rn process of reproduction has introduced its own pleasant
qualities into journalism, and because they are different in effect they
do not rival the effect of wood engraving.

The modern methods reproduce the black lines of a drawing direct. But
the most practised engravers cut out the whites of a drawing with their
graver from between the black lines. This undoubtedly allowed the artist
a closer and less restricted use of line than modern illustration shows
us. If the reader examines du Maurier's illustration for _The Adventures
of Harry Richmond_ on page 106, he will be able to see at a glance how,
by cutting out the whites in the multiplicity of ivy leaves, detailed
drawing has been re-interpreted in the engraving with great economy.

Some of the pleasantness of the effect of lines printed from a woodcut
is due to the fact that they print a more clearly cut line. The line
eaten in by "process" when examined under a very strong magnifying glass
proves to be a slightly jagged one. But we should rejoice that the art
of reproduction for journalistic purposes is free of the laborious
method of engraving, and from the sort of work that was put up by
over-tired engravers when they fought their last round to lose, against
the modern invention of picture reproduction.

There is no rivalry in art. All the rivalry is in the business connected
with it. A wood-engraving possesses a charm of its own for those whose
sense of quality is delicate enough for its appreciation. The life of
this art, apart from the purpose of weekly journalism, is safe. The life
of any art is safe while it commands, as wood engraving does, the
production of any particular effect in a way that cannot be rivalled.

According to Mr. Joseph Pennell, the first really important modern
illustrated book in which wood was substituted for metal engraving
appeared in France in 1830, and this authority asserts that in England,
just before the invention of photographing on wood, some of the most
marvellous engravings appeared that have ever been done in the country.
"It is," he writes, "with the appearance of Frederick Sandys, Rossetti,
Walker, Pinwell, A. Boyd, Houghton, Small, du Maurier, Keene, Crane,
Leighton, Millais, and Tenniel, with the publication of the _Cornhill,
Once a Week, Good Words, The Shilling Magazine_, and such books as
Moxon's _Tennyson_ that the best period of English illustration
begins."

"The incessant output of illustration," he continue