=Materials= should be put away in their proper places after use. Do not throw type, leads, and furniture carelessly about, as they are likely to be lost or broken by doing so. Cigar-boxes make handy receptacles for pied type, until you have an opportunity to sort out and distribute it. These are useful also for keeping leads, furniture, and rules in, and a cabinet similar to that described in Chapter I (Fig. 15), or the curio-cabinet described in Chapter IV (Fig. 59), should be made to hold them.
=Proofs and Scraps of Paper= are thrown into a waste basket and not scattered about, as they accumulate rapidly, and not only make a shop look very untidy, but increase the danger of fire.
=Oily Rags= should be kept in a covered tin can, for they are liable to ignite spontaneously when exposed to the air; and of course oils, gasoline, and benzine should be handled away from fire and corked up after use.
Amateur journalism is by no means a new pastime, but probably at no time in its long history has it been thought as much of as at present.
It would be a difficult matter to even roughly estimate the number of papers which have been issued in the amateur world. Mr. Edwin Hadley Smith of New York City has the largest collection now in existence. This at present consists of 22,600 amateur papers, 500 amateur books, 800 photographs of amateur journalists, 800 professional clippings, and 2,500 miscellaneous printed relics dating as far back as 1845. The collection, which is the result of many years' work, is sorted and catalogued, and will soon be placed in one of our large libraries, where the public may inspect the work that has been turned out by amateurs for the past half century.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF AMATEUR PAPERS.]
It is said Benjamin Franklin published an amateur paper in 1723, when a lad of seventeen years; and in tracing the history of amateur journalism down to the present time, a person would be surprised to find what a large number of the most successful statesmen, writers, and scientific men this country has had were amateur journalists in their younger days.
There are at present in the neighborhood of two hundred amateur papers published in the United States. A few of these papers, representative of amateurs from all parts of the country, have been grouped together and reproduced opposite page 142, and several others are shown in Figs. 162, 163, 164, 165, and 166. It is to be regretted that lack of space forbids a larger display of these papers, many of which are quite unique and reflect credit upon their publishers.