parade through Central Park
in New York.

THE PRINTER'S DEVIL

The term "Printer's Devil" is usually accounted for by the fact that
Aldus Manutius, the great Venetian printer, employed in his printing
shop (about 1485) a black slave, who was popularly thought to be an
imp of Satan. This expression may have a deeper significance. It may
owe its origin to the fact that Fust, the inventor of the printing
press, was believed to have connections with the Evil One. It will be
remembered that during the Middle Ages and, in Catholic countries,
even for a long time afterwards every discovery of science, every
invention of material benefit to man, was believed to have been
secured by a compact with the devil. Our ancestors deemed the human
mind incapable, without the aid of the Evil One, of producing anything
beyond their own comprehension. The red letters which Fust used at the
close of his earliest printed volumes to give his name, with the place
and date of publication, were interpreted in Paris as indications of
the diabolical origin of the works so easily produced by him. (M. D.
Conway, _Demonology and Devil-Lore_.) Sacred days, as is well known,
are printed in the Catholic calendar with red letters, and the devil
has also employed them in books of magic. This is but another instance
of the mimicry by "God's Ape" of the sanctities of the Church.

In the infernal economy, where a strict division of labour prevails,
the printer's devil is the librarian of hell. The books over which he
has charge must be as numerous as the sands on the sea-shore. For
nearly every book written without priestly command was associated in
the good old days with the devil. The assertion that Satan hates
nothing so much as writing or printer's ink apparently is a very great
calumny. He has often even been accused of stealing manuscripts in
order to prevent their publication. The prince of darkness naturally
rather shuns than courts inquiry. On one occasion Joseph Goerres, the
defender of Catholicism, complained that the devil, provoked by his
interference in Satanic affairs (he is the author of _Die christliche
Mystik_, which is a rich source for diabolism, diabolical possession
and exorcism), had stolen one of his manuscripts; it was, however,
found some time afterwards in his bookcase, and the devil was
completely exonerated.

The concluding paragraph of this story is especially interesting in
the light of the present agitation for unb