St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-01-15
OUR BOSTON LETTER.
A Visit to the Office of The Youths Companion.

A Visit to the Office of The Youths Companion.
Correspondence of THE CALEDoNIAN'1
At the corner of Columbus avenue and
Berkeley street, Boston, stands new,
large and imposing structure, which nat
urally arrests the attention of stranger.
1t is the home and Office of that we'll
known paper, The Youths Companion.
The first impression isofa most agreeable
character, owing to the mellow, subdued
coloring of the whole building The red
sandstone of the lower portion and the
reddish cream brick of that above, almost
imperceptibly blend from one shade into
another although the red sandstone sets
off to good advantage the lighter bricks
above. which are made OF two or three
kinds of clay, giving it that peculiar
shade and the 426 different patterns are
each made from models prepared by
Boston firm. AS we stepped into the
great atchway of the two-storied en-
trance, we observed the coffered ceiling
above, made to resemble the Parthenon
at Rome. We noticed the Tennessee
marble which lined the walls and stair
WAYS and is so much usedin the new con-
gressional library building at Washing
ton. We went into the large room on
our right to find the bureau of inlorma-
ton, which proved to be the counting
room, where young ladies were busily
employed in making out subscription
lists for various parts of the country;
each one seemed to have charge of some
particular state. Another very import.
ant part of the business is the matter of
advertisements, which bring in such a
large revenue to the paper, SO it can be
furnished to subscribers at the present
low rate. In one corner of the room was
the private office of the proprietor.
A very affable, intelligent, gray-haired
gentleman now presented himself and
informed us that he was ready for his
hourly trip over and around the building.
A promiscuous company OF men, women
and boys preceded our gentlemanly con-
ductor into an elevator. We paused at
the second story to look down the long
corridor and balcony into the interior
and entered the premium department,
where there were many clerks, and we
realized what an important feature this
is in the success of this paper when we
saw the voluminous correspondence, files
of letters, and later the specimens OF
many OF the premiums in the storage
rooms on the fourth floor. The variety
of premiums is simply wonderful. We
almost felt that we were in an annex to
the patent Office at Washington. The
mailing and folding rooms occupy the
third floor and are exceedingly interest
ing, for here method seems to be reduced
to science, and the painstakng care OF
details prevents any mistakes that are
liable to arise, or they can readily trace
any error to the right clerk Our atten.
ton was called to the twelve mailing ma.
chimes with the subscribers names either
printed upon the margin of the papers
with the date of expiration, or else to
Others covered with wrappers, which
might be sent singly to towns and states
in the West sparsely populated and few
copies of the paper were taken. Great
canvas sacks had printed upon them the
names of the states which were taker
up alphabetically, and shipped to
their destinations, Every clerk had hei
own special work for which she was re
sponsible, whether OF towns or states
Our guide informed us that the typ,
alone OF the $50, 900 subscribers name:
weighed 40 tons. The IA automati,
inger-folding machines seemed very
curious and remarkable, the papers being
lifted up from the table aud folded b,
knives and then were automatically
counted 1t scarcely seems credible
that they fold over 100000 papers ;
day. Then there were clerks operating
the 10 stitching machines, tacking tn,
double numbers lightly together, Tn,
fifth floor is the top one and was ou
place OF destination. Here are IL room,
for the 80 persons who compose tn,
editorial staff OF the paper and the type
writer's and proof readers. Each edito
has his own appointed work, some read
ing new manuscripts, others reviewing
those accepted tor publication, while {
few are devising new plans and ideas
Our leader again volunteered the remark