On this day in 1905 one L.E. Cassatt, foreman of the Idaho Springs Gazette, took pen in hand to inform the Queen City Printing Ink Company of Cincinnati about a job of printing he had produced using the firm’s ink. “Dear Sirs,” wrote Mr. Cassatt, a compositor and pressman of forty years’ experience, ‘Today I take the liberty of sending you a prospectus printed with your ‘H.D.’ book ink. At first glance you will say that the presswork is not so extraordinary, but when you learn the conditions under which the work was done, you will agree with me that it is remarkable and would be impossible to accomplish with any other ink than the Queen City ‘H.D.’ book ink without serious offsetting.

“This work was done on an old two-roller Chicago Taylor press. This press was brought over the plains with an ox team before the advent of railroads. It was put in commission in Denver and run for a number of years. It was repaired and sent to Leadville, during the great mining excitement in that city, where it was operated for a long period. After it was supposed to have been worn out in Leadville, it was repaired again and shipped by jack (or burro) to Aspen. On its way from Leadville to Aspen, a peculiar accident happened. One of the side frames, being strapped on the backs of a couple of burros, the animals lost their equilibrium on a narrow mountain pass and side frame and animals went down the precipice almost perpendicular, some five or six hundred feet. The burros were killed outright and it is almost needless to say the frame was broken in a dozen places. After the press reached Aspen, the broken parts were riveted together and the old machine entered upon another long period of usefulness. After being worn out for the third time, and supposed to be beyond redemption, it was shipped back to Denver, where both ends of the cylinder shaft were spliced and the machine otherwise repaired. It was sold to the Idaho Springs (Colo.) Gazette some twelve or fifteen years ago where it has been in commission ever since. And this is the history of the old machine on which I recently printed the prospectus which I send you today. I claim there is no two-roller press in existence, and especially a country cylinder, that can print cuts such as are in this prospectus without the aid of the Queen City ‘H.D.’ book, which stands without a peer for fine cutwork.”