Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-29
SHE HAS THE DUST.
1t is ALI Pure Gold and Belongs to Uncle
Sam, in Pretty Girls Keeping.
rhers are Seven Thousand Dollars Worth Of II
in Single Drawer in the Government
Printing Office.

the yellow stuff and notice how soft ana
agreeable to the feeling it is, while the
attendant in charge watches you care
fully and sees that you do not get away
with any OF it. 1t Is smooth TO the touch
because it is all composed of gold beater' 5
film rubbed to almost impalpable pow
der. For the same reason, too, it is ABB
solutely pure and virgin metal, twenty
four oarats fine. The drawer is in charge
of a pretty girl at the government print
ing office. Her work there is to stamp
gold lettering and characterization upon
book covers. The precious substance
comes to her in the shape of little rec
taugular sheets of foil lnexpressibly thin
laid between layers of tissue paper made
up in book form-eech book holding
TWEEN ty-four sheets. Handling them is
matter requiring great skill, though you
might not imagine it from casual in
spectiOn.
To begin with, say, the young woman
places on the table before her an ordi-
nary leather book cover. She takes
from the little gold book sheet of the
foil, not with the fingers, but catching It
M with Il pad of raw cotton. Laying
down sheet of pure yellow gold upon a
little slab, she cuts it into three pieces
with a sharp knife. She makes it smooth
by blowing gently upon it with her
breath One OF the pieces she applies to
the back of the cover where the title is 20
go: another she also puts on the back
where the name of the author is to be,
while the third biggest piece is spread
over the middle of one flap.of the cover
where an ornamental design Is wanted.
Next, after smoothing and pieces of
gold film down firmly on the leather, the
pretty girl slides the cover beneath
small press that stands on the table. In
this press, face downward, is die en-
graved in relief With the name OF the
book that is to be enclosed in the cover,
the authors name and the ornamental
design referred to. Thu die is kept
heated by gas. movement of lever
worked by hand brings the die down
upon the cover, and the raised lettering
and design burn the gold foil wherever
there is contact, so that it is made to adj
here to the leather in those spots. The
die is lifted the cover is withdrawn from
the press, and the gold is rubbed off with
a piece OF soft leather on the end of a
stick.
Wherever the die has not touched it
the film comes of readily, leaving the
lettering and the design adhering SO
closely to the leather that they could not
be removed save by hard scraping.
Finally the young woman rubs the
leather well with a chunk of burnt rub
Der, which takes off all undesired parti-
oIes, so that the ornamental pattern and
the names of book and author shine out
with beautiful clearness of outline in "a
carat gold. The whole process has taken
a good many words to describe, but 1t is
actually performed very quickly, the
covers being spread with gold, stamped
with the die and rubbed off in rapid sue
cession. Each fresh sort OF book cover
has to have new die, of course.
The operator is very careful in rubbing
off the loose gold after each stamping,
SO as to lose none of it. AS she e1er-
cises the leather tipped stick she permits
the yellow stuff to fall through crack
in the table top into the drawer beneath
in the shape of dust. 1t is allowed to
accumulate there until the drawer is
full. The drawer is quite big and deep,
and will hold $40, 900 worth of the dust.
You would not imagine it TO be any very
precious substance if you found guam
tity of 1t IN some odd place; it looks as
IN UGH like powdered tinsel as anything
else. However, it is worth $40 an ounce,
and when a drawer full is collected the
gold is forwarded to the mint in Phila-
delphia, which subjects it to assay and
sends back check for its value.
The young woman is held responsible
for the safety of the gold in the drawer;
she carries the key to it about with her
always, and nobody but herself is al
lowed access to it. There does not seem
TO be any reason why she should not slyly
pocket q small quantity of it occasionally
If she so desired, though the number of
books OF gold foil charged against her do
serve as some sort of check in the ac-
count as to the metal employed in this
way.
The burnt rubber used for the final
polishing off of the gold lettering, etc. f.,
is simply India rubber which has been
subjected to a peculiar fire process that
makes it very mRlleable and absorbent.
So remarkable is the latter quality that
chunk of it as big as three of your fingers
will take up more than Sl5 worth of gold
In its pores. When, after some mouths
OF use such a piece of burnt rubber is
loaded with all the gold 1t will comfort
ably carry, it is sent, with lot of others
In the same condition, to the mint TO be
Rsssyed.
In a room at the government printing
office, adjoining the one in which the
drawerful of gold is kept, you can see u
man putting gold titles on superb de-
partment ledgers and and such things
entirely by hand. He lays the pieces of
gold foil on the backs of the bound and
completed books, and burns the lettering
fast with little wooden handled dies that
he keeps heated in q small gas stove. 1t
requires great skill to get the title per-
fectly straight ana symmetrical, though
black silk thread is used to make pre-
iiminary lines across the gold film for q
guide. Finally the gold is rubbed off
with q leather tipped stick and with
burnt rubber, as in the other case.
Real gold Is only used in this way for
particularly fine books. Designs and let
tering of this sort for ordinary volumes
are done at the government printing
office In nearly the same manner, but
with a yellow composition called "Ger-
man metal,'' which looks very much
like the gold and is decidedly cheaper.
No trouble is taken to save the wastage
and each book cover after being stamped
by the hot die, is simply put through a
brushing machine.
THE PnCEnAI.r LINE