Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-15

The Romance Of a Trade of Great Pro-
 portIons-Informatio About an Inter
 est1nS Bustness--Quser Materials From
 Which Paper Has Been Made-Im oor-
 tant Industries of tho Trade.
 From the New York Times.l
 There is interwoven in the dry detsils of some lines of business a chain of incidents rising in interest almost to the level of TO- nance, erd of this fact the paper trade ln and about New York furnishes an excellent example. About the very beginning of the trade there is veil of mystery. No record remains of when it began, how in it's infancy it was carried on, or from where the earliest supplies were obtained. Scattered at long intervals, however, over the pages of the city's history ara quaint scraps of 1nforma- tion concerning the paper trade. Thus, for instance, it is recorded that in 1776 Thomas Loosley and Thomas Ehus. of this city, petl- tionsd the New York Provincial Congress Ito be exempted from military duty as indispen- sable to the successful pursuit of their bust, ness as paper makers,'' and in compliance
 with the petition the Congress passed reso- lution exempting the master workman and two attendants at each mill. In 17S1 the Journal of the second session of the New York Assembly could not be printed on &C., count of the scarcity of paper. In the early days of the trade the progress of manofac- ture was greatly hampered by the difficulty of getting the material. Paper was made then exclusively of rags, fragments of rope and other textile refuse, and the reader of the present day can hardly form concep- ton of the scarcity of such substances ln those days. As late as 1793 a paper mill ln Troy advertised earnest appeal to the la- dies to show their patriotism by saving rags. The same advertisement offered 3d. pound for clean white rags, 2d. for white. blue, brown, and proportionate prices for all other rags. Rags are sti l staple article of paper stock, but various other substances have haa nf greater extent. Straw, od-pulp, jute butts, and manilla are the principal of these, but the cane of the Southern forests, the dried leaves of the yellow pine, the bagasse or fbrous remains of the crushed sugar cane are among the novel substances employed l The use of novel substances however, Is by no means of recent origin in this country. I Between 1791 and 1900 Samuel Campbell, n bookseller and paper dealer of this city, and l the founder of the oldest paper house in 1 New York (now known as Campbell & Smith), l had & paper mill at Springfield, N. J., at 1 which bank-note paper was made from new l bandanna handkerchiefs. Mir. Campbell manufactured this paper for many years un | der special contract with several New York | banks The paper considered so valua- ble, and the secret of it's manufacture was so ! carefully guarded, that director to repre- 1 sent the banks remained constantly at the l mill, and with his own hands counted every | sheet produced. Previous to 1850 the pub !
 rid of the paper shavings or refuse that &C., l oumulated in the course of their business
 About that time, however, q paper maker
 named Morris, who had a mill in Cherry
 street. hit on the idea of utilizing the waste
 by making it over into new paper. At first
 the publishers were glad enough to give it
 to him for nothing, but they soon made him
 pay for it, and in 1883 the price had risen to
 1 cent per pound. At the same time the
 price of the paper made from it was 12 1,2
 cents per pound. great impetus given
 to the paper trade by the utilization of straw
 as g paper making material. The art of
 making white paper from straw first
 rendered practicable about 1850 by two
 Frenchmen, Coupler and Mellier, the latter
 of whom introduced it in England In 1852,
 and in the United States two three years l later. The manufacture of brown paper
 from straw, for wrapping purposes, originated
 at Chambersburg, Penn, more than 20 years I earlier, under circumstances worthy of rela-