Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-05-07
poor Maring In America.

| Book Making In America.
| II ia somewhat alarming to know that tn
number Of houses now actually engaged IN tn
nnbl;sbine Of books not including periodicals, q
mounts to more than three hundred. lAbou
three-fourths of these are engaged IN Boston
New York. Philadelphia and Baltimore, the Dal
ance being divided between Cincinnati, buf1alo
Auburn. ALBANY, Louisville, Chicago, St. Loul
and few other places. There are more thal
three thousand booksellers who dispense the pup
lications of these three hundred besides SIX o. D
seven thousand apothecaries grocers and hard
ware dealers. who connect literature with drugs
molasses and nails. ;4eoJ 19af
The best printing in America ls prooaoly nov
done in Cambridge; the best clotn Dinding IL
Boston, and the best calf and Morocco IN New New
York and Philadelphia. In these two lattel
styles we are as yet long distance rom noy
day, the pride of London. His finish IS su
preme. There is nothing between 1t ana per
fection. -.,,i-5.,,5,.y.
Books have multiplied to such an extent II
our country that it now takes 100 paper mlis
with 1000 engines in constant operation, TO sup
ply the printers who work day and night en-
deavoring to keep their engagements with PUB
lshers These tireless mills produced 210'ooo,-
600 pounds of paper the past year, which inn
mense supply has been sold tor about $zI,ooo,'
900. A pound and quarter of rags are reqmr-
ed for pound of paper. and 100000, 900 pounds
were therefore consumed in this way last year.
The cost of manufacturing twelve months sup
ply of paper for the United States, aside from
labor and rags,is computed at $4,000, ,ooo. g
Some idea of the stock required to launch o
ha MpSSrS
Lonclnan,s ledger. These gentlemen report
that when 5000 copies of Mr.. Macaulay's two
recent volumes went flying all abroad from Pat
ernoster Row. no less than 5000 reams of pa
DER. six tons of pasteboard, and 1000 yards OF
calico were swallowed up.
Most of the large publishing houses now ste
reotype everything they intend to print. The e.
lectrotyping process is largely employed, and an
experiment is now being made in Boston OF
which we shall hear more at some future time,
which if successful, will decrease the expense
of sterectyping about one-third. We have late
ly heard that machine is in use in N. York for
type setting, and that the second volume OF Mr..
Irving's Life of Washington was prepared tor
the press by its aid.
Four hundred years ago single book OF gos-
sisping fiction was sold before the palace gate IN
the French capital for fifteen hundred dollars
The same amount of matter contained in this
expensive volume, Mr.. Harper now publishes
for 25 cents. Costly books, however, are not
vet out of fashion, for We are all glad to know
that seventeen hundred subscribers have already
been obtained for Prof Agassiz's spendid new
enterprise. .,e.
The Harper establishment, the largest of our
publishing houses, covers half an acre Of ground.
If old Mr.. Oaxton, who printed the stories OF
the Trojan war so long ago, could follow the ex-
Mayor of New York in one of his morning
rounds in Franklin square, he would be, to say
the least, little surprised. He would see in
in one room the floor loaded with weight OF
15O tons of presses. The electrotyping process
would puzzle him somewhat, the drying and
pressing process would startle him the hustle
would make his head ache; and the stock room
would quite finish him. An edition OF Harpers
Monthly Magazine alone consists Of 160, 900 cop
lies. Few persons have any idea how, large q
number this is as applied to the edition OF
book 1t is computed that if these magazine:
were to rain down and one man should attempt
to pick them mp like chips, it would take him Q
fortnight to pick up the copies of one single
number, supposing him to pick up one every
three seconds. and to work ten hours q day. Z.
The rapidity with which books are now man
ufactured is almost incredible. A complete CO.
DIV of one of Bulwers novels, published acros:
the water in three volumes and reproduced here
in one was swept through the press in New
York in 90 hours, and offered for sale smoking
hot in the streets The fabulous edifce propos-
ed by Yankee from Vermont no longer seems
an impossibility. "Build the establishment &C.
cording to my plan" SAID he "drive sheep in
at one end, and he shall Immediately come out
at the other, four querters of lamb, a felt hat
leather apron and quarto Bible"
About one book in one hundred only is sue
cess. When Campbell, at q literary festival
toasted Bonaparte as the friend of Literature be-
cause he once had bookseller shot, he was q
trifie too rough on the trade. 1t is impossible
always for publisher to decide rightly. al
publishers are naturally shy of a new INNS. o
poetry, for instance, for they know by expert,
ence that the deadest of all books is dead vol
ume of verse. The sepuchre of deceased po
etry in Mr.. Burnham's churchyard of old books
| in Cornhil, is the largest bin in his establish
ment. .-,,,.tsR r,.ie gVf br as
Some of the best books which have after
wards had the largest sales have been in manu-
script the most widely rejected. The novel o
'Jane Eyre SO much praised by MIR. Curtis IL
| MS lecture lIllS sttSOu, WAS tuIucu AoA
the publishing doors of almost every respecta
BILE house in London, and was pulled by acciden
out of o publishers iron safe, where it had be
gun to grow mouldy, by the daughter of thu
bookseller, who had himself forgotten it. SEQ
thenp was carried by its author, Mr.. Kinglake
to twenty different houses, till at last, in fit
despair he gave the copyright away to an OBJ
scure bookseller, paying the expenses OF publl-
cation out of his own pocket Mr.. Thackeray'
"Vanity Fair was rejected by Mr. Colburn, TO
whose magazine it was written, that astute gen
tleman complaining that there was no interes
in it. A New York publisher fought the write
of now popular book from spring to autumn
and at length gave in from sheer inability to es
cape importantly longer. After it was stereo
| typed, and before it was printed he offered eve
ry inducement to persuade brother bookseller
to take it off his hands, but without success
In despair he at last published it himself, ant
the sale went mp to 10000 in one season.. t3
The life of an extensive publisher is of neces
sity one of great labor, both of mind and body
He begins with the author and ends only will
the purchaser. Between these two worthie
there lies world of detail known only to th'
'.Trade.nn Success to the useful craft !-Bosto'
Transcript r his 4 p .if0ts 9shifa di
STRUCTURES OF THE SUN.-Sir David Brewster
makes the following remarks relative to thu
structure of the Sun: ., d; t.,-. = ~
So strong has been the belief that the Sun can