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Trade Exchanges.

The Inland Printer for October is a grand number. It has among its varied contents a fine rule-work profile portrait, full of character, designed and executed by Louis Repp, St. Louis. We also note a page of facsimiles of scarecrow printing, with pertinent queries appended to each job.

We have received two issues of the Boston Engraver and Printer, the first we have seen, for' April, 1891, and June, 1892. As the current numbers are not to hand, we can scarcely call them exchanges in the ordinary sense. The editor keeps well to the artistic aspect of printing; the style and finish of the magazine is faultless, and the plates are superb.

The National Publisher and Printer contains a specimen of the « Burnz Pronouncing Print, » by Mrs Eliza Boardman Burnz, the well-known spelling reformer. It is used for a primer, and is on great primer or 18·. The accepted spelling is not altered in this method, but many extra sorts and diacritical marks are introduced. The silent letters are in a hair-line skeleton, diphthongs are united by hyphens, the o in « two » has two small o's beneath it, the f in « of » has an inferior v, &c. To those who object to changed spelling, this method will commend itself.

Our Language has taken another step in spelling reform with the present alphabet. So has Mr Pitman, and both schemes are intended as experimental. Mr Pitman's is not difficult to read, but must be hard to write. The American plan is both. On the subject of « Dhi niu speling, » the editor of Our Language says: « Dhi speling ov dhis pêper iz not propôzd for jeneral adopshun. It iz yûzd hîr for prezent konvînyens, and wil bî supersîded hwen a môr nîrli perfekt môd has bin agrîd upon … Dhis speling iz not dhi editèr'z 'skîm'; it iz not a kompetitòr fòr jeneral akseptáns; it iz a tempórêri arênjment fòr dhi yûs ov dhis pêpèr until rîfòrmèrz ágrî upon a komplît alfábet. » We are in full sympathy with the spelling reform movement; but after reading a little of this temporary style of orthography, we think that the sooner « reformers agree upon a complete alphabet » the better. An article on English pronounciation is open to criticism. The long sound of ōō, as in the English word « shoot, » it appears, sounds peculiar to American ears, and when Professor Jebb, of Cambridge, lectured in the John Hopkins University, « a smile, not ill-natured nor unkindly, ran over the faces of the cultured and representative Baltimore audience. Every ear marked a distinct English accent, and acknowledged its strangeness. » Very likely; but the writer, Mr F. H. Sykes, M.A., is a little astray when he goes into details. Correct English speakers do not say « yésterdi, » nor do they entirely vocalize the medial r before a consonant, and the final r, pronouncing warm wom; sharp, shaap; dirt dût; and far faa. This applies to a limited extent to certain provincial dialects now dying out; but does not even represent ordinary illiterate or slipshod English, much less the language of the educated classes. Curiously enough, these very mispronounciations are used in the Biglow Papers as characteristic of the New England speech. « Yesterday, » for example, becomes « yistiddy. » So that Mr Sykes is passing off flagrant Yankeeisins as English usage!

The Artistic Printer lor October is, as usual, excellent. Mr F. W. Mitchell writes on « Some Original Display Lines, » and gives some comical examples. The following was the work of an amateur who did a thriving business at a seaside resort in Maine:

This striking handbill was posted in about fifty conspicuous places. A feature of this issue — the first number of vol. 4, is an article on the daily newspapers of Chicago, with reduced facsimiles of the first pages of each of the eleven.

From Dunedin comes No. 7 of the Phonographic Magazine, edited by Mr H. S. Harcoe, and lithographed at the Daily Times printing office. The present issue is the Christmas number, and, besides the wrapper, contains twenty octavo pages, printed in shorthand, and a four-page supplement, containing a reduced facsimile of four pages of the Daily Times, and portrait of Mr G. Fenwick, the editor and managing director. A biography of Mr Fenwick is appended, in shorthand, and reduced from typewriter copy. The supplement is lithographed by Mr W. R. Frost, and printed by J. Wilkie & Co. The magazine reflects great credit on all concerned in its production.

Among the almanacs to hand, the most original is the large advertising sheetalmanac published by the Palmerston Daily Times. It consists of a rule-work plan of Palmerston North, « the largest inland town in the North Island, » on a scale of eight chains to the inch, the names of all the streets being given, and the blocks being filled up with local advertisements. Fortunately for the comp, the town is situated on a plain, and is laid out almost entirely in rectangular divisions; but the Manawatu river does not conform to this plan, and rendered a certain amount of rule-bending necessary. The railway line is indicated by S. B. and Co.'s toothed rul, set double In addition to the calendar and a profusion of advertisements, there is miscellaneous information relating to the borough. The job was set in Mr Cherrett's office, by Mr H. Nash, one of the Times staff, and the big form was worked off, in blue ink, on the newspaper Wharfedale.