Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/214

186 the American mission-press, where more than a hundred Hindu compositors, type-casters, binders, and pressmen are constantly engaged, under the superintendence of a missionary printer, in all the varied departments of book-making, from the cutting of dies and casting of types to the binding of the printed volume. Hundreds of thousands of pages in Tamil, Telugu, Sanscrit, and Hindustani, issue every year from this press to carry the truth into thousands of Hindu families. The street-preacher, who can have the ear of the idolater from a distant province for but a few moments, is thus enabled to put into his hand a portion of the Scriptures or a religious book, which will be read in the quietness of his native village, and deepen the impression which the words of the missionary may have made. The aid of the press is invaluable in such a work.

Immediately in front of the press is the public market. Here the scene changes. While, within, the printers are with nimble fingers distributing the types in entire silence, the street without is a scene of confusion and Babel-like hubbub. The racket and noise of men, women, and children are aided by the cawing of innumerable crows, and the shrill cries of the hosts of