the paper over them and pressing it with a rub- 
| ber of horn. Faust invented printing ink, 
t and Guttemburg constructed a rude printing i 
\ press. Iron presses were earliest employed by . 
2 Lord Stanhope, of England. * j 
I It was not until 1476 that the titles of 
books were printed on a separate page—titles ! 
to chapters had been used as early as 1470, 
but then there were no capital letters, nor any ( 
marks of punctuation. 
I Printing was regarded with marked suspi- 
| cion by the powers of even cultivated Eng- 
| land. For a long series of years printers were 
5 obliged to take out license. As it was the foe v 
|j of the selfish Monks who persecuted poor c 
| Faust, so it has everywhere been, and so it i 
| must forever be, the direct foe of tyranny a 
fl and bigotry, of illiberally and prejudice ; and j 
^ therefore it is true that in every country of the g 
£ world but in America, it has been, and is now, /, 
j subject to more or less embarrassing restric- ' 
S tion. ^ 
? The men who came to the shores of New „ 
\ England in the Mayflower, had more enlarged j: 
? ideas of the power and usefulness of printing, ^ 
l than the mass of their fellow Englishmen— 
; among whom they towered like church stee- u 
? pies among business edifices on onr city streets gi 
; —and yet, after many years, their descendants, 
’> and the descendants of those who joined them t 
1 in the New World, were extremely cautions j, 
! tow they encouraged printing. It was watch- a 
i ed and guarded as a medium of great good or u 
great harm, according to the liberty or license *i 
granted it. e 
The first printing press set up in America, 'Z 
\as “ worked” at Cambridge, Mass., in 1639. t] 
Bey. Jesse Glover procured this press by _ 
' contributions of friends of learning and reli- 
fion,” in Amsterdam, and in England, but g 
died on his passage to the New World. 
Stephen Day was the first printer. In hon- ^ 
or of his pioneer position Government gave ^ 
aim a grant of three hundred acres of land. 
The third book published by him was “the 
Psalms in Metre.” In 1661, the New Testa- C( 
meat and Baxter’s Call, translated into the n , 
Indian language by Elliot, the great miesiona- c 
ry, were printed at a cost of £3,200. Penn- w 
sylvania was the second State to encourage 
printing. William Bradford came to Penn- U 
sylvania with William Penn., in 1682, and in a 
1686, established a printing press in Philadel- st , 
phia ; its first issue was an Almanac for 1687, ? 
—it was but a sheet. The first book printed ,, 
by Mr. Bradford was a collection of Essays, , 
by Francis Bacon. It appeared in 1688, and „! 
was called “ The Temple of Wisdom.” 
In 1692, Mr. Bradford was induced to es- 
tabljsh a printing press in New York. He c i 
received £40 per annum, and the privilege of w 
printing on his own account. Previous to 2° 
this time there had been no printing done in a 
the Province of New York. His first issue in W1 
New York was a proclamation, bearing the w< 
date of 1692. au 
The first paper mill erected in America was 
| at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, which Wil¬ 
liam Bradford, Royal Printer of New York, yo 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, purchased in de 
1728. In 1730, the second went into opera- su 
tion at Boston—the Legislature of Massachu- tli 
setts granting aid. In the time of the Pro- ty 
tectcrate, the Governor of Virginia congratu- wl 
lated his people in the following words : “ I wl 
thank God there is not a printing press or 
free school within my province.” 
It was nearly a century after a printing mi 
press had been set up in New England, be- be 
lore one would be tolerated in Virginia._ bit 
These colonists had no printing done amon" be 
them till 1727. f rc 
Mttp. 
WINTER QUARTERS IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 
DISCOVERIES IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. 
For more than two hundred years, the at¬ 
tention of commercial nations, and particular¬ 
ly of England and Russia, ha3 been turned to 
discoveries in the Arctic seas. Of late years, 
also, our own countrymen have taken an ac¬ 
tive part in these adventures of hardship and 
peril; partly from love of excitement, partly 
from hope of profit in the whale and seal fish¬ 
eries, and partly urged on by the high and 
honorable motives of an unselfish humanity. 
The earliest attempts to navigate these seas 
were induced by the hope of finding a north¬ 
west passage to the East Indies ; a problem 
that for a long time perplexed the commercial 
world ; and subsequent adventures were mado 
for the purpose of extending the bounds of 
geographical and scientific knowledge, and for 
the profits of the trade in oil and furs. 
Among the noted adventurers in these re¬ 
gions may be mentioned the names of Piiipps, 
Deshnew, Behring, Billings, Vancouver, 
Forbisher, Baffin, Barrow, Parry, Ross, 
Franklin, and our own energetic country¬ 
men, Lieut. De Haven and Dr. Kane. Sir 
John Franklin, with all his com maud, per¬ 
ished amid the vigors of those inhospitable 
regions, and Dr. Kane Is now absent, and un¬ 
heard from for the second season, endeavoring 
(if he himself survives) to solve the melan- 
EXTRACTS FROM A TEACHER’S DIARY. 
Yesterday, I sent Mrs. B.’s baby home’ 
with word that she must send the cradle if she 
sent her baby, as I had no appropriate accom¬ 
modations for it; and to day she ha 3 been all 
around the neighborhood, telling that her 
James “ hain t learnt one new thing this whole 
summer,” and says, she “ don’t see the use of 
having a school unless a body can send their 
youDg ones to it to get them out of the way.” 
Ah, that’s the great secret! She wants to 
get her three years old boy “ out of the way,” 
because she can’t govern him herself, so she 
has sent him to school every pleasant day for 
weeks. Says, she “ don’t want him to read, 
unless I’ve plenty of time ; but he likes to go 
so well she can’t keep him at home.” 
Accordingly, I have allowed it, and he has 
trotted in and out when he pleased, perfectly 
lawless ; now sitting upon the writing desk'; 
anon perched upon a high bench in one cor¬ 
ner ; and again out of doors poking ki 3 head 
through one of the broken window panes.— 
Sometimes patting his little bare feet in the 
water he has just turned out of the pail upon 
the floor; and again stepping up behind some 
playmate and picking at the buttons on his 
coat, or twisting a stray lock of hair over his 
fingers ; snatching somebody’s book, to see the 
pictures, or crying for his brother James to 
go home with him.— N. Y. Teacher. 
Odd Dress eor Schoolboys. —The sturdy 
conservatism of the English is manifest in 
nothing more than the dress of the boys in the 
charity schools, which is now precisely what it 
was centuries ago. 
A correspondent of the London Times puts 
the inquiry—“ Is the costume of Edward VI. 
a fit dress for the school-boys of 1854 ?” He 
states that he asks the question at the request 
[ of a pupil of Christ’s I tospitnl, the son of a 
friend, who had no objection to wearing a 
blue jacket and yellow trowsers, but wanted 
clothes that he could run about and jump in. 
The following is a description of the prescrib¬ 
ed dress worn by the pupils :—“ They were 
clad in long heavy, blue woolen robes, under 
which is a long, heavy, yellow, woolen petti¬ 
coat, yellow worsted stockings, shoes, and a 
flat woolen cap, about as large as a small pen 
wiper, which however, they never attempt to 
wear, going bare headed under broiling sun 
and drenching showers. 
Preserve proportion iu your reading, keep 
your view of men and things extensive, and 
depend upon it, a mixed knowledge is not a 
superficial one and as far as it goes, the views 
that it gives are true ; but he who reads deep¬ 
ly in one class of writers only, gets views 
which are almost sure to be perverted, and 
which are not only narrow, but false. — Arnold. I 
, choly problem of Sir John's fate. It has 
been ascertained, however, since the departure 
of Dr. Kane, that Sir John and all his party 
have perished; and an expedition is now 
about to sail for the purpose of recalling the 
American adventurers. 
An English expedition consisting of two 
ships, the Erebus and the Terror, with a full 
complement of 138 men, set sail the 20th of 
of May, „1815, under the command of Sir 
John Franlin, for the polar sea?. ' TheTex- 
pedition was not expected home, nor were 
tidings expected from it before the close of 
the year 1847 ; but when that time arrived 
without bringing any intelligence, the public 
became alarmed for its safety. Early in 
1848 the government sent out another expedi¬ 
tion to search out and afford aid to the lost 
mariners. This second expedition was unsuc¬ 
cessful, as also were many subsequent ones, 
and no trace of them whatever could be found 
until the 26th of August, 1850, when the 
United States expedition under Lieut. De 
Haven, found on the coast of Beechy Island, 
on the east side of the entrance to Wellington 
Channel, unmistakable evidence that Sir 
John and his companions had been there in 
April, 1846. Among pther mementoes were 
three graves with head boards inscribed with 
the names, ages, and times of decease of the 
persons buried. The U. S. Expedition win- 
IstfttI flit. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New Yorker. 
. Weak motives are sufficient for weak 
minds. Whenever we see a mind which we 
believed stronger than our own, moved ha¬ 
bitually by what appears inadequate, we may j 
be certain that there is, to bring a metaphor i 
from the forest, more top than root.— Landor. 
THE COCHINEAL. 
_ 
This minute species of animal life is a na¬ 
tive of Mexico. When the Spaniards first 
visited the country, their attention wa 3 at¬ 
tracted to the beautiful crimson-scarlet color 
of the cloth, many of the articles of furniture, 
and the ornaments which bedecked the Mexi¬ 
cans. Eager to secure so beautiful a dye, 
Cortes promulgated an order for its cultiva¬ 
tion, and forwarded samples to Spain. It 
was for a long period supposed to be the seed 
of an Indian plant, but at length became 
known as the female of a small insect. 
The insect from which springs the Cochi¬ 
neal, is called the Ccccas Cacti. In its natural 
state it attains maturity, performs its func- 
i tions, deposits its eggs, and dies in the short 
space of two months. After death, being a 
mere shell, it is of no commercial use. The 
unborn insect is to furnish the coloring mat¬ 
ter, and of these only a few of the females are 
preserved for the purposes of propagation. 
This being the source from which the dye is 
obtained, we proceed to a description of its 
culture and preparation. 
Of the Cochineal there are two varieties, or 
rather qualities, the wild and the cultivated. 
The wild feed upon most of the Cacti found in 
Mexico, and is gathered six times in a year. 
The cultivated is the result of slow but pro¬ 
gressive improvement on the breed of the wild, 
and is found only in the gardens or planta¬ 
tions devoted to its culture. It is provided 
with its choice food, sheltered from inclemen¬ 
cies of weather, and attains nearly double its 
original size. The cultivated reproduces but 
three times in the year. 
henever a place is selected for growing 
the Cochineal, a species of Cactus, (the only 
one on which the cultivated insect feeds,) 
called Cochenilifer, or Nopal, a kind of small 
prickly pear tree, is planted and carefully 
tended for about three years, at the end of 
which period the sap of the tree is most plen¬ 
tiful. In the months of April or May, the 
proprietor of the Nopalery procures a quanti¬ 
ty of the wild Cochineal just hatched and 
clinging to the branches of various Cacti, 
which are kept under cover in a state of semi- 
darkness. In about twenty days the insect is 
exposed to the action of the air. Its growth 
is rapid, and in August or September is in a 
fit stage to be placed in the Nopalery. It is 
now put aruoDg the leaves of the Nopal, to 
which the females immediately attach them- 
1 tered in those regions. They were frozen up 
* for five months in Wellington Channel, and 
drifted about with the flee of ice throughout 
a Polar night of 11 weeks, during which the 
1 sun did not lift its disc above the horizon.— 
The thermometer indicated from 30 to 46 de¬ 
grees below zero during the whole time. Mr. 
