Show j FROM PRINTERS DEVILS TO NATIONAL PROMINENCE LADDER OF FAME CLIMBED BY MANY Men Whose Names Now Are Household Words to Millions Commenced Life as Humble Assistants to the Village Editor Mark Twan and Horace Greeley Shining Examples William Dean Howolla Iho name 5alls to mind at once A Modern In itnnco and The Rise of Sllaw Lap hum honks that nearly nil have read with great pleasure Hut how many know of tho days of long hours that Howells put In wot king an a printers lovllV From printers doll to worldwide renown Is n long step not silly a long step but u succession of Jays and weeks and years or hard and unremitting toll Many a man has lain down at night unknown outttlde of his Immediate circle of acquaintances and awakened In the morning to find himself famous Not so however with the printers devil that lad of allwork arouiul a printers olllce Ho must work hard and long and his promotion comes slowly I His Is not the cleanest work there Is for ho must clean tho typo weep out the composing room and do all the odd Jabs that come up In a printing olllce every day None but a lad of sturdy material and possessing great pluck could pull himself out of this rut for his hours wero long and whatever knowledge ho obtained was gotten by study after his hard days work was done Yet notwithstanding not-withstanding all these drawbacks many a man whoso name Is now a household word has started In as n printers devil and worked his way up to fame and sometimes to fortune Stepping Stone for Many All walks of life have hind men who havo started In In this way statesmen states-men authors and boo oven who was an aspirant for presidential honors although al-though failing to reach that goal These same men look back with pride to the time when they stood at the sldo of the press and applied the moist Ink to the type Such a sup is 1 How ellsVilllnni Wlllliim Dean Hemoils early life was far from being an easy one Ills father was editor and proprietor of the Hamilton 0 Intelligencer and later ot the Dayton 0 Transcript Mr Howells senior advocated the abolition of slavery and in those days such views wore not overpopular His paper pa-per was a medium for the transmission transmis-sion of his views and naturally appealed ap-pealed only to a small slass therefore tho family pocketbook was very slim His boys era unable to obtain adequate ade-quate schooling for they were obliged to turn In and help got out tho paper William often set typo until 11 oclock at night iind then rose ut four In the morning to deliver tho papers Although unschooled young William read everything that came his WilY that would tend to Instruct and very early developed literary aspirations Naturally his first efforts were inverse In-verse and verse of such high quality that James Russell Lowell accepted some of It for the Atlantic Monthly It was a great day for tho young man when he learned that his first attempt In verse The Pilots Story had been accepted by his favorite ninga rlne From this beginning Mr How ells has climbed step by step until today to-day he ranks among tho greatest of tho realistic writers In those strenuous times when How ells worked as a printers devil there was one man who was more fortunate In advo < sting his views than Howells father and that man William Lloyd Garrison started in life in the samo manner as tho younger Howolls At 14 years of age Garrison was appicn tlccd to the printing business In tho olllco of tho Now burport Herald where ho served until hn wu < st alto Incoming foreman at an early date mid displaying strong natural tnUes + and capacity for editorship I Mark Twain In a Printing Office i If laughing Is good for man then lurk Twain descries well of his jcountr > men for no min has done I more to cheer the American public than Hi It great humorist I At 12 years of age Samuel Lang homo Clemens Murk Twain was I obliged to quit school on account of I the death of his father and It was i I then his education In real life began Always having been a delicate boy his father had been lenient In tho matter mat-ter ot attendance at school although he had been anxious that his children should have good educations His wish was fulfilled although not exactly exact-ly i In the way he would have planned Mark Twains high school was the village vil-lage printing office where his elder brother Orion was conducting a newspaper news-paper The boy then only 13 served In all capacities and In tho occasional absences ab-sences of his chief reveled In personal Journalism with original Illustrations hacked on wooden blocks with a penknife pen-knife These Illustrated articles riveted the towns attention but not Its admiration as his brother was wont to confess with a good deal of feeling Ho being the editor had to take the consequences upon his return re-turn In 1853 Marks adventurous disposition