THE HONOUR OF PRINTERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1042, 7 April 1882, Page 3

THE HONOUR OF PRINTERS.

Printers have never, wo think, received due appreciation for the honourable confidence which they have preserved in regard to the secrets with which they have been necessarily entrusted. Such a case as this often happens. An article in a newspaper or a magazine makes what is called a “ sensa tion.” It is entirely anonymous, and public curiosity is excited to the utmost to discover the name of the author. The writer may he a Cabinet Minister, a high official, a courtier, or any of the thousand and one persons who, if he were suspected of writing for the Press, would at once lose 1 is position, his office, perhaps his leputition On the other hand the writer may be a struggling author, a hard working journalist, or a mere literary amateur. In anv case his secret is preserved phis anonymity is safe so long as it is confined to the printers. Some years ago there was a great stir made about a honk entitled “ Ecce Homo.” It was a clever work, and had an unexamp'ed success. “Who is the anther?” was the question on everybody’s lips. Some scores of persons were named, and they repudiated their participation it. All sorts of conjectures were hazarded, and no doubt large sums would have been paid by conductors of journals for authentic information as to the name of the author. Yet the name was known to a master printer, his overseer, and at least some of the compositors, but it never was revealed. Wlien the name was published it was not through the instrumentality of the printers, luit entirely hide I pendent of them. They faithfully kept their secret.

Going hack a few years, the authorship of the “ Wavcrley Novels ” may he referred to as a remarkable incident of literary history. Sir Walter Scott’s authorship, although known by twenty persons, was so well concealed that tie great novelist could not. even in Ins ma'diL-s vocabulary, find words of p aise sufficient to express the sense of his great acknowledgment and wondering admiration for the matchless fidelity with which the mystery was preserved There is another species of secrecy, that relating to the careful supervision of confidential public documents, books printed for secret societies, and the authorship of articles or pamphlets, as already referred to, which has been honorably maintained. When treaties a'-e prematurely published in newspapers thecopy is obtained through some leaky or veual official, and not from any of the printers who set up or work off the orignal. A case of this kind occurred a year or two ago, wherein a convention between this country and another Power was revealed to one of the evening newspapeis. In the Foreign Office at Whitehall there is a regular staff of printers always at work, and it these men liked they could let out socrels of the most momentous kind, any of which would perhaps in these days of journalistic competition be worth a few hundred pounds. But such a dereliction of duty has jitever yet occurred ; it was a clerk, not a*compositor, who be’rayed his trust. Most honorable to the profession is the story of Harding, the printer, who bravely born imprisonment rather than reveal the authorship of the celebrated “ Drapier ” letters. The printer sat in his cell calmly refusing the entreaties of his friends to divulge the name of the writer, Dean Swift, a Church magnate and a great wit, who dressed himself in the disguise of a low Irish peasant, and sat by, listening to the noble refusal and the tender importunities, only anxious that no word or glance from the unfortunate printer should reveal the secret. Swift was bent solely upon securing his own safety at the expense of the printer ; he cowered before the legal danger which Harding boldly confronted. The world has unequally allotted the meed of fame to the two combatants. The wit and the printer both fought the battle for the liberty of the Press, until the sense of an outraged comnu.nity released the typographer from the peril so nobly encountered In thousands of other instances similar fidelity has been exhibited. In short, it is part of the professional honor of the pri iter not to disclose either wantonly nr from venal motives, the secrets of any office in which ho is employed. There is aso the allegiance which printers pay to th ;ir chief, in not divulging important intelligence. In some cases a compositor is necessarily entrusted with an item of news which would be negotiable immediately, and worth pounds to him. Seldom or never is there a betrayal of trust in this way. Tho examinatio papers, printed so extensively in London" are of tho most tremendous importance tocertain classes, who would pay almost any sum to obtain the roughest proof on the night before. An instance of this kind occurred quite recently. A, printer was “got at,” and promised a considerable amount of money for a rough proof. What was his course of action ? He simply informed the authorities, and the tempter was punished. It was another and a credi table example of bow well and honorably kept are tho secrets of tho printing office.— Exchange.