Simmonds, in a work entitled “Sir John 
Franklin and the Arctic Regions,” thus de¬ 
scribes some of the amusements of the Amer¬ 
icans during that long and fearful winter : 
Around the vessels the crews built a wall 
of ice ; and in ice huts they stowed away their 
cordage and stores to make room for exercise 
on the decks. They organized a theatrical 
company, and amused themselves and the offi¬ 
cers with comedy well performed. Behind 
the pieces of hummock each actor learned his 
part, and by means of calico they transformed 
themselves into female characters, as occasion 
required. These dramas were acted on the 
deck of the Advance, sometimes while the 
thermomete r indicated 30 ° below zero, and 
actors and audiences highly enjoyed the fun. 
They also went in parties during that long 
night, fully armed, to hunt the polar bear, the 
grim monarch of the frozen North, on which 
occasions they often encountered perilous ad¬ 
ventures. The played at foot-ball, and exer¬ 
cised themselves in drawing sledges, heavily 
laden with provisions. Five hours of each 
twenty-four, they thu3 exercised in the open 
air, and once a week each man washed his 
whole body in cold snow water. 
selves. Here they are intently watched dur¬ 
ing the short time which elapses before they 
lay their eggs ; the utmost vigilance of the 
planters being required to preserve them 
from the various depredators to which they 
are subject. It is calculated that one pound 
of the yourg Cochineal thus placed amid the 
leaves of the Nopal, will produce twelve 
pounds of “ Mother-Cochineal,” rich in color¬ 
ing matter, together with sufficient progeny 
for future operations. 
When it is thought that the females have 
deposited about one-half their eggs, they are 
removed from the leaves, and kept in earthen¬ 
ware vessels. At this juncture, the female is 
most productive of the dye, and is swelled to 
an immense extent compared with its infantile 
proportions—so much so that its legs, anten- 
nte and proboscis are scarcely discernible 
without the aid of a microscope. It is now 
killed in one of three ways—by immersion in 
hot water, by fire, or exposure to the fierce 
rays of the sun, and the different shades of 
crimson are owing to which of these processes 
are chosen. 
The coloring matter may be extracted from 
the dried insect, by the application of water 
or alcohol; the decoction thus produced be¬ 
ing rich in color, and capable of combination 
with other subjects in various ways. Car¬ 
mine, — a beautiful pigment, used principally 
for miniature and water-color painting, and 
also as a rouge to give a fictitious bloom of 
health to a blanched cheek,—a light, soft, 
velvety powder, of a rich, magnificent scarlet, 
inclining to crimson, is a preparation of Co¬ 
chineal Lake, another pigment, used also in 
water-colors, is a combination of the Cochin¬ 
eal and a metallic oxide. 
The value of its annual production is esti¬ 
mated at above four millions of dollars. The 
avails, taken in connection with the small 
amount ot capital and labor required in its 
production, have induced an eminent writer 
to state that “ the Cochineal insect, considered 
as an article of commerce and manufacture, 
is of far greater importance to mankind than 
any other of the insect race ; and its discovery 
has contributed more efficiently to enrich the 
posterity of Spanish adventurers in the new 
world, than the gold mines of Peru or Mexico.” 
For the promotion of commerce and manu¬ 
factures, the advancement of the arts, the 
gratification of the eye, and to administer to 
the requirements of vanity and pride, do these 
minute terms of animal life suffer martyrdom. 
Mistake not motives when causes are un¬ 
known. 
For tha Rural Naw-Yorker. 
THE STILL SMALL VOICE. 
When an oppressed, but divinely favored 
people, were pursued by their bitter enemies, 
and were hedged in by mountains, with the 
sea in front to stop their course, fear came 
upon them and they cried out for help. Then 
it was, that a gentle, but welcome voice was 
heard saying, “ Be still, and know that I am 
God.” And as it bade the man of God 
stretch forth hi3 hand over the sea, the waters 
were parted, and stood in heaps on either 
hand, and thus the people of God passed 
through the midst of the sea on dry ground, 
and were saved from the rage of their 
pursuers. 
Again, the servant of the Lord is called up 
into the mount, and amid thunderings and 
lightnings, the voice of the Almighty gently 
speaks, and communicates His sovereign will. 
