Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-09
FIVE MILLION A DAY
Production of Envelopes on
Contract With Government.
HARTFORD FIRM LOSES WORK
Underbid by Dayton Concern by
$4,000.
SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND DUMB
How Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet Came
to Be Sent to France to Learn
Methods Of Instructing Mutes.
SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND DUMB
BY WILLIAM z. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.

Special Correspondence OF The Star the chicago
RecOrd-Herald.
HARTFORD. July 4. 1907.
For thirty-three years the government
stamped envelopes have been made in Hart
ford by the same company in the same
shop: but now the work is to be under
taken by a new firm and the factory will
be at Dayton, Ohio. Last March. when
the bids were opened for the next four
years. the Hartford Manufacturing Com
pany found competitor. called the Mer-
camille Corporation of New York, with
capital of s3OO0O0 Of which Myron c. Tay-
lor Is president, and Mr.. Knapp secretary
and treasurer. 1t is a new concern and
was organized especially to get the en-
velope contract. The officers have no ex-
perience in the manufacture Of envelopes:
the company has to create q new plant
from the bottom. hire a force OF expe-
rienced men wherever 1t can get them. and
begin at the beginning. Its bid was $162,OW
lower than that of the Hartford company
for the business Of four years. very slight
difference considering the amount involved
and the circumstances of the case, but the
law requires that the work be given to the
lowest bidder, and 1T has been obeyed by
the post office authorities
Eight years ago there was similar sftua-
ton. A company was formed by Lou
Payn and other New York politicians ex-
pressly for the purpose of obtaining the
envelope contract. which Is supposed to be
very profitable. and Its bid was very
much below that of the Hartford Manu-
featuring Company. The latter. through
the senator's and representatives from
Massachusetts, and Connecticut. convinced
President Mckinley and several members
of his cabinet that 1t was bad policy to
take the business away from factory that
had given perfect satisfaction and turn 1t
over to men without the slightest expert
ence. Postmaster General Gary insisted
upon following the letter of the law and
giving the lowest bidders a chance, and be-
cause the President and his colleagues de-
cided otherwise he resigned. Charles
Emory Smith, who was appointed in his
place, after investigation. recommended
that the lowest bid be set aside and that
the contract be renewed with the Hartford
Manufacturing Company, which was done;
and it has been printing stamped envel-
opes ever since. 1t has also the contract
for furnishing the .'official envelopes used
by the executive departments of the gov
eminent That expires July 1. but no new
contract will be awarded because Of some
irregularity in the bids and the matter Is
hung up for the present.
Five Million a Day.
The Hartford contract includes only
stamped envelopes of the several sizes rec
ognized by the regulations. and the COM
pany will print business cards or return re-
quests up in the left-hand corner Of the
envelope as ordered. The amount Of these
envelopes used In the United States Is enor-
nous and the increase Is almost incredible.
In 1874, when the contract was first
awarded to the Hartford company, the
average output was only 100000 a day. Dur
Ing the current year the average has been
{, 600 900 day. six days in the week /
In 1896 the total number of envelopes pro-
duced here was 10000. 600: In 1905 the total
was 1.5O0O00OOO. more than double in ten
W. al frHar CD hon
averaged about IA per cent year. The
factory has capacity Of 100000 envelopes
a day. cut. printed and packed In paste
board boxes ready for shipment With the
invention Of machinery the cost of making
envelopes was reduced about 50 per cent
during the first twenty Or twenty-five years.
but recently II has gone back again almost
to the old figures on account Of the high
prices Of paper and labor. which have in
creased 80 per cent in the last four years.
Stamped envelopes with business card or
return request now cost s212O per 1000.
which Is so for the stamps and 81 20 for the
envelopes and the printing.
Work Of a Single Machine.
The work is all done by a single machine
managed by a young woman. There are $50
girls employed by the Hartford company,
who do everything except cutting the forms.
packing the envelopes for shipment and
other heavy work. which requires about
SeVenIy-Nvc men. Inc pest quality or rag
paper is required. and 1t Is especially made
at Holