The Arizona sentinel., 1888-08-18
A CURIOUS HOUSE.

|
 know curious house with tw,
 doors. Into one door go cedar log
 and barrels of graphite, and out of the
 other comes an endless procession O.
 beautiful pencils, red and black, round
 and cornered, big and little, some witt
 caps of ivory or rubber, and some witt
 none.
 It isn't very long journey through
 that house, but it's very busy one
 Let us go in. The first room is the
 blackest you ever saw; it looks as i
 the whole thing had been dipped into
 ink, and if you touch the tip of youl
 finger anywhere you'll be marked
 There are two long rows of big tanks
 in which graphite and clay are being
 washed and cleaned, and there are
 pans of blackness itself, and there's a
 large tub with a wheel running around
 in it. This persevering wheel is simply
 mixing together the two substances,
 for graphite alone is too soft to use; it
 must be joined with clay, the more
 clay the harder the pencil.
 But there's an interesting thing go- ing on even in this black hole. Out of a small machine comes all the time a soft black string, and falls on board in queer-looking pile. This is a press; into the top is poured the thick, tough paste that comes out of the mixing tub, and. being squeezed more than it can bear, it is pushed out small square hole in the bottom When the board is full of yards and yards of the tangled-loOking stuff, it goes into the hands of 8 boy, who was white once though you wouldn't think it, so cov- cred are face and hands with the black of the leads he works with.
 The business of this youth is to straighten the leads, and he does it by laying the soft string across board three or four times as long as pencil, pushing it up evenly against the raised edge, and cutting it off Length after length he thus lays straight, and when the board is full it goes into a very hot room to dry.
 J ready to take up their residence in their cedar houses; but they must go through another process, or they would crumble as fast as we sharpened the pencil. When dry they are cut into pencil lengths, packed tightly into cases and baked. Now they are ready to use.
 While all this has been happening to the lead home has been prepared for it to live in. Pencil houses are made in blocks, like city houses, always six in a row. When the cedar comes into the room it is in the shape of little boards, somewhat longer than pencil, and as wide as six pencils side by side. 1 Half of the boards are nearly as thick | as pencil and the other half very thin for roofs, as you will see. First the | thicker boards go through machine | that blows six little square grooves in them, and now at last both cedar and | lead are ready to be joined for life, to wear out in useful work together.
 This happens in most disagreeable room, strong with the odor of glue, and at the hands of sticky, dreadful-look- ing girls and boys. The first girl daubs one of the clean, sweet-smelling cedar boards with hot glue, and pushes it along to the next. This girl takes in 1ne hand some leads, spreads them out ike fan, and presses six of them into the six little grooves, where they fit perfectly. Then she pushes it back to he first girl, who slaps on the roof in I second, before the glue has time to ,ool. Now it goes to boy who packs t on top of a pile in an iron frame, where it is screwd down to prevent it rom warping After another rest in he drying-room, the ends are sawed If square, and they are ready to go downstairs.
 They go by themselves; that is, they Ire placed one by one in the top of ase that reaches to the floor below, to he very jaws of a machine. As one of hese blocks touches the bottom of the ong case, finger of steel comes up ; cts of small knives, and it comes out ' he other side cut into six nice round ( encils.
 They are now perfect for use, but t hey have to be smoothed to fit them or polite society. They are polished C n droll way. A man stands before f n endless belt full of notches, and seds it, pencil to a notch all the ime The belt is moving slowly along, g nd the next moment the pencil passes nder four wooden hands with gloves S emery, which polish it of as if they l