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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2

[trade dispatches]

The new « Liberty » printing machine has just been awarded the godd medal at the Concours International at Brussels.

According to the Antiquarian News, there has been found at Acosta an ancient Roman pen of bronze, slit in exactly the same fashion as the modern steel pens.

A home manufacturer writes: « I am pleased to receive your paper Typo, which is very bright and interesting, and free from the 'puff' of many trade organs. » And he gives evidence of his appreciation by enclosing an advertisement. A leading firm of manufacturers of printers' machinery write from New York: « We must compliment you on the excellence of your little paper, and the originality and correctness of its criticisms. »

Artistic printing seems to be appreciated in Canada. We have received a beautifully-printed pamphlet of sixteen pages with ornamental wrapper, from Mr James Hough, jun., of Guelph, Ontario. Mr Hough opened his office on the 1st January, 1887, making fine work a specialty, and has met with extraordinary success. And from the quality of the work before us, there is no doubt that he has deserved it. The pamphlet is printed on the finest quality of glazed paper, a light gold border bounded by a fine rule in carmine at head and side, and a bold initial in gold and carmine, the text in black. The book contains some half-dozen process blocks worked in neutral tints, and is in every respect a work of art.

The etymology of « wayzgoose » has puzzled a good many printers. The Temperance World says: « The explanation is very simple. Wayzgeese were (and are) stubble-geese—that is, geese which have been turned into the stubble-fields to pick up the corn left after the harvest. What better geese could there be than geese fed on wayz— German maizen or meizen (corn)? But then arises another question: seeing that outings at this time of year are common to many trades, why should the term wayzgoose be restricted to the printers' outing? Again, I think the explanation lies on the surface. Printing had its origin in Germany, and many of the trade words yet in use come direct from the German. »

Professor Balfour calls upon all correct writers to drop the superfluous a in « cocoa-nut. » Etymology and early authority shew that « coco » is the correct form. Tennyson, with his characteristic minute accuracy, writes in Enoch Arden of

The slender coco's drooping crown of flowers.

« Cocoa-nut » is merely a relic of the ignorance of those who supposed cocoa and chocolate to be obtained from the coco-nut. Coco, coca, and cocoa, are three distinct vegetable products. The correct orthography will be restored in Dr Murray's great dictionary, and this will settle the question. Let us hope the abominable Cockney form of « coker-nut » —invented for the sake of distinction by the London Custom-house—will now disappear for ever.

The following, from the Bookworm, may be a useful hint to Typo's lady readers:— « Possibly the best represented kind of sumptuous book-covering [in the British Museum] is that of embroidered bindings, a species of art it would be well if more practised. That embroidery in colors on silk or velvet is capable of very artistic effects, every lady who cares for fancy work knows well, and an outlet for skill at once useful and ornamental might be found in working book-covers insted of slippers and antimacassars. And this is emphatically women's work: in olden time the books were written in the scriptorium of the monastery, but embroidered in the nunnery, and in later times when monks and nuns in England had ceased to be, female fingers oft-times emblazoned the covers of volumes intended for royal or noble libraries. »