Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-02-10

| add to the whole the dingy surroundings
| of Poverty Flat-a combination Of board
| ing houses, tumble down shanties and
vacant lots-and the picture is more
nearly complete.
Still, here Uncle Sam employs from
| 1000 to 5000 persons the year round, and
here are made the blank books used in all
the government Offices in the United
| States, not only in Washington. but in
the custom houses and postotlices from the
Atlantic to the Pacific.
Uncle Sam always does his work in the
hardest way possible, and notwithstand-
| ing the Capitol is the chief customer OF
| this great establishment the two are wide
| apart and these immense loads of docu-
ments have to be carried from one to the
other by hand, or carted in wagons.
Every one of the millions Of books which
are delivered from this Office to congress
men yearly have to be handled by three
or four men, and there are those who
think that n new government printing
Office should be erected near the Capitol,
with an underground railroad between
them and this would undoubtedly be
saving Of money
1t is said that their is great danger from
fire in this printing office, and if it should
be burned down it would almost stop the
government for time. Tons upon tons
of printed blanks, bound and unbound,
and books which are necessary for imme
diate use would be lost, and congress
would hardly be able to get force which
old do lis printing for weeks after such
& fire had occurred, and every department
wruid feel the loss for time.
ihcrc i no doubt. however but the
a. can't of printing done here might be
c1;' down, and that money might be saved
BY discriminating in the matter here
printed. As it is, every committee room
ut the Capitol the senate library and nu-
mcrous private buildings about the Capt.
tot. which have been rented for tlN pur
,.u>e are packed full of government docu-
mcnts, and down in the cellars of the
Capitol are haystacks Of printed paper, u
lew Of which are of value, and some Of
/ which correspond with the reasons Of Ora
li..lo, in that they are like 1.-TWO grains Of
wheat hid in two bushels Of chaff; you
nall seek all day ere you find them, and
',hcn you have found them they are not
Forth the search"
speaking of fire in the government
.inting Office, its force is 50 organized that
IL will be hard for the fumes to gather
npadway. There are good fire escapes at
some of the windows, and Il good supply
II water can bc turned on each floor at a
moment 5 notice from six standpipc, which
run up near the ladders. Each floor has
Il fire eXtingui-hcr, and the force is organ
ICED with captains and lieutenants An
iron tramway runs entirely around the
ljiilding, with iron cages secured by wire
ropes, to aid in conveying from the upper
windows any person who might be cut off
by fire below. Then there are canvas fire
escapes, aud not long ago bows and arrows
were kept at the building for the purpose
Of shooting life lines through the upper
: windows in case of fire. All the outside
,, doors are so hung as to open both in and
out, and in case of panic they are bound
to give way.
Under Public Printer Rounds the female
employees were organized, and they We're di-
: vided into companies of forty EACH with q
captain. In case of alarm these companies
y were to be taken out in order into the fire
. escapes, and, on trial of the system,
= rooms containing 500 women and 100 meI
were emptied in less than minute.
, a trip through the government printing
Office makes one as tired as Il three mile
walk. 1t is like travelling through bis
: museum, or trotting through one dancing
hall after another, with Il continuou:
panorama of paper, type, printers ant
machinery, until your legs are tired out
:, with walking, and your eyes tired witt
: seeing new things. Take the room where
= the patent specifications are made, anC
3 where, at times, twenty tons of type art
=, left standing, and where, each month, l!
turned out q volume as big as two O.
Webster's dictionaries. Go into the docu
: ment room, where hundreds of print
= ers, in their shirt sleeves, looking blacl
:, and almost devilish against walls of I
: glazing Whiteness, and where over thu
u cases hundreds of little golden snakes
: known as electric lamps, add to the weird
4, ness of the scene. Wade through lOon
u after room, packed high with piles o
u paper, each pile big enough almost Il
. carpet county, and wonder at thu
:. amount of brains, OF their lack, that vii
: soon be printed upon them. Go into thu
- press room, and have your ears deafenet
: with the din of many presses of all shapes
= and sizes, and look at the styles of worl
y done. Here you may see seed envelope
), as big as q visiting card, which these con
gressmen will frank to their farmer con
u stituents, and at the next press are turned
"a out the blank sheets Of government doc
: nment, with thirty-two pages to the sheet
- If you have an eye to the beauties o
!, nature you will notice that the feeders o
L these presses are women, and that SOM
!, Of them are very pretty young women
. TOO. Your soul Will rejoice III the glow o
, their cheeks and the plumpness of thei
round white arms, as they push forward
e the white paper, sheet after sheet.
:. Go next to the floor above, and thes
y J.. same sheets will be folded into book form
" by wonderful folding machines, and her
y. again pretty girls muscle directs tn
y operation. Women by hundreds are EN-
" ployed in the government printing office
), and in the binding department l notices
u that among them there were number O
Il girls of African blood. They seemed t
70 work with their white sisters withou
. clashing, though their table was off b
itself, and l noticed that many OF then
had faces of culture In the binding de
: partment l saw book sewing machines
!, some of which bound the books with wire