TEIE PRINTER AND PUBLISH? R

THE PRINTR'S CORNER.
PRINTERS' TECHNICAL CLUBS.
HE organization of several printers' clubs at various po
T in the United States is the subject of an article by F,
in The Chicago Evening Post. He says:
"Stated in general terms, the purpose of these clubs is
faciltate the acquisition of advanced technical knowledge in
various crafts, to sift fron the apprentice class those who are
adapted to the successful mastery of the higher demands of
calling in which necessity or accident may have misplaced th<
and to bring into more intimate and friendly relationship
employer and the employed.
" The principle implied in the organization of these clu
which might as aptly be called classes, is that the theoreti
must precede the practical, that every step in technical progri
must be mentally discerned before it ean be intelligently tak
and that a workman of advanced skill and progressive id(
may be able to impart to an apprentice or a journeymar
clearer and broader idea of the more difficult and complex pi
blems of his craft through the agency of a fifteen-minute 'blac
board talk ' than the possible learner would naturally acquire
many day and perhaps months spent in a perfunctory di
charge of routine duties ' about the shop.'
"There are now in the United States four of these Printei
Technical Clubs, and the credit of their organization is mainl
if not wholly, due to the far-sighted wisdom and the profession
devotion of A. H. McQuilkin, chief editor of The Inlan
Printer, who was first to propose the general plan and urge il
adoption as a mreans of raising the standard of the typograph
cal craft of America. The latest outgrowth of this umovemer
is the Printers' Technical Club of Springfield, Oh?o, the men
bership of which is close to the hundred mark. At New R(
chelle, N. J., was orgaized club No. 3, which meets in a privat
hall once a month and has a library of technical books. Th
two other clubs No.., of Oakland, Cal,, and No. I, of Rock
ford, Ill.-have been organized for a longer period and havefouns
sufficielnt profit in their work to maintain weekly Istead o:
monthly meetings.
" I all these gatherings, whether weekly or monthly, a regulma
course of study is pursued, practical talks are given, interesting
and difficult problems discussed; the whys and wherefores ol
processes which the ambitious craftsman sees each day in the
shop or workoom, but does not comprehend, are explained
the ambitions of the indifferent are awakened by the revelations
of the possibilities and the beauties of skilled crtsmanship,
and that which has been perfunctory, commsonplace and simply
an irksome agency by which to reach the 'pay envelop' is
exalted into a compeition in which the nobler motive of strife
for artistic excellence exerts its wholesome inspiration. Not
less important is the nearer touch into which the members of
the craft are brought in this new relationship. The foreman
meets the apprentice not as a taskmaster, but as the distributer
of the riche of hs own experience, and the grace of this giving
furinshes him with a new interest in the apprentice, who is not
unappreciative of the benefction. This interest goes beyond
the club and crosses the threshold of the workroom. It caries
with it an invigorating atmosphere of fraternity, arouses dormant
faculties, Incites honorable ambition and gives the strength and
ifailty which comes from added knowledge. Such is the testi-
mony of those who have observed, with keen and increasing in-

terest, the cheering experiments in the line of technical club life
in the printing craft. Its tendency is to push out those who
uts have neither ambition nor adaptability for the field of labor in
C. which fickle circumstances tiave placed them, making room for
such as respond to the call for technical advancement and thus
to elevating the general standard of the calling."
the
?ili NEW IDEAS IN MENU CARDS.
the Menu cards are nowadays very expensive. The bill o a
sm, swell dinner must have a dainty back and front, and decorations
the in fruit and flowers are most favored. At a dinner recently
given n society the flowers which decorated the table were re-
b produced on the menu cards, specially designed for the occa-
cal sion. Little rural views and pictures of cottages in colors, and
,S etchings are also popular, and for these designs good artists are
e engaged. All sorts of occasional dinners have their proper
cards. Those given on yachts are headed with the proper
, acolors, with the vessel's name underneath, while for hunting
. parties appropriate sketches cover the outside; and all big clubs,
k sporting and social, have special designs of their own. Among
in the different shapes and sizes the most popular is a two-fold
is screen about 4 inches high, with a scrolled border interlaced
with violets and forget-me-nots. Another pretty card is only
, 2 inches square with just a single biossom in the centre-such
as a rose or chrysanthemum.
Y,
al
al A MONTREAL ASSIGNMENT.
Jos. P. Beaudry, printer, Montreal, has assigned at the de-
smand of L. A. Lazier & Sons, Belleville, Ont. The liabilities
lt are placed at $4,ooo. The largest creditors are: J. C. Wilson
t & Co., $409; I)om?ion Type Foundry, $384; L. A. Lazier &
Son, $. 7y; Letang, Letang & Co., $20oo J. B. Walker, $459
S. Bissonette, $459; and Cousineau & Gohier, $504.
The only assets are his plant, consisting of two or three
epresses, type, etc., and thre lots of real estate at the village of
d St. Laurent, one of the suburbs of Montreal.
F~~f ~ THE MONTREAL CRAFT.
The Montreal branch of the International Typographical
Uniot are not sending any delegates to the convention at Den-
ver this year. A meeting was held to consider the matter and
it was decided that the distance was too great and the funds of
the Union too slim this year to permit of the expense. It lias
been decided, though, that it will be represented at the galher-
ing of all the Canadian trades unions, on September 17th, in
the city of Quebec. The printers' delegates to the convention
have not been selected yet.
INK FOR HALF-TONES.
It cannot be too generally impressed that for getting the
best results in printing from a half-tone block there is nothing b
to beat a good black ink. Colored inks never seem to work
with the same degree of cleanliness and never bring out the
half-tone in its utmost richness and fulness. Even assuming
that a colored ink could be prepared of equal consistency and
working qualities to black ink, it would never yield as effective
a proof as the black. The reason I take to be this: the half-
tone is broken up into a stipple, which produces a grey instead
of decided black and white. Thus, we have degraded whites
and lightened shadows, so that the keen contrast of light and
shade, which is essential to the proper rendering of color, is

August, 1896

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