OREGON CITY COURIER, FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1903,
TITLE PAGE.S. '
They Wrc Unknown Until After tht
Invention of Printing.
The most surprising thing in the his
tory of the title page is the fact that
It was utterly unknown until a few
years after the invention of printing.
In the days before that great era, when
all books were In manuscript, no scribe
ever thought of prefacing his work
v,ith a separate page or leaf devoted to
i;;e title.
V. hen printing took the place of writ
) ig, changes came gradually,- In many
arly printed books there Svas still
bc for handwork. Initial letters were
h lor the "rubrisher," as he was
called, to decorate and illuminate by
band.
As books multiplied this practice, of
course, soon died out. Occasionally
wealthy and luxurious book owner
would employ a skillful illuminator to
adorn the pages and margins of a print
ed book just as in former days manu
scripts had been illuminated.
The manuscript practice of surround
ing the text with an ornamental border
was also often applied to early printed
books. The introduction of the title
page showed the same mingling of old
and new.
Printing was Invented about 1450,
but no title page, properly so called. Is
known before 1470. In the earliest ex-1
amples the title Is either, as in manu
scripts, given in the first two or three
lines of the first page, to be Immedi
ately followed by the printed text, or
Is simply, as it has been called, a la
belthat Is, it consists of a very brief
title at the top of a blank page.
There was one curious exception. A
' "Kalendar" printed by Ratdolt at Ven
ice in 1476 has a full title page In the
modern style. This remarkable page
consists of an introductory poem sur
rounded on three sides by ornamental
borders, with, at the bottom, the place
of printing and date-"Venetlls, 1470"
and the names of the printers.
But tills is quite an exceptional in
stance. Such a title page is hardly
found again for twenty years ami did
not become common till about 1520,
more than forty years later.
A particularly noticeable feature in
many title pages of the sixteenth and
arly seventeenth centuries Is the
length of the descriptive titles. Con
troversial pamphlets and books of trav
el and adventure especially have titles
which are extraordinarily long winded.
The whole page is filled with small
type, giving an analysis of the contents
of book or pamphlet
Then toward the end of the seven
teenth century and through Its suc
cessor came the reign of the bold and
plain title page, and the plain title bas
lasted until the present day.
Persian Atnietes.
Strong and skilled as western ath
letes are, there are some respecta In
Which the athletes of the east, and es
pecially those of Persia, surpass them.
Their skill is due to the fact that
they do not rely on brute strength, but
on adroitness, which - they bare ac
quired after years of strenuous train
ing. They know the function of every
muscle in their bodies, and they are not
regarded as experts until they are so
well trained that they can perform
With ease any feat which depends for
success not only upon their strength,'
but also upon the proper play of their
muscles.
They are not as bulky as some of the
well known athletes of Europe and
America, but, on the other hand, their
bodies are wonderfully symmetrical,
and nil their movements are most
graceful.
In wrestling and swinging clubs they
especially excel, and, no matter how
expert they may be, not'n day passes
that they do not practice for several
liours.
Steadfast.
Tupman-My watch is one of the
theapest makes, but it hasn't varied a
second In tho last three mouths.
BuodgrassIt seems almost Incredi
ble, doesn't it?
Tupman Oh, I don't know about
that. It stopped the first day I bought
It and hnsu't gone since.
The
i Sl
Shalt? Rope Bridge.
In the wilds of South America many
rope bridges exist, and in writing of
them a traveler, who published through
Messrs. Longmans "The Great Moun
tains and Forests of South America,"
says: "There being no trees here, such
bridges as were necessary were usual
ly constructed of a couple of ropes
Btretched across a chasm, upon which
was spread a rough kind of matting
made of pliant brushwood or a sort of
rush. Such bridges swung about fear
fully and cracked under the foot as if
about to give way. Often I held my
breath while panning such a bridge,
momentarily expecting the rotten con
trivance to part in the middle. There
was plenty of evidence in the skeletons
of horses and mules on the rocks be
low that accidents not Infrequently oc
curred, but I was assured that not
many men were lost, which, of course,
was an exceedingly comforting assur
ance, especially aa I noticed that the
guides were careful to see that either
I or George was the first to cross
these confounded structures. At one of
these places we saw on the rocks 300
feet below the skull and bones of two
men who had been lost about eight
years before."
