The Art of Printing
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Gathering & Disseminating News

The Art of Printing, also, Gathering and Disseminating News. . , The coming of the machine age had little effect on the production of faience tiles. After eight centuries of producing faience, man has had little success in changing the methods of producing beautiful pieces of timeless durability. , So when the publishers of the Southeast Missourian decided to portray the story of the Art of Printing and the Making of a Newspaper, they chose to tell the tales in tile. And they chose an outer wall of the building as the place to install these two large, beautifully colored tile murals in 1947. , The Art of Printing pictures its beginning with Gutenberg, who made the first movable type and printing press when he printed the Bible in 1450, then when printers began using type in the days of the Washington hand press, later the rotary press with the modern type-setting machine. The figures of Col. Robert Sturdivant, a pioneer who more than one hundred years ago published the first newspaper here, of Louis Houck, builder of railroads through this district, historian and writer, of Allan H. Hinchey, one-time city editor and long-time contributor to the Missourian, are to be seen. Seated in the center, rearing back in his chair in a familiar pose, is George A. Naeter, one of the publishers at work. , The companion mural, under the title Gathering and Disseminating News, presents a view of the editor's desk in the foreground with a background of busy newsgatherers, human and mechanical. Here one observes the men and women who garner the happenings of each day, putting them in succinct form to be set before thousands of eyes each evening. These are the human factors, and pictured also are the marvels of the machine age, the teletype, telephone, telegraph, radio, airplane, camera and the rotary press. , Before the editor’s desk, a segment of the great and near great who at one time or another were brought to Cape Girardeau by the newspaper to give impetus to the never ending program for the advancement of culture. Judge Harry S. Truman of Jackson County encouraged greater interest in highway and general beautification. Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink was brought to entertain "her boys" of World War I. John Phillip Sousa brought his band to stimulate more and better music in the public schools. Billy Sunday was brought in by the newspaper to arouse the churches of the district to broader programs. Gen. Evangeline Booth came at the behest of the newspaper to formally christen the new A.C. Brase Arena Building for public service.