I 2

the picture was drawn, stereotyped, put into the newspaper forms and run in the regular edition of the paper in less than thirty minutes.

Another method which has greatly superseded chalk plates is the zinc etching. The artist draws the illustration in black India ink on white paper. A photographic negative is made of the picture and transmitted to a zinc plate prepared to receive the impression. The impression on the zinc is then covered with a prepared ink which

cut always shows the best results. Where the lines in a cut are close together, the chances are that the ink will fill the meshes and blur the prints. But even this detriment is fast being overcome. The splendid new machinery in newspaper presses, the good quality of paper used by the better class of daily papers, makes it possible to include "half tones" in their daily runs.

The half-tone" is the most modern method and in fact the most perfect method yet discovered for giving abso

adheres to the picture, leaving the balance of the plate clean, and the plate is then submitted to a nitric acid bath, until the zinc has been eaten away to the depth of 1-32 of an inch, leaving the protected picture in relief. This process is used principally in line drawings.

All illustrations are commonly referred to as "cuts," the word naturally originating with the engraver.

It may be explained that daily newspaper presses are run at a very high rate of speed and consequently an open

lutely correct pictures. The half-tone is an exact reproduction of a photograph. By means of it, any detail may be reproduced. The process of making them has become a business in itself, although every well directed daily newspaper now has a complete photographing outfit and engraving department prepared to make its own half-tones. The engraver employed in charge of this department is selected on account of his versatility in this profession, as he may be called upon to make any kind of illus

tration. For instance, a photograph is handed him for reproduction by halftone. He proceeds at once to make a photographic negative the exact size he desires the half-tone to be. In making this negative he uses a screen between the camera lens and the wet plate, in order to give a broken surface to the half-tone, thus making it possible to obtain definite impressions from it. The "screen" is a sheet of glass on which lines are cut at equal distances apart, at right angles, making a succession

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much the same manner as the zinc plate.

The illustrations accompanying this article are half tones made with an eighty line screen, and it will be noticed that they have a coarser appearance than some of the very beautiful halftones which appear from time to time in the "Book of the Royal Blue." The majority of persons who do not understand the making of half-tones would naturally say these pictures are inferior; but had they been made with a one hundred and fifty line screen they would have

If

the half-tone is for fine work a screen of one hundred and thirty-three to one hundred and seventy-five lines to the inch is used. The new negative is then used to make an impression on a highly finished copper plate, whose surface is prepared to receive a photographic impression. After the impression has been transmitted, the plate is etched after

shown more detail and have been much handsomer in appearance because the paper on which this book is printed is enameled and very heavy. These cuts were especially prepared for an Art Supplement of a syndicate of newspapers and used on rapid presses. Had they been made with a finer screen instead of the coarser one, the impressions would have become blurred and almost indistinguishable.

The views given are scenes at and near Harper's Ferry, W. Va., and Washington on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Incense of awe-struck praise.

And who can dare

To lift the insect trump of earthly hope, Or love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime Of thy tremendous hymn?

Even Ocean shrinks

Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild

Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears,

On thine unfathom'd page.

Each leafy bough

That lifts itself within thy proud domain Doth gather greenness from thy living

spray,

And tremble at the baptism.

Lo! yon birds

Do venture boldly near, bathing their wing

Amid thy foam and mist.

'Tis meet for them

To touch thy garment's hem, or lightly stir

The snowy leaflets of thy vapor wreath, Who sport unharmed upon the fleecy cloud,

And listen at the echoing gate of Heaven Without reproof. But as for us, it seems Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak

Familiarly of thee. Methinks to tint

Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,

Or woo thee to the tablet of a song,
Were profanation.

Thou dost make the soul

A wandering witness of thy majesty, And while it rushes with delirious joy To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its step,

And check its rapture with the humbling view

Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand In the dread presence of the Invisible, As if to answer to its God through thee.

IN

N Mount Olivet Cemetery, at Frederick City, Md., on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, near the place of his birth and within view of the Catoctin Mountain, lies buried in a lowly grave Francis Scott Key, the author of the grandest hymn sung in the hearts and throats of a Nation envied by the whole world.

It was written in just such a time as this, when the Nation was at battle with a foreign foe and the love for the "Stars and Stripes" inspired patriotic music in the souls of men.

Associated with the song is the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Baltimore, by the British, on September 10, 1814, and the song and fort are handed down in history together.

The circumstances under which the "Star Spangled Banner" was written is forever interesting. Francis Scott Key was the son of John Ross Key, a Revolutionary officer, and was born near Double Pipe Creek, Frederick County, Maryland, on August 9, 1780. He was educated at Annapolis, where he studied law and afterwards practiced at Frederick City, Md. (where he was admitted to the bar) until 1801, when he removed to the District of Columbia. There he served as District Attorney under General Andrew Jackson. It has not been definitely recorded by his historians whether he lived in Baltimore at the time of the bombardment of the city, but the records show that he, accompanied by one John S. Skinner, had been commissioned to visit the cartel-ship "Minden" of the British Fleet to obtain the release of several prisoners, among them Dr. Beanes, of Upper Marlboro, Md., who had been arrested and taken prisoner to the fleet for his sympathies with the American cause. Key interceded in his behalf and was successful in obtaining the release of the prisoners. When about to take leave they were informed that they would be detained until the attack on Baltimore was over. They were transferred to the frigate "Surprise," taken up the Patapsco and sent on board their own vessel, being permitted to take Dr. Beanes with them, but all were kept under guard to prevent them from landing and giving any information in regard to the British Fleet. There they remained during the

night of September 13th, when the battle between the ships and fort was at its height. The anxiety of the prisoners was intense, as they strained their eyes for glimpses of the starry banner which occasionally appeared through the flashes of fire from the bursting shells and the batteries of the fort. The bombardment ceased sometime before daylight and as the prisoners had no communication with the enemies' ships they did not know whether the fort had surrendered or the attack upon it had been abandoned. It was during this season of intense anxiety that Key, who was a man of great emotional temperament, conceived the song which has made him immortal. Impatiently he paced the deck and watched for the dawn, when in the dim light of the September morn, he caught the first glimpse of the flag, for which he had so anxiously waited. Withdrawing a letter from his pocket, he penciled upon the back of it the opening lines of the poem and some few memoranda of his thoughts. He completed the poem in the small boat which conveyed him to shore. The next morning he showed the verses to Judge Nicholson, who was greatly pleased with them, and who took them at once to the office of "The Baltimore American."

The following is a photographic reproduction of the poem as it appeared in that paper:

DEFENCE

FORT MÜHENRY.

The andered song was composed ander the following tireurances-- A gentleman had left Baltimore, in lag of truce for the p pose of getting released from the British Heet a friend of bis who had been captured at Mariborough He wentas far as the mouth of the Patuxent, and was not permitted to return lesi the intended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed He was therefore brought up the Bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag vessel was kept under the guns of a fri gate, and be was compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort McHenry, which the Aumiral had boasted that he would carry in a few hours, and that the city must fall He watched the flag at the fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can be better felt Chan described, until the night prevented him from seeing it. To the night he watched the Bomb Shells, and at early dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of ais country