Snakes Waste Little Time Eating:.
A serpent will go for weeks, some
times even for months, without feed
ing. Then It may take three rabbits or
ducks, one after the other, at a single
meal and afterward become torpid
while digestion proceeds. When, after
a sufficient period of fasting, It gets
disposed to eat and a rabbit happms to
be Introduced Into Its cage, It may
plainly be seen that the rabbit's pres
ence Is quickly noticed by It. The
snake will begin to move slowlv about
till It has brought Its snout opposite the J
rabbit's muzzle. Then, In an Instant, It
will seize the rabbit's head In Its
mouth, simultaneously colling Its pow-1
erful body around it and crushing it
to death at once.
The action Is so Instantaneous that it
Is Impossible for the rabbit to suffer.
Oertnlnlv It enn RiilTpr tin mnro thnn
when killed by a poulterer. The snake '
does not Immediately uncoil Its folds, ,
but continues for a time to hold Its vie-1
thn tightly embraced, sometimes rock
ing Itself gently to and fro. Then It
slowly unwinds its huge body and once
more takes the rabbit's head in its
mouth and swallows it.
Superstitions About Bread.
In Brittany when a housewife begins
to knead dough she makes a cross with
her right hand, the left being placed In
the trough. If a cat enters the room, it
is believed the bread will not rise.
It Is supposed that certain women can
cause the dough to multiply Itself. On
the coast of the channel the dough is
adjured to imitate the leaven, the mil
ler and the baker and to rise.
The oven Is a sacred object and con
nected wtth crowds of superstitions.
The oven Is dedicated, with ceremo
nies. In certain places In Brittany the
wood Is watered with blessed water.
Bread must not be cooked on certain
days, as on Holy Friday or during the
night of All Saints, when the ghosts
would eat It
The Introduction of Forks.
Forks are articles of such common
household necessity to us that we hard
ly realize that there was a time, and
not so long ago either, when forks were
entirely unknown. A knife was used
at the tnhlo to cut up food, but the
food so cut was afterward conveyed by
the fingers to the mouth. Rich and poor
alike were accustomed to this method
and so thought It perfectly correct.
It was about the year 1(100 and In the
reign of James 1. when forks were first
Introduced Into Kngland. This "piece
of refinement." we are told, was de
rived from the Italians.
I.iterur) Diseases.
Many occupations have diseases
which are more or less Incidental to
them, and literature Is not exempt. The
two most prevalent literary maladies
are writer's cramp nnd swelled head.
Tho unfortunate thing about writer's
cramp is that It is never cured. The
unfortunnto thing about swelled bead
Is thut It never kills. Exchange.
World s Regulator
Nearly ten million Elgin watches
act as one great pendulum in regu
lating the hours of business, travel
' and pleasure the world over. Every
EiLiism
IVaich
4
Is made of the finest materials by
the most skilled hands.
Always look for the watch word 1 '
"Klin," engraved on the works
- of the world's best watches. Send
for fret booklet about watches. '
ILfilN NATIONAL WATCH CO., Elfla. IK.
Reed Enjoyed It.
Thomas B. Reed was once the victim
of a printer' j error the unusual aptness
of which, after the first flush of indig
nation had subsided, appealed so strong
ly to his sense of the comic thut he
never failed to refer to the matter with
the keenest gusto whenever he met the
man whom he, with the utmost mock
solemnity, always held responsible for
it.
The late Colonel John A. Cockerill's
handwriting In Ihe heat of composition
was sometimes liable to lose itself in
an almost Interminable tangle, deci
pherable only with the greatest difficul
ty. On one occasion he undertook to say
that "any one can see Tom Reed has
the' face of an honest man," but was
horrified when he opened his paper the
following morning and found that the
types made him say that "any one can
see Tom UeeU lias a face like a harvest
moon."
