In tying up a page, use fine twine, winding it four or five times round
it, and fastening at the right-hand corner, by thrusting a noose of it
between the several turnings and the matter with the rule, and drawing it
perfectly tight, taking care always to keep the end of the cord on the
face of the page. While tying it, keep the forefinger of the left hand
tight on the corner, to prevent the page from being drawn aside.
The twine being fastened, the compositor removes the page from the ledges
of the galley, to see if the turns of cord lie about the middle of the
shank of the letter; if they lie too high,—as most commonly they do,—he
thrusts them lower; and if the page be not too broad, he places the fore
and middle finger of his right hand on the off side of the head of the
page, and his thumb on the near; then, bending his other fingers under,
he presses them firmly against the head of the page; he next places the
fingers of his left hand in the same position at the foot of the page,
and, raising it upright, lays it on a page-paper; then, with his right
hand he grasps the sides of the page and the paper, which turns up
against the sides of the page, and sets it in a convenient spot under his
frame, placing it on the left hand, with the foot toward him, that the
other pages that are in like manner set down afterward may stand by it in
an orderly succession until he comes to impose them.
If the page be a quarto, folio, or broadside, it is, of course, too
wide for his grasp; and he therefore carries the galley and page to the
imposing-stone, and turns the handle of the galley toward him, and,
taking hold of the handle with his right hand, he places the ball of
the thumb of his left hand against the inside of the head ledge of the
galley, to hold it and keep it steady, and by the handle draws the slice
with the page upon it out of the galley, letting the slice rest upon the
imposing-stone; he then thrusts the head end of the slice so far upon it,
that the foot of the page may stand an inch or two within the outer edge
of the stone, and, placing his left hand against the foot of the page, he
quickly draws the slice from under the bottom of the page.