West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1885-02-27

oulCc the most busy place in the sity
IN the early morning.
Each congressman gets twcntv.oue
copies of the Record, and nc may have
these from day TO day. or take them i'm
the bound volumes, rs he prefers. The
congressman give their extra copies TO
libraries and friends, and not n few of
them find their way into the second
hand book stores Of Washington. whore
they can bc bought of almost any date
at irom fifty cents to one dollar per
volume.
But the printing OF the Record is bv
no means the largest part Of the work of
TINS mammoth priuting-ollicc. Its So
OVO,OOO worth of work includes all the
Government publications. and this sum
seems large, indeed, when it is remcm-
bered that in 1894, just ninety wears
ago the Government printing, "togeth-
er with the iirewood and stationery of
Congress cost only $4,000. I'm 1903
the IreSldentS message was the first
document printed, and in 1919. when
Monroe was President, each House
elected its own printer for the session
After this Congressional printers be
came the most money-makmg men i'm
Washington, Gales and Scaton each
made fortunes, aud Blair and Riyc- fol.
lowed them, entertaining handsomely
aI the Capital and owning property.
The printing of the twenty Con
gress cost 100000, and shortly after
TINS the contract system was adontcd
In loo2 the office of superintendent OF
Public Printing was created. and i'm
1876 h became an Executive instead of
a Congressional Office
II b. fp,n,--tI,1,
amount of work this department doe,
now. Ii employs four hundrcd moro
hands at present than il did i'm 1880, anl
during that year it printed 1000. .ODO
copies of pamphlets and documents.
3il,OO) blank books. and made l3I. .OOO.-
600 of blanks and envelopes One oi
its finest works in the past was its PA
ciiic Railroad reports. which cost tho
Government over SSOOOOO. and il le
getting out the "Rebe1on Record. "
which is to comprise SO volumes of 800
pages each.
To 90 through all the different rooms
of the Government Prntiug-oilicc. from
iloor % floor, makes one "a, tired as
thrce-milc walk. Ii is like going all
around one immense daucing-hall and
then trotting ON into another and SD ON
with a continuous panorama of paper,
type, printers and machinery before
You. until your le@s are worn ont with
walking and your eyes tired with seeing
new things. II walked through the
rooms where the monthly volume, as biz
as two of Wcb,ter's dictionaries, CON
tanning the patent spec hcations, is set
up, and where, at times, twenty tons of
type remain standing. | went into the
document room. where hundreds of
printers in their shirt-sleeyes, SUR
rounded by walls Of a glariug white
ness, were setting up Government re-
ports by the light of hundreds OF little
golden snakes. each known as an clcc-
tric lamp, and on into room after room
devoted TO the storage of paper. Sheet
upon sheet and ton upon ton there are
mere slowed away, enough papcI TO
cover the tracks Of all the railroads in
the country, and leave enough remain
ing to carpet Ohio and Indiana.
went into the press room, and my
cars were almost dcafcncd with the
hum OF its many presses OF all shapes
and sizes from the old Bullock to the
improved Campbell / saw them print
ng all kinds OF work i'm one room At
one press seed packages as large as a
visiting card and at another blanket
snrcts OF q Government document with
thirty-twO pages on a sheet / noticed
that all the feeders OF these presses
were women, apd some of them very
pretty young women. too They stood
mp on a landing at the head of each
press, and with their hands pushed for
ward sheet after sheet as il went into
the press. On the floor above / saw
these same sheets folded into book form
by wonderful folding machines, and
here again il was woman who operated
each machine Still higher in the bind
ing department more women were en-
ploycd at nearly all OF the machines.
and The hand sewing was done by them.
These boOk-scwing machine, put a book
together i'm % way that would astOni.h "a
country binder Some Of them bind
with wire, and others with thread. but
they do thc work many times as fast as
IL can bc done by hand, and, ! am told,
n well
In one room whore the folding and
pa-iing i- going on ] noticed that sew
oral cOiorcd girl, were among the en-
ploycs They were sitting at table by
Themselves. but whether this was
matter of their own taste or not / do
not know. washington COR. CieceloHd
Lc0dlr.