Wonder of the Unman Heart.
The workings of the human heart
have been computed by a celebrated
physiologist, and he has demonstrated
that it is equal to the lifting of 120
tons in twenty-four hours. Presuming
that the blood Is thrown out of the
heart at each pulsation In the propor
tion of sixty-nine Btrokes of nine feet,
the mileage of the blood through the
body might be taken at 207 yards per
minute, seveii miles per hour, 108 miles
per day, 01,320 miles per year, or
5,150,000 miles In a lifetime of eighty
four years. In the same period of time
the heart must beat 2,809,770,000 times
Sadiron and Tailor's Goose.
A "sadiron" Is the style in which the
common fiatlron is spoken of In print,
says the Syracuse Herald. "Sad" is an
old English synonym for heavy, and
Spenser wrote, "More sad than lump of
lead." A "sadiron" was a heavy iron
and long ago was applied to the fiatlron
now In common domestic use. The
tailor's "goose" was so called because
the handle bears a fanciful resem
blance to the neck of a goose. This
name because It had a reason for be
lntr still survives.
K.-pent Worahlp In India.
Serpent worship, once very widely
diffused, survives in India. Sometimes
when Hindoos find a cobra in some
crevice in the wali of their house it
will often be reverenced, fed and pro
pitiated, and if fear or the death of
some one bitten by it induces them to
remove it they will handle it tenderly
and let it loose In some field. When
Hindoos are bitten, they have far more
confidence in their magic spell or
"muntra" than In any medicine, even if
they do not scruple to make use of
medical aid.
Fill the I'l.-ice Well.
Where one man Is called to be a hero
on some great scale 10,000 men are
called to be courteous, gentle, patient.
There are conspicuous virtues which
make reputation, and there are quiet
virtues,, the virtues of private life,
which make character. It Is not every
man's duty to fill a large place, but it is
every man's duty to fill his own place
well. Christian Evangelist
A Narrow Marg-ln.
John Stuart Mill was once dining
with two brilliant French talkers who
were given to monologue. One had
possession of the field, and the other
was watching him so Intently to strike
In that Mill exclaimed aloud, "If he
stops to breathe, he's gone."
IleMpnn Nihilities.
"Remember." said the serious citizen,
"that wealth has Its responsibilities."
"Yes," answered Mr. Cumrox. "So
long as you are humble and obscure
you can say 'I seen It' and 'I done it'
and eat with your knife all you want
to." Washington Star.
Define.
She Dear, you have crushed and al
most suffocated me. What kind of a
hug do you call that?
ne That's a Metropolitan street rail
way hug. New York Life.
Falmbuth Is probably the oldest port
in England. It was used by the Phoeni
cians at least 2..r0U years ago.
If a better 5c. cigar wast possible,
it would still be a RLCRUIT.
No better cigar can be produced
at the price.
SOLD EVERYWHERE.
. Save
HIP
jjgfll
AVegc table Preparationfor As
similating theToodandReguta
ting the Stomachs andBowels of
Promotes DIgestion,Ckerful
ness andHest.Contains neither
Opium.Morphine nor Mineral.
Not Narcotic.
PumJo Smi
Mxjennm JioulU Arftr -Anitt
Sefd
Ji-ppermtnt -
Him Sad -
Aperfect Remedy for Constipa
tion, Sour Stomach.Diarrhoea,
Worms .Convulsions Jeverish
ness and Loss OF SLEEP.
Tac Simile Signature of
NEW "YORK.
the Bands. ,
II I -1 IK M
EXACT C0FT"OF WP.APPEB. Jj
iLamw- thi ointus cwmiiy, wtw toss errr.
; M
For Infants and Children.
Tho Kind You Have
Always Bought
Bears
Signature
In
Use
For Over
Thirty Years
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