Note:
In the printing process, “type” was
a small wood block topped by a raised letter or character. The
types were arranged to spell desired words and format the text,
and then locked in place before ink was applied to print pages
from it. When the types spilled or were otherwise arranged
indiscriminately, it was called “pie” or “pi”—derived from the
word “pied,” meaning having various patches of color. By their
comments, Curtis and Brooks were saying that slavery (the
“type”) had been thrown into chaos and would not survive the
war. Brooks was also the founder and editor-in-chief of the
New York Daily Express, so the phrase came naturally to him,
as to Harper’s Weekly editor Curtis. In the nineteenth
century, the newspaper was the main form of mass communication
and many people owned or were familiar with personal printing
machines, so the use of such printing jargon would be similar to
using a computer metaphor today. |