163

publications. As a striking example of the practical
application of "Republican principles", as well as
an inducement for swelling the subscription lists;
persons who had children and could not ordinarily
subscribe, would be permitted to do so at one half
price.¹⁶ No copy of this periodical has come to
light, and it must be concluded, for want of proof
to the contrary, that the subscribers did not materi-
alize in sufficient numbers and the project was
abandoned.

Bartgis continued printing in Frederick until
1820, when he was forced to retire from his business
because of the competition of younger men. He moved
his apparatus to his paper mill at Pleasant Dale, a
beautiful glen in the Catoctin mountains about five
miles north-west of Frederick, where he continued to
print to a small extent at least, probably manufactur-
ing the paper, setting the type, printing and binding
his publications himself. One book is known to have
been issued from his press at Pleasant Dale, a hymn
took which he sold in the villages and country near
his home.¹⁷

Bartgis died in 1825.¹⁸ His two sons, Matthias

16 Ibid. February 12, 1800.
17 Lutheran observer. Lutheran hymnology.
18 Frederick county, Md. Wills. Liber H.S,
no. 3, folio 362.