disposi-tion made Itself manifest and ho disappeared dis-appeared from homo to try his fortune for-tune He became a veritable tramp printer and wandered from one eastern east-ern printing olllco to another supporting support-ing himself by setting type Finally his wandering came to un end on account ac-count of lack of funds and he returned j I I to live with his family It was at this period of his life that he Induced Horace Hor-ace Hlxhy to teach him tho Intrlcaclivj of steamboat piloting Twains First Literary Effort It was while with Bixby that Mark made his first venture Into literature although this Is sometimes disputed and I Gen U 11 Hunker of Candia N H appears to have been the one that gave him tho mental push which started start-ed him on his career Gen Hunker had played a game of cards with Clemens Clem-ens and during tho course of tho game had been much amused at the pithy observations Interjected Into the young man Being called to Aurora on business the general Invited Clemens Clem-ens to accompany him and u few days later was shown a description of the trip written by the young man and was astonished at tho wit displayed dis-played In tho composition lie suggested sug-gested that it bo sent to the San Francisco Fran-cisco Union but Clemens would have none of It remarking that they wouldnt publish such nonsensical trash After a good deal of persuasion he was induced to send tho story along hut nothing would induce him to sign his name to it Ho did not want anyone any-one to know that he was tho author of such trash and so decided to sign 7ftTn Ill l N I 17 i f 1Q rf ma t I o 4 I t 1 a I r A ZZ Rew SWT 77 Z CIG1AZ DVI 1Dr it with tho Mississippi leadsmans call for two fathoms mark twain A few days later tho Sun Francisco paper came with thu sketch followed by n check for 100 Of course the check was drawn to tho order of Mark Twain and great curiosity was manifested mani-fested as to who this might be Finally Final-ly I however tho secret came out and Clemens got his money mid an open lag In the literary world that was Just 1 suited to his talents It Is Interesting to note that upon I tho publication of Mark Twains Adventures I Ad-ventures of Huckleberry Finn which Is now considered one of the classics ono critic declared Wero Mark Twains reputation as a 1 humorist less well founded and established wo might say that this cheap and pernicious per-nicious stuff Is conclusive evidence that Its author has no claim to bo ranked with Artomus Ward Sydney Smith Dean Swift John Hay or any other recognized humorist above tho grade of the author of that outrageous fiction Pecks Bad Hoy Horace Greeley as a Devil Mark Twain came from tho west and the advice of one printers devil who attained success was Go west young man and grow up with tho country Every schoolboy knows who gave that advice Horn In direst poverty Horace Greeley was not ablo to obtain much of Tin education as after his sixth year he was only allowed al-lowed to go to school during the winter win-ter months He and his brothers had to help their father eke out a miserable miser-able existence from the 50acre plot which with the ramshackle house upon up-on It was the elder Greeleys only possession pos-session In 1826 Horace Greeley entered tho olllce of the Northern Spectator In East Poultney Vt as an apprentice and for the first six months work received re-ceived nothing but his board After that he received In addition the princely prince-ly sum of 40 n year for four and a half years At the expiration of his apprenticeship ho went to Erie Pa and thence to New York where ho Z z J = 1 I 2 1 I f I IA 1 t Cri l 4 a h = t landed with but ten dollars In his pocket For days ho wandered from one printing olllce to another trying to get work and finally through tho aid of another printer who had come from Vermont secured work that had been refused by the other men Hero his perseverance and pluck showed themselves and 1 It was not long before be-fore his value was recognized and ho was given steady employment He rose steadily and finally became editor edi-tor of the New York Tribune Greeley was described by John G Whittler as our later Franklin Ho was a candidate although an unsuccessful unsuc-cessful one for president of the United Unit-ed States Every one today knows of Horace Greeleys magnificent life of his triumphs and successes but few know of his early struggles and privations priva-tions when he worked as a printers devil for nothing a month and his hoard When mentioning the later Franklin Frank-lin ono should not overlook tho fact that the first Franklin was a printers print-ers devil and performed all the menial tasks around his brothers of HCP Tho youngest son of a poor tal low chandler and one of 17 children nothing but his talents and untiring Industry would have enabled him to rise to distinction |