The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-04-19
MAGNOLIA, MISSISSIPPI THURSDAY, April 10 1888

menus, ~ ihahes million volumes q
year, does itp''
About that, ] suppose-and that,
you know, is exclusive of the speeches
Of members, in pamphlet form, Of which
they send us great many to fold and
mail. y
''How manyp''
Well, all the way from one thou
sand to one million apiece z
:" One million! You don't mean to
say that any one member has sent out
a million copies of his speeches?'i
" Yes, and more than that. One
member of this Congress has sent out
a million and quarter OF his speeches. 4,
" And does the Government pay for
these million and quarter of speeches
Tor political purposes?n
..',Oh, dear, no. The gentleman has
paid nearly fifteen thousand dollars
more than his entire salary in both ses-
sions of Congress speeches alone.
The Government furnishes the envel-
opes, folds them, and sends them
through the mail We have sent off
more than five million speeches in en-
velopes. But our envelopes don't cost
much when we buy them BY the mill
ion, as we do here. We Get them at
less than dollar a thousand.n
How does he get the addresses OF
enough people to send out these speech
es in such large numbersP'i
"Well, he furnishes each member as
many as he chooses to send, and keeps
four or five clerks busy sending them
out besides.
The number Of pounds Of this mat
ter transported through the mails free
OF charge must be something enor-
mouspn
Yes it Is. It would be impossible
to estimate it, except by the general
TACT that we average hundred bags
day the year round, and that they prob
ably average one hundred and twenty
ilve pounds apiece, making some five or
six million pounds, or say twenty-five
hundred to three thousand tons, or two
hundred and fifty carloads z
And how many men do the work Of
preparing this for the people?n
Here, in the folding-room, where
the books are wrapped and addressed,
we have thirty men, beside those in the
office. But we ought to have twice the
number Then that number is small
compared with the force at the Govern
ment Printing Office, where these books
are printed. There are between 1000
and 5000 employed there. Think Of it
Enough to make good-sized town. tt
is the largest printing establishment in
the world
"What particular sections get most
of these bookspn
"Well, that is pretty difficult to an.
swer. The scientific works tend toward
New England and the Middle States,
agriculture toward the Mississippi val
ley, mining both to the far West and to
the money centers, and so on. The de-
mand, however, is quite general, and
the distribution on a very broad basis"
{ Is the range of subjects considered
by these works very wide oneph
eyes, indeed! There are, as | said
awhile ago, from two hundred to
three hundred different works. Many
of them, of course, are only inter
esting to a. few, but there is GER
tainly not citizen who would find
them all uninteresting. Take the report
OF the census, for instance; it covers not |
only the population, but every other
conceivable subject, health, wealth, ag-
riculture, mining, manufacture, trade
and many other Interesting and valua-
Bile topics. Then, there are the Consu-
lar reports, Agricultural reports, Fish
Commission reports, coast and geoditic |
a number of volumes on eth
nology, special report on diseases of |
swine, sheep husbandry, the Ethnologi- /
cal Commission's report, Powell's sur
yeys west of the Tooth meridian "a
very valuable set, finely illustrated and
full of interest), reports on mines and
mining, and on geological surveys in
the mining regions and many others,
too numerous to mention
They would make a very valuable libra
ry in themselves. ?
Thousands upon thousands of these
volumes hundreds of thousands, in
fact-still remain in the basement of
the Capitol. Some have been there
twenty years, some appear likely TO re-
main much longer. In one room were
thirty thousand volumes, in another
half as many. What fire they would
make if they should get fairly started
some day, And what world of infor-
nation they would carry if they were
among the forty million
reading people of this country. Wash
iagt0n Cor. Chicago Journal.