American inventions and inventors . oll of the finest parchment was submitted LETTERS—LANGUAGE. 251 to Solomon for inspection. Each skin began with an illumi-nated letter, and the whole work was done in the higheststyle of the art. Well pleased was Solomon when these rolls were all prop-erly packed, secured from rain, placed upon the backs ofcamels, and the caravan, with a military escort, had set outfor the distant landof S h e b a . Thenagain in the gray ofthe morning Solo-mon was at his medi-tations upon thehousetop. Again hecalled a inessengerwho should summonto his presence thechief of th
American inventions and inventors . oll of the finest parchment was submitted LETTERS—LANGUAGE. 251 to Solomon for inspection. Each skin began with an illumi-nated letter, and the whole work was done in the higheststyle of the art. Well pleased was Solomon when these rolls were all prop-erly packed, secured from rain, placed upon the backs ofcamels, and the caravan, with a military escort, had set outfor the distant landof S h e b a . Thenagain in the gray ofthe morning Solo-mon was at his medi-tations upon thehousetop. Again hecalled a inessengerwho should summonto his presence thechief of the scribes. What was thecost of making thecopy of our sacredwritings for theQueen of Sheba?How many shekelshave been paid tothe scribes for theirwork? When the chiefscribe had found out he reported it to the king. Is it in-deed so much? said the king; and when he had thought howmany months it had taken for that large number of scribes tomake a single copy of the sacred books, then he exclaimed:Of making many books there is no AN ANCIENT SCRIBE. CHAPTER PRINTING PRESS. The times have changed since King Solomons day. Theart of printing has been discovered. Now it would be possi-ble to make not merely one copy but thousands of copies, notonly of the sacred books of the Jews in the time of Solomon,but of the entire Bible as we have it to-day. Not in themonths required by the Jewish scribes, but in a single month,thousands of copies of the whole Bible could be printed fromthe type set in a single establishment in Boston, Nev/ York,or Philadelphia. Surely, before the art of printing one mighttruly say, * Of making books there is no end. But to-day ourmodern press sends out its volumes by millions, so that nolonger is there any truth in this apparently wise statementof Solomon. It was true in his day, but times have changed. Two visitors were wending their way through MachineryHall at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in , clatter, clatter—clatter,
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