h of Richard March Hoe, in Florence, Italy, closes the
career of one whose name is known wherever the newspaper is used to
spread intelligence.

He was the senior member of the firm of printing-press makers, and one
of the leading inventors and developers of that great lever of public
opinion. Mr. Hoe's father was the founder of the firm. He came to this
country from England in 1803, and worked at his trade of carpentry.
Through his skill as a workman he was sought out by a man named Smith, a
maker of printer's material. He married Smith's sister, and went into
partnership with Smith and brother. The printing-presses of those days
were made chiefly of wood, and Hoe's skill as a wood-worker was valuable
to the firm.

In 1822 Peter Smith invented a hand-press. This press was finally
supplanted by the Washington press, invented by Samuel Rust in 1829. Mr.
Smith died a year after securing his patent, and the firm-name was
changed to R. Hoe & Co., but from the manufacture of the Smith press the
company made a fortune. The demand for hand presses increased so rapidly
that ten years later it was suggested that steam power might be utilized
in some way to do the pulling and tugging necessary in getting an
impression. At this time Richard M., one of the sons of the founder of
the house, was an attentive listener to the discussions.

Young Richard M. Hoe was born in 1812. He had the advantage of an
excellent education, but his father's business possessed such a
fascination for him that it was with difficulty he was kept in school.
He was a young man of twenty before his father allowed him to work
regularly in his shop; but he had already become an expert in handling
tools, and soon became one of the best workmen. He joined with his
father in the belief that steam would yet be applied to the
printing-press, and the numerous models and experiments they made to
that end would, in the light of the present day, appear extremely
ridiculous.

In 1825-30 Napier had constructed a steam printing-press, and in 1830
Isaac Adams, of Boston, secured a patent for a power press. These
inventions were kept very secret; the factories in which they were made
being guarded jealously. In 1830 a Napier press was imported into this
country for use on the _National Intelligencer_. Mordecai Noah, editor
of Noah's _Sunday Times and Messenger_, was collector of the port of New
York at that time, and being desirous of seeing how the Napier press
would