The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1868-11-13
MistrlIaneons Selections.
s1 o From the Cleveland Leaderl
The Government Printing Office
Where We Get Our "eub. Docs"
WAsHINeroN, October Is. Is8s.


WASHINGTON, October %, 1858.
| As you stand on Capitol HID, at The
\ top of the high fight of stairs leading
: into the Senate, look straight north and
you will see the government printing
Office. 1t is in dreary contrast to the
pure whiteness of the Capitol. A long
rectangle of sooty brick, domineered by
a scorched cupola, from whose apparent
ashes rises the Phoenix of a GILT eagle.
This eagle, troubled by the proximate
confusion of Irish shanties and building
lots, is less busted with his destiny than
with the points of the compass, which
he holds transfized in his talous, and by
these you preceive that just to the
north is the Catholic church of St.
Aloysius, noisy with a chime of bells,
while the settled quarter of the city lies
west of and behind the printing office.
! Making a straight way from Capitol
Hill across Tiber creek, which you viii
cross by stepping stones deposited in
its basin, and taking a foot-path across
lots where geese and pigs brouse upon
plentiful barrenness, you will reach the
printing house in ten or fifteen minutes,
and hear the hum of its machinery
while you take in coup doit
The near exterior view is no better
than the remote one. A huge factory
e of red brick, about three hundred and
fifty feet long, with the gables and one
side facing seperate streets, and the
other side fenced up to inclose boiler
houses, papeF-storehouses, wsgon-shed,
waste paper barracks, and an accessory
wing for stereotypiDg and for machine
shop, this is all that a passing pedes-
trian knows Of the government printing
Office.
INFLUENCE OF TIE PRINTING OFFICE.
From this dali rectangle issues all
that the government of the United
States has to send to the people to read.
Here all the multitude of reports,
whether of agriculture or patents, or
upon far explorations, or upon Indian
collisions, or new railways, goes to the
printer and emerges book or pamphlet.
Here also all forms of semi-blank sta
tioRery used by Congress, President or
Supreme Court are ruled and printed.
The laws as they are made and com
piled, the maps and charts of the new
| ly sounded coasts of the ocean as nav
igators must know it of her territories
and acquisitions, the correspondence of
this nation with its neigbbors and
cousins, the registers of the army, navy
and marine, the "blue books" !" scientific
discoveries patronized by the govern
ment all manner of documents where
BY political and bene6centin intelligence is
made the property Of the libraries of |
the people-these are printed here.
Here comes the manuscript of the |
secretary of state, and it is set up by
sworn eompositors who dare not dis |
close it Here most generally by OBJ /
servauce, but not at present by breach, /
comes the first draft of the presidents
message and all its accompanyingpapers
The long reports of committees of Con-
gress upon every conceivable question
are put into type here. In a word,
nowhere else is. any printing done for
the general government except the
debates of Congress, which are given
out BY contract, and the bonds and L
notes Of the United States which are S
printed in the treasury department f
In this building even the money orders s
are printed and stamped which 90
through the post office ike so many I
drafts. So arel the photographic plates Il
prepared here to illustrate the large re-
ports of explorations.
I. In 1860, Cornelius Wendell, cele- n
brated typographical and political job L
ber sold this establishment to the :
United States for s1S5, 600, and it is '
now the very largest printing office in o
.he world. - ,r.. .T.- C
Among the public printers have been {
Gales and Seatou, Jonathan Elliott,
Armstrong of Tennessee, Duff Green,
blair and Rlves, Cornelius Wendell b
md at last John D. Defrees, who has G
leld the position since 1861. ar &
-,In 1856 and 1857, Wendell, Deu- p
,prat by eonnivance with some Repub. te
leans managed to get the position, al
hough the Republ cans were 10 power te
It the time. He is a7talented man, IL
whose connection with the public print ol
ng was frequently open to suspicion, I
lut he is now comparatively poor, having d,
ndorsed for a good many people fool al
silly. Gales and Seaton were strictly
Ionest men, who failed at one time, g
layihg made q bad contract to do the Ii
'ublic work. Daft Green was a man 81
f versatile abilities, now quite old aud HI
,oor. '6f i.t @
. -- INSIDE. Ie
Entering by door in the long ex- al
erior side of the rectangle, we ascend ne
few asteps and emerge into great Dc
room, taking up the full 81