Jobbing-hand

A compositor who generally confines himself to jobbing-work. The principle of “division of labour” prevails very much in the printing business. There are book-houses, news-houses, and job-houses; and apprentices brought up in them usually turn out either book, news, or job-hands. They become specially expert in their own “line,” and in large towns and in extensive offices are found most useful to the employer. In smaller towns, and in small offices everywhere, a greater variety of attainment is necessasy, and then the job-hand has the best chance of employment, as on an emergency he can undertake the other kinds of work, whereas a news-hand, who has been brought up to nothing else, is useless for general jobbing. In job-work some taste and wide experience are absolutely essential; in news and book-work rapid and clean setting are a man’s chief recommendation. The former demands a knowledge of the style and effects of every description of type, the sizes and fractional parts of paper, together with an acquaintance with the system of setting up each one of the varieties of jobbing we have enumerated above. This valuable knowledge can he acquired only by long observation and practice.