Thus, while the voice of Nature, which is 
but the outward manifestation of the Divine 
presence, speaks in thunder tones, the voice 
of God Himself is heard in milder accents, 
whispering peace to the troubled soul. Tho’ 
the terrors of the law may alarm the guilty 
conscience, yet the voice of Love and Mercy 
bids its possessor “ go in peace.” And when 
despair would seize the soul, thi3 sovereign 
word brings sure and quick relief. 
Again, a little company are out in a boat 
on the bosom of the tranquil 3ea. Night 
steals on apace, clouds obscure the sky, the 
fierce tempest rages around, the aDgry waves 
tos3 in wild confusion, and dash the foaming 
surges over the frail bark. Terror fills every 
heart, and anguish keen affects each throb¬ 
bing breast. And yet there is One, gently 
resting below, and heeds not the raging storm. 
But soon He is aroused by cries for help.— 
And now in quiet majesty He commands, 
“ The winds and the waves,” and presently 
there i3 a calm. One word, one sovereign 
word, and Nature’s voice is huehed, and there 
is quietness and peace. 
So, when the storms of passion rise and ag¬ 
itate the soul, when the load of guilt disturbs 
the sinner’s rest, and when he seems well 
oigh engulfed in the billows of darkness and 
gloom, behold a Savior near, kindly whisper¬ 
ing, “ Peace, be still.” How sweet is that 
voice, inviting the sinner to come unto Him, 
with the assurance that he shall find rest for 
his soul. 
And when the heart is pressed with grief, 
And seeks in vain t’obtain relief, 
How sweet the voice of Jesus’ love, 
Inspiring hope of rest above 
University of Rochester. A. D. W. 
SOME SENSIBLE REMARKS. 
A correspondent of one of the N. Y. 
Journals, writing from St. Louis, and in at¬ 
tendance on the Anniversary Meeting of the 
Presbyterian General Assembly there, makes 
the following suggestive remarks : 
It is getting to be an immense job for a 
sojourner in our large towns to find his way 
to a house of God—and as to poor residents, 
(Heaven take care of and save them!) if the 
doctrine be true that there is no salvation out 
of the church, the poor people are inevitably 
lost, for they can neither buy nor hire a pew 
in these hundred thousand dollar churches.— 
Gentility is fast getting to be the only pass¬ 
port to heaven— as the depths of a man’s 
purse, so are his chances for future glory.— 
This new church stands in the centre of acres 
of vacant lots, huge piles of building materials 
lying around as far as the eye can reach, with 
only here and there a brick block or single 
house rising above the dreary desolation.— 
These piles of sand, these scattered pillars, 
pediments, capitals, these huge layers of rock 
and solid and immense cubes of unlaid brick 
induce one to imagine himself transported to 
the sites of the famous ruins of Grecian, Ro¬ 
man and Egyptian cities, where storms, fires 
and earthquakes for 4,000 years or more have 
been scattering their debris over the now soli¬ 
tary plain. 
What are we respectable Presbyterians, 
Congrecationalists, Episcopalians, and others, 
doing for the poor whom we have always with 
us ? We are leaving them to be taken care of 
by Methodists and Catholics, who being poor 
themselves must naturally expect to take care 
of the poor. The touch of the beggar of 
course will not soil their silks or broadcloths, 
nor will unfragrant mechanics leave unpleas¬ 
ant stenches in their damask pews. 
When will our city ministers believe the 
word they preach, that the poor are God’s 
chosen people ? When will they have the 
moral courage to take the hand of a poor man 
in the street, and say as Moses to Hobab, 
“ Come with us and we will do thee good.” 
Time and Eternity. —Life is the limited 
vestibule to the great temple whose threshold 
is death, and we shrink back like children, 
when sickness, the veiled usher, takes us by 
the hand to lead us iu—afraid of the shadow 
of the door. The general impression of death 
—as given by nurses, teachers, poets, moral¬ 
ists and preachers, needs both brightening and 
aggrandizing for truth’s sake. 
Tis the property of all true knowledge, 
especially spiritual, to en'arge the soul by fill¬ 
ing it; to enlarge it without swelling it; to 
make it more capable, and more earnest to 
know, the more it knows.— Bishop Spratt. 
