Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-12-10

ufacture by machinery. The paper
bag industry in America is confined
practically to less than a dozen factor
les with the biggest of them IN New
York, Boston, Baltimore, and Phiia-
dclphia. In the variety and ingenuity
of paper wrappines American manu-
facturerS can beat the world. A firm
in Chambers street sends goods by the
ton to Great Britain, France, Germany
Russia, Africa, Australia, and South
America. English manufacturers of
patent medicines, food cereals garden
: seeds, and numerous other things
send to New York for attractive con
venlent wrappings. Oysters and var
ious liquids that used to be shipped
from this city 10 the west and south
) in tin cans are now put up less expen
sively and with quite as much safety
IN paper.
The proprietor of the paper-bag fac.
tory IN Chambers street told a reporter
the Improvement In that industry
since the war and ana especially dur
ing the last i've years, was simply mar
velous 1T is possible" said he for
American manufacturers TO get out
special orders of wrappers beautifully
printed with fifteen colors, cheaper
than they could have been struck
off few years ago in plain black ink
Foreign manufacturer don't pretend
to compete with us IN handsome work
nor in invention of simple ingenious
devices. Just now the demand is for
fl at boxes TO economic space. All
these special packages are natural
evolution of the common paper bag
1t was convenience first considered,
but now appearance comes into play.
But we still turn off millions of the
plain paperbags every week. Three
millions at a time is not very large
order for a busy New York house.
But come through the factory and see
how we make them. We make our
own paper at our own mills in the
northern part of this state, said the
proprietor, "and very careful we must
be to turn out good article. Grocers
scold If their customers complain that
the bags break. We use the finest
jutte-butts we can get from Calcutta F"
In room above the rolls are stripped
of their heavy coverings and swung
behind a machine not unlike a news
paper printing press, only longer and
narrower. Seven of them were ia
motion at once making the rolls of
paper spin around with the velocity
OF so many buzz-saws and tossing off
plain paper-bags cut and folded al the
rate of two hundred q minute for each
machine.
As fast as they dropped to the trays
girls grabbed big armfuls of them and
carted them off to long tables for
sorting and tying into bundles turn
ed heads and tails" with wonderful
deftnsss. Flour bags, or any others
large enough TO require card board
bottoms in them. were hurried along
to another set of girls, armed with
mucilage brushes, Who slapped in
the strips OF cardboard in a twlnkling
gummed down the corners and LAID
them out TO dry. In another room
more girls, more tables, more gum,
and thousands on thousands Of litlle
paper bags in all sizes and shapes
practicable for use were laid in fiat
trays and stored GA racks in the dry
ing room. The visitor wondered where
all the stuff to fill them was going to
come from. Boxes and fancy wrap
pers were printed on large sheets of
cardboard, some of them as big as a
family dining table. Machinery that
was bewildering to look at cut them,
sorted them, pasted them, and turned
out the finished product faster than q
man could count
"The demand for special bags has
become so universal, SAID the manu-
facturer, that we are constantly
making new machinery to keep up
with it, They are used in every kind
of business. Even furniture, nova
days is shipped IN machine made pap
er wrappers. In New York we make
special bag to send south for ship
ping bananas back here in. Florists
are beginning TO use fancy coverings
for sending Out flowers to their pa
trons; caterers want attractive paper
boxes for sending out lunches, ice
cream, and various kinds Of confec-
tionary: photographers are using
fancy envelopes: wedding cake is sent
around to friends in fat boxes made
of enameled paper and gold bronzs /:
restaurants are beginning TO use pa
per napkins: notion stores, millinery
shops drygeods houses cigar manu-
facturers, druggists, clothing stores,
and shoe dealers all order paper bags
by the thousand. l can hardly think
of business where they are not used
unless the under takers be- an excep
ton.
I'm printing on paper wrappers we
don't use type, no matter whether
black or mixed colors are ordered. We
make our own plates ia every iastsnc-
this branch OF the business alone
keeps a large force of men continual
ly busy. Another force of mechanics
has plenty to do in repairing and adj
iusting the presses and cutting mach
ines to meet the requirements of spec
ial orders l suppose that we manu-
facture at least five hundred different
sizes and varieties of paper bags, hold
ipp auvvvhere from an Ouuce tn :.