Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: composing sticks

An insulting " vinegar valentine " aimed at printers. Printer Lead-colored claws, tobacco-stained jaws, Wretched Typo, you cram up your stick, Drunk today to your sorrow, half sober tomorrow, And then swear you're a regular "brick." Your foreman condemns how you count up your "ems," How you "sub" it at half-price he likes, But the editor only, at his desk groaning lonely, Damns you and your interminable "strikes." For another example of a vinegar valentine, see You Teach Each Little Elf More Than You Know Yourself .

"I Print to Please. Pluck Art Printery, D. B. Landis, 257 N. Queen St., Lancaster, Pa, ________ 189__. Received of ________. ________Dollars. $____. ________." For a close-up of the left-hand portion of this receipt, see I Print to Please, D. B. Landis, Pluck Art Printery, Lancaster, Pa., 1890s (thumbnail image below).

"I Print to Please. Pluck Art Printery, D. B. Landis, 257 N. Queen St." Detail from Pluck Art Printery Receipt, Lancaster, Pa., 1890s (see thumbnail image below). Pluck Art Printery, also known at different times throughout its existence as Pluck Print, Pluck Electric Print, and Landis Art Press, was a letterpress print shop run by David Bachman Landis (1862-1940) in Lancaster, Pa. On this 1890s receipt, Landis highlighted his slogan, "I Print to Please," with an illustration of a composing stick and mallet, two essential tools for setting type by hand.