was a sorcerer.

After a while they annoyed him so much that he was forced to shut himself up and conceal his work from them; and so he went on, month after month, striving to bring about the realization of the great art of printing, which he perceived to be possible.

One day, while old Coster was thus busily at work, a sturdy German youth, with a knapsack slung across his back, trudged into Haarlem. By some chance this youth happened to hear how the churchwarden was at work upon a wild scheme to print books instead of writing them. With beating heart the young man repaired to Coster's house, and made all haste to knock at the churchwarden's humble door. Who this youth was, and what came of his visit to old Coster, will be told in the next lesson.

-GEORGE M. TOWLE.

Haarlem här' lěm.—warden: keeper, watchman.-parchment: the skin of an animal, usually the sheep, prepared to be written on.-vellum : a fine kind of parchment, usually made of calfskin.-Spaaren: spär' en.— glu'tinous: sticky, gluey.-pewter: a hard material made of tin and lead melted together.-sor'cerer: magician.

JOHN GUTENBERG, THE INVENTOR OF THE

PRINTING-PRESS

The sturdy young German who, with knapsack on back and staff in hand, knocked at old Laurence Coster's door, was no ordinary youth. Although scarcely more than twenty, he had already seen a great deal of life.

John Gutenberg belonged to a distinguished family, and had been brought up in such luxury as could be enjoyed in those rude times; but he did not allow luxurious living to make him lazy or unambitious. He was an industrious student, and had received the best training which the learned monks could give him.

Often, when a boy, he was found poring over the manuscripts which he found in the monasteries where he was educated.

He was also very religious in thought and act. Many a time he would earnestly exclaim, what a pity it was that the Bible was a closed book to the masses of the people; that, as it was written by hand on parchment, it could be possessed only by the churches and monasteries or by very rich people.

Gutenberg's home was at Strasburg, on the banks of the Rhine. He had often dreamed of foreign countries, and imagined what they and their peoples were like; so one day, being strong of limb and active in

exercise, he resolved to pack up his knapsack, attire himself in walking costume, and take a long walking tour. It was while on this trip that, by a chance for which all later generations have had reason to be thankful, he heard of old Coster and his discovery, and hastened to present himself at the humble churchwarden's door.

You can imagine the eagerness with which Coster led his young guest in, and how delighted he was to show him just how the printing of his letters worked. While, with his rude leaden types, the old man pressed letter after letter on the parchment, Gutenberg stood by, giving close attention. Already he imagined that he saw dimly to what great uses this discovery might be put.

"And see here!" exclaimed Coster, holding up some pages of parchment awkwardly sewed together, "here is my first book in print."

It was a Latin grammar. Old Coster had slowly printed it, letter by letter, and right proud was he of the first triumph of his patient labor.

"But we can do better than this," said Gutenberg. "Your printing is even slower than the writing of the monks. From this day forth I will work upon this problem, and not rest till I have solved it."

Warmly grasping Coster's hand, and thanking him for showing him his discovery, Gutenberg put on his knapsack, and trudged out of Haarlem. He had no

scenes.

longer any thought of continuing his tramp into new His fondness for seeing strange lands had for the while deserted him. His only thought was to get back as soon as possible to Strasburg, where he lived, and to set to work upon the task he had now planned for himself.

Gutenberg lived in an age of great superstition and ignorance. Everything that was new and unfamiliar seemed to the ignorant people of that time to be the work of sorcery, and any one who dared to do things which appeared marvelous in their eyes was pursued and punished as if he dealt in evil magic. No one knew this better than the young Strasburg scholar.

So, on his arrival at Strasburg, he gave out that he was at work making jewelry. Meanwhile he locked himself up in his room, and, scarcely taking time to eat or sleep, devoted himself to the problem of how to make Coster's discovery useful to the world.

But he found that he was watched and interrupted, and that his hiding himself so constantly in his room gave rise to dark suspicions among his neighbors. So he went to an old ruined monastery, only one or two rooms of which were habitable, and which stood a few miles from the town. Here he thought he could work in peace, for the monastery ruin was in a lonely, deserted place.

Hidden in a dark corner of this old monastery was a little cell. This cell Gutenberg secured by a great

oaken door with heavy bolts, and here he hid the tools and materials needed for his work. At the same time he fitted up a half-ruined room in a more open part of the monastery as a jewelry shop. He engaged two young men to help him polish precious stones and to repair trinkets. In this way he hoped to be able to work at his types in the hidden cell without discovery.

He now set to work, at such times as he could escape into his little cell, in dead earnest. It was not long before he had carved out of some bits of wood, with his knife, a number of separate types. The happy idea struck him to string these on a piece of wire in the form of words and, at last, of sentences. Then, finding that wood was not hard enough, he carved some types, with more difficulty, in lead.

Having made types which satisfied him, Gutenberg tried to make an ink which would print distinctly, and he soon succeeded in producing such an ink. As he continued to work, the great idea that was absorbing him grew more and more clear. He had his types and his ink, so he made a brush and a roller to put the ink on the types. He had now got as far as printing a whole word or sentence on a piece of parchment; and, by changing the movable types about, could form at will new words and sentences.

His next task was to construct "chases," so that the types could be held together, and would print in