Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1861-02-22

approaches the hour of going TO press
Operations continue apparently, rs usual
till near the last minute, when suddenly the
toremen close up the columns, rapidly ar
range few las, paragraphs, "plane down
the forms" (not with The jack-plane Of a
carpenter, but contriyanae that presses
every type down into place that may by
chance be projecting up beyond its proper
level,) give few dexterous turns with steel
wrcnehes TO the apparatus that secures the
type in the forms, and hey are ready. The
tables ON which they rest are whirled 20 a
slide at one side of the room, communicating
with the press-room ovor sixty feet below.
A voice, in response to the faint tinkle of
bell, comes from tie depths below. through
a speaking tube" All right--let y" and
down slide the turtles, and in three minutes
more the rattle of machinery is heard, "the
first audible football of thought in its out
going into the world"
The press-room, huge, well warmed,
well lighted basement, under the whole
building, is one of the most interesting por-
tons of the establishment. The "press-
gang consists of fourteen "feed-rs"
feeders themselves, and good "feeders" to
the Unsuitable raw of the press, into which
they continually thrust fresh sheets in re-
sponse to its cry of more, more, more,
more !" at each revolution. The pressman
is the presiding deity OF this department
and two engineers have charge of the pli-
ant giant, steam, which sets the presses in
motion. One huge machine stands quiet, a
corps de reserve in case Of accident to its
companion huge piles Of paper, some un-
opened and just from the paper MILL others
printed upon one side, and others just dam
pened or '.wet down" for the press, are heap
ed up on all sides.
Round goes the press and off comes the
papers; and now let US step into the mail
room. We have said the value of time is
appreciated in the composition room = here
it is doubly so. The head mail clerk must
get out all his buadles for express offices,
railroad depots, &C., at Or before certain
time, to ''sage the trains" that newspaper
dealers all over New England may not miss
the receipt Of their Journals 10 supply their
anxious customers hungry for news. A
five minutes delay would cost the office the
loss of thousand papers or more, and to
dispatch and get out the papers in season to
reach their several points of destination,
requires no small degree of dexterity as
well as severe and rapid labor. The wrap
pers and directions are written, and other
preparations made during the interim between
the publication of each edition, so that as
soon as the paper commences coming into
the mail-room from the press, huge bundles
of fifties, hundreds, and Il Iousands are bound
together, and disptched with speed aston
ishing to behold. The mail clerk and his
three assistants are tying writing and count
ing-and the counting of papers is done
with speed that must be seen to be ap-
preciated. The folders are also, with q
peculiar slip and three slaps, throwing pa
pers together in different folds with great
rapidity; the mail ciagk's message boys
hurrying hither and thither in obedience to
his direction, and thousands of papers that
twenty minutes before were imprinted
sheets, are soon whirliRg away on railroad
trains on their way into the country.
The mail clerk, after dispatching his pa
per for express and mail, turns his attention
TO the city carriers, some eight or ten in
number, who deliver papers to city subscrib-
ers. These soon have their bundles coun-
ted out, strap them under their arms and
start forth.
All the while these operations are going
on, thousands of papers are being whole
sailed to newsmen, newsboys, and other
dealers who throng the room, and who are
served in accordance with their demand,
from the ragged newsboy, whose hand
scarce reaches the counter, with the half
dime that pays for four, to the newsman
who throws down his fve-dollar note for
four hundred copies.
The mail clerk generally works with one
eye on the clock and the o,her on the pa
pers; he can tell you on demand the hour
Of departure of all the principal trains over
all the principal lines of railroad out of
Boston, the names of the express line over
each, the time they arrive at many of the
points of their destination: in the city, the
numbers Of the stores and house of many
Of the merchants and well known residents
1f Boston. Some clerks are singularly |
expert from long practice. We knew one /
who could tell from recollection, rarely /
making a mistake, the number ON Washing /
on street, at which every individual who /
lad a store on lower aoor kept, from State
o Elliot street, and who would write his
whole list Of seals wrappers for single pa
oers and bundles (ditto fer paeksges) from
recollection, without once looking to his
nail book, although it was job of two
iours and haE.
The next end last room of interest TO