The record-union., 1895-04-17
CONGRESS NEWSPAPER
A Huge Paper That Goes to Pre-
Without Editing,

CONGRESS NEWSPAPER
A Huge Paper That Goes to Press
Without Editing.
The regular daily edition of the Record
is 5000 copies. If there be all extra de-
mand 1000 or ], 800 additional copies are
printed. The subscription price is 81 90
per month.
Each Representative is entitled without
charge to twenty copies, and each Sena-
tor TO forty copies. These copies are
mailed to whatever addresses the Iegisla-
tor may indicate, and for that purpose he
furnishes list to the Public Printer,
who mails them accordingly. II he does
not draw IN this manner all of the copies
that belong to him, those undrawn are
bound in book form at the cod of the
session and forwarded 10 him IN that
shape. In addition to this regular allow
ance, one copy is placed every morning
upon the desk of each Senator or Repre-
sentative, and another copy is delivered
at the House. The total cost of publish
.ng the Record is 5l25, ,0O0 per annum.
Uncle Sam issues every year from his
printing OltIce about LOCO 900 volumes of
various kinds of literature, at cost of
somewhat more than 81, 900, 900. These
consist largely OF reports of various de-
parLments of the Government. The total
weight of the copies printed of the last an
nual report OF the Secretary OF Agricult-
ure was sixty tons. illustrations are
furnished by contractors outside. Those
made for the Department of Agriculture,
and more particularly for the Bureau OF
EthnolOgy, are very expensive. The
cost of illustrations sometimes runs up
to 500, 900 in a single year. Money spent
in bindings mounts up TO All enormous
sum annually. For that purpose, during
the last fiscal year, were used the skins
of $4,000 sheep, $500 imported hides of
Turkish goats for morocco" and great
quantities of the pelts of other beasts, in
cluding 100000 square feet of Russia
leather, made from cowhide.
The Government Printing Office turns
out 350,O 900 blank books every year.
Some OF these are very expensive. Three
of them are made annually for Congress,
TO contain the names and addresses of
| Senators and Representatives and their
accounts with Uncle Sam, which cost 500
each. Each of them weighs eighty five
pounds and contains l,200 pages. The
paper OF which they are composed is the
finest that can be made, the quantity of it
required for the three books costing 500
Materials for the binding cost SIS. No
such blank books are manufactured any,
where else III the world as are produced
in this printing office. Nothing is too ex-
pensive to be put into them, and the let
tering on their backs is of pure gold.
| From the high cost mentioned they run
all the way down to cents apiece for re-
ceipt books, ETC., used in the depart
ments.
Because of their varying sizes and
shapes the blank books are folded by
hand. First, however, tue pages are
printed with such lettering as is required,
after which they are ruled by ingenious
machines. Hand-sewiDg is chiefly en-
ployed in the binding OF blank books and
other volumes. There are lJ5 sewers, all
of them women, and of these $50 are
hand workers. Departmental reports are
mostly sewed by machines with huge
spools of thread. They do the business
faster, but not so well. More than 900
women are employed in the shaky build
ing. Some OF them fold documents.
others feed presses, and yet others stamp
titles in gold letters upon the backs Of
books. The stamping with gold letters
is done by hand, but tor most OF the books
what is called German metal" which is
mixture of brass and lead, is considered
good enough and it is applied by ma
chimes.
woman is in charge OF all the gold-leaf
scraps, for the safety of which she is re-
sponsible. Sometimes as much as SIC. 900
worth of it accumulates in her drawer,
1t is sent finally TO the Philadelphia Mint,
together with the pieces of India rubber
employed in the process. TIE rubber be-
comes saturated with gold, and a small
chunk OF il will sometimes assay as much
as $40. 1t is a woman, also, who does the
paging of blank books. This work used
to be performed by hand, and was very
tedious, but with the aid of an ingenious
machine a single operator is now able 10
page a blank book of 600 pages in ten
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