Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-02-12
4 Valentine Factory.

A stroll through a Valentine factory is
somewhat disenchanting. The dainty.
delicate missives, beautiful as love and
fragrant as roses" with which the sta
toners windows burst into radiance in
the depth Of winter, properly speaking,
ought not to be manufactured at all.
They ought to be the creation of some
magic wand, or at least should be the
work of fairy hands, and should be i'm
ported from region of moon-lit groves.
pale flowers, perfumed fountains, and
aerial Tyres.
This, however, is not precisely the orr
gin of valentines.
The inquisitive explorer who visits the
premises of a manufacturer of these
fancy goods just now, for the purpose of
seeing the process from beginning to end,
may perhaps be conducted, in the first
place, into a barely furnished apartment,
occupied by five or six silent individuals,
who might as reasonably invoke the in
spiration of Venus as Sophocles might
that of Melpomene.
These are the artists of the establish
ment, and this somewhat cherries apart
ment is the fountain-head of pictorial
sentiment
They are not particularly sentimental
looking group, either. 1t is of course
impossible to say what silent raptures
may be trembling beneath those white
blOuses of theirs; but viewed from the
outside, these artists have decidedly Sc
date and matter fact aspect, and, apart
from special inspiration, might be sup
posed to have outlived the tender passion.
At least one of them clearly has done So,
and is devoting the experience of
gray hairs to the castigation of youthful
follies by means of burlesques.
He has sheet of white paper and a
stick of charcoal, and is engaged in pro-
ducing the rough draught of very large
young lady, with very small bonnet, a
crinOline, and an infinitesimal dog
Another is engaged upon very clever
little water-cOlor sketch of an amorous
subject while third has before him a
similar sketch which he is lithographing
that is, drawing with ink or chalk on a
slab of stone, preparatory to its being
printed by the photographic process.
In the next room this printing is being
carried on. Brawny armed mechanics
are turning out a strange medley of lovers
and bowers, flowers, birds, hearts, and ar
rows, bachelors and pining spinsters
Some of the sheets produced at the
presses in this room are now cut Up into
sections, and handed over to the superin-
tendent Of the valentine makers. Others
have to be embossed. For this purpose
the engraving of steel plate is necessary,
and this often entails very serious ex-
pense. 1t is not by any means unusual
for plate, no larger than sheet of note
paper, to cost twenty guineas. The parts
of the design to be brought out in relief
are engraved in soft steel, which is then
hardened and thus fitted to sustain a
pressure of several tons.
In the next apartment these plates are
being used. An operative sits in a hole
in the floor, beside a very powerful screw
press, worked by means of beam six or
eight feet in length, at the end of which
are glObular masses of iron, designed to
increase its momentum. The picture to
be embossed is laid upon the steel plate,
and placed in the bed beneath the screw,
which is then brought down with a terri
bic thump. There are several of these
presses at work in this room, one or two
being engaged in the enclosing of lace
paper, which enters largely into the COM
position of valentines.
The lace paper, however, as it leaves
these presses, still requires to be perfor-
ated, and the way in which this is done
is curious. The embOssing-plate is fixed
upon bench sheet of paper which
has been impressed by it is laid upon it
and carefully though expeditiously ad-
justed, and is then subjected to a vigorous
rasping with large flat file, wrapped in
sand paper This rubs away every portion
of the paper which is supported by the
projections in the plate beneath, and, of
course, when the sheet is turned over, the
parts Of the design which were merely de-
pressions have become holes.
Specimens of the entire productions of
printers, embossers and perforators, to-
gether with foreign importations in the
shape of ribbons, feathers, shells, and or
Of various other kinds, are now
spread upon table, presided over by one
or two clever young women, upon whom
deyolves the duty Of designing the valen-
tines
The object they have to aim at is, of
course, the production of the greatest DOS
sible variety of striking and pleasing
effects by the combination of the materi
ais before them, and the most successful
are adopted as patterns for the other
hands.
Nothing, it is said, can be more capri
cious or whimsical than the selections of
the public in any matter of taste, and in
the case of valentines this is especially
observable. Very frequently the particu-
lar designs which the most experienced
of manufacturers would pronounce to be
triumphs of taste and originality prove
utter failures in the market. and the great
hit Of a season may be some production
which barely escaped the waste basket.
Only very rash and inexperienced
maker, therefore, will produce any great
amount Of stock until orders come in.
Travellers and their sample-books are al
ready abroad, however, and the produc-
ton OF the goods now in order is rapidly
being proceeded with. Here is a large
room fitted up with long benches, and oc-
cupied by some scores of girls of various
ages. Each girl has on one side of her
pile Of incomplete valentines, and on the
other heap OF little objects of some one
kind, which 1t is her duty to add-little
punches OF flowers or glittering notices,
or aching hearts, or breaking hearts, or
trusting hearts, or hearts transfixed by ar
rows, or 1t may be a heap of unf1edged
little CupIds. The audaciOus little god is
picked up on the point
of a gum-brush, thrust up into the bright
est of blue skies, and the sheet is passed
on ready for the next stage, each girl
usually adding only one feature to the
general design.
The poetry of valentines is a study, and
so, perhaps, would the poets be if they
could conveniently be got at. They, how
ever, are not kept on the premises, and it
is to be feared that they have not partici-
pated in the general progress OF the bust
ness; for the experience of the shop