The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-14
IN THE GOSsIP'S CORNER.


A crimp in a piece of paper!
1t is a very small thing TO contemplate.
yet there is great industry based on it,
and Indiana has one of the three or four
large factories whose life and prosperity
depend on the corrugations put in pieces
of strawboard. The other day, in Ander-
son, 1 was taken through the great plant
of the j. w. Septon Manufacturing Com
pany by Mr.. j. T. Ferris, the resident man
ager, who also is the designer and patentee
of the special machinery which makes the
corrugated paper and then turns it into
boxes, cartons for single bottles, racks for
dozens of bottles and all the other things
for which, in no more than half decade,
so great a demand has arisen. The great
machines take two strips of perfectly
smooth strawboard. One of them passes
over pair of fluted rolls that put in the
"crimp." The other passes over steel
knife that distributes, thinly and smoothly,
a layer of paste. The two sheets then are
pressed together and come out In what is
known as single-faced boxing. Double
faced boxing is made the same way, except
that two sheets are pasted instead of one.
and the corrugated paper lies between
the two, both faces being smooth. Other
machines take these sheets and cut them
into curious shapes; deft-fingered girls bend
them into their respective forms and apply
the outer covering of thin paper, and as
they work great piles Of cartons and boxes
spread themselves over the floors, to be
later boxed and shipped to all parts of the
world. In the plain cardboard or straw
board department, millions of boxes are
I4 he tsv,f0
pill and tablet boxes to milliners' hat boxes
and those long and deep receptacles dear
to the heart of the society damsel with
fondness for American Beauties with stems
four feet long.
In the woodworking department there
are remorseless machines that take eigh-
teen-inch sections of logs fifteen to eighteen
inches in diameter and with single keen
bladed knife cut off single shaving a six
teenth of an inch thick, that starts at the
outer circumference and finishes at the
heart. Sometimes it is a hundred or more
feet long. Yet other machines take these
strips and cut them into curious shapes,
out Of which girls with their hands swathed
in cotton bandages construct racks to hold
from a dozen to two dozen bottles. When
these are finished they are sent away to the
drying room, and when they are dried no
one section of the rack can be destroyed
or taken apart without breaking the in
closing strips of wood.
The plant covers several acres of ground
but 1t is not the largest Of the three or
four there are in this country 1t was
founded twelve years ago and for six years
its chief output was butter dishes. Locally
1T is known "the butter dish.' Six
years ago it began the manufacture and
utilization of corrugated paper. Addition
after addition has been made to the plant
and another great building will be erected
within another year. More than ESQ per-
sons. mostly girls who earn from 50 to sl2
weekly, are employed. and the output is in
excess of six carloads daily, which are
distributed to all parts of the world Dur
ing the past year $500 was expended on
heating plant and 5000 on a fire appara-
tus, which is expected to pay for itself In
savings in insurance premiums in about
three years. AS nearly all the machinery
is specially built from designs by Mr.. Fer
ris the company has it's own machine
shop, with a considerable force of COM
petent and high-priced workmen. Most of
the stock is held in Chicago, but Governor
Durbin-"Taylor Durbin' they call him
there-owns a large block and is vice pres
ident of the company.
Everywhere in Eastern Indiana / saw the
finest corn l have ever seen. Farmers and
grain buyers tell me that such a corn crop
was never known. This is especially true
in Rush county. One Democrat gravely as
sured me that on the strength of IL his
party would carry the county this fall, be-
cause it makes too much prosperity" But
there was a twinkle in his eye that belied
his words. Few Democrats in the counties
l visited have any hope of making
material gains A few are hopeful
that the irregularities discovered i'm
the Rush county books can be turned
to account, but most of them concede
that they will be mere irregularities and
not intentional or criminal discrepancies.
Marion county is regarded as hopeless, so
far as the Democracy is concerned, and
most of them. after expressing this belief,
conclude with brief and fervent objurga-
| ton to ex-Mayor Taggart. The Bryan ele-
ment is strong. Several Democrats OF
prominence, locally, in different vicinites.
assured me that Bryan was the greatest
man in the country to-day. "Of course We
stand by the State platform, but -
IF Roosevelt goes on as he is" said one
| Rush county Democratic committeeman,
keeps up his work against the trusts and
| doesn't make any breaks. all hell can't
| stop him in 1901"
Rush county has a magnificent court
house and model jail. Sheriff Bainbridge
| took me through the Jail on Sunday In
my newspaper experience / have visited
probably forty TO fifty jails. half dozen
| or more of penitentiaries and numerous
asylums, homes and other public in
situations OF that nature. The Rush county
| Jail is the first of them all in which that
peculiar. indefinable odor half disinfectant
| half unsanitary, was not noticeable. The
air was as fresh and sweet In any
parlor In Indianapolis.
| I saw Rolla Clingman. slayer Of Stewart
| Miller. He Is a not unpleasant appearing
| fellow, somewhere from forty to forty-hvs
years apparently. unlettered and evidently
too ignorant to appreciate the seriousness
Of his position. His head Is or the precise
! shape that have noticed in every murder