INTERESTING SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH LETTERPRESS PRINTER.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 768, 24 August 1853, Page 4

INTERESTING SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH LETTERPRESS PRINTER.

From the Manchester Guardian. We have to sketch Ihe history of an Englishman of business, who, like Franklin, sprang from printing, and who is a printer still, and a leading spirit in that " fourth estate 1 ' which forms and guides the public opinion of this country. Herbert Ingram is the living proof of what may be accomplished before a man is forty years old, by a combination of patient industry, and that bold energy which at once seizes on the want of the times, and, by supplying it, gives a rapid fortune to its possessor, and bestows a great boon upon the public everywhere. We write of Mr. Ingram, not only of bis rapid and meritorious rise in life, but also as (he originator of the Illustrated News. Mr. Ingrain is of "old family," and will joke about his ancestors, and of him being the "eighth Herbert Ingram" in direct lineal succession. But though his progenitors were good substantial people in Linconshire, of the energetic, hard-toiling, landreclaiming sort —his father's misfortunes, and very early death, led to his being bound apprentice to a printer and bookselkr at Boston ; and for many years he worked out his apprenticeship in ) dingy garret and dreary shop in (hat anti quated town. But he was always punctually at his post to take down the shop-shutters in a morning; he could always turn off a greater number of copies from his press than his mates could from (heir's; indeed, he would at a pinch print off, from an old-fashioned press, T6O i query 250] double-crown sheets in an hour, iut while binding and lettering books, and doing a good day's work at that, too, he picked up a good store of useful knowledge, and filled his brain with it whenever he could gel the chance. His apprenticeship in Boston being over, he went to London, and worked as a printer, saving always, self-denying always, working hard always, and determined to achieve belter days, and tomakeafigure still. At last he gol together money enough to start in business; and in 1853, in partnership with his brother-in-law, he opened a prinlingofficeandshop in Nottingham. Here his brother-in-law attended to the sale of books and papers; and he managed the printing—for some time working at his own presses when any emergency made it necessary, or he had nothing else to do.

As he saved money he entered into several ■undertakings, most of which prospered, and he became, alter some years of stern hard work and hard saving, worth several thousand pounds. He then looked about for a larger field of enterprise, and the happy inspiration came upon him. He had found, in his own reading, how feehly a dry description from the author's pen pourtrays to the mind of the untravcllcd mass the varied scenes, costumes or ceremonies of other countries. He had observed, in conversing with the class amongst whom he had been driven to start life, how imperfect were their conceptions even of the commonest objects. He had seen the book , read with difficulty, laid down in despair and | utlet want pf comprehension. The " pyramid" | gave no idea. The " mosque" gave no idea.

What conld he a "dervish," or a "carmclite?" Even the comraone: I improvements of farming machinery in a farming country were incomprehensible, as described in illustrated journals. The Penny Magazine only treated on particular objects ; and it was not a newspaper, it palled upon the taste, because il did not contain news. Mr. Ingram had found that whenever a paper had gave way or sold an ergraving from either " wood stone or copper-plate," there was an immense run for the particular publication. He saw people wished not merely to read speeches but to see whet the speaker was like. He saw there was, from the very nature of things, a universal taste, and as universal a want; and he thought if the newspaper and the artists illustrations were combined—the newspaper giving themost miscellaneous news, the ai list giving the ablest illustrations that that want should be supplied. Here was his inspiration. Then he found that hisnewpaper customers nearly always asked for their London papers in the terms, "Give me my Loudon news." No matter whether the paper were Times, Sun, Posl, or Chronicle, it was still in the popular mind a " London News." Here was a title as popular and as generally existing beforehand iti the minds of the masses as the want he wished to supply. He was silting by the hearth, with his feet on the fender, one winter's night, his eyes lived on the fire, when up he started. The venture should be made ! He set to work at once; and and with a surprising energy, organised and established the Illustrated London News, within sixty days of his fireside decision. This was but eleven years since. The paper " took" at once. The reading public were electrified ; and by a spirited outlay, great exertions, and the avoidance of party politics, the Illustrated News acquired very shortly an enormous circulation and became a most valuable property. Success brought competition, and the Pictorial Times and many smaller rivals appeared ; bnt they were soon run off the road, and it is generally believed that Mr. Spottiswoode and others lost at least 20,000/. by the Pictorial Times, which at last was sold for a mere trifle.

The present success of the News is both inherent in the fact of the want it supplies so full and attributable to the quick judgement and extraordinary talent of its proprietor. As the profits of the paper have increased, he has kept on increasing the scope and number of its attractive features; and this he does as part of his system. "To defy competition." he has been heard to say, ''you must render competition impossible, "and to do this., as your profits increase, you must give the public more and more You must be salisfied with a large income, and give away its increase. It would be easy enough to double your profits for a year or two, by starving your paper ; but by that means the public would be alienated, and competitors would spring up and beat you, and thus your gold mine would become a silver mine or a copper mine, or no mine at all." The wisdom of this is illustrated by the success which has attended all similar policy as regards the press. Witness several leading provincial newspapers and ahove all the London Times. All these papers made their large profits through their enormous circulation, which compels advertisements ; and thus they can afford to give advantages which involve a certain loss to the new beginner until he attains (if everhe should) a similar circulation. The Illu /rated London News is now a popular want. It is seen in every decent house, and abroad it generally found side by side with the Times, or even where the Times does not appear. On some occasions, it is stated that a quarter of a million each of particular numbers have been printed. The early numbers have been reprinted three or four times over; and unlike the daily or weekly paper without pictures, it is kept on hand, and becomes a copyright book, each number being always more or less in demand. The wide circulation of the paper brings contributions from?all parts of the world by every foreign post Officers in the army on foreign stations, travellers, merchants, send over for its use drawings and sketches, some artistic, some very rough, but all original, of almost every imaginable event, place and thing. The album of the Illustrated London News must be a wonderful collection. The daguerreotype, too, has greatly aided the success of the paper. The staff of the paper comprises some IGO artists and lifcratcurs, who receive liberal incomes in return for their labours; for another of Mr. Ingram's pieces of policy is to have the best talent, and, in order tohaveit, to pay its possessor munificently. Thus he has secured some of the ablest men we possess: —Kenny Meadows, Cruikshank, Doyle, Keid, Gilbert, and a host of others among the artists; Dickens, Jerrold, Mackay, the May hews, amongst the authors ; Sir Henry Bishop for the music—for the paper is ''musical" also ; and Staunton, as editor of its chess department, Mr. Ingram also acquired a large fortune by his various enterprises, and he deals with it liberally. Though an ardent Liberal, and often asked, as all successful men are, to contest for a scat in Parliament, he has invariably refused to leave his more quiet, and probably his more useful sphere, satisfied to belong only to the great working world, and content with the society which literature and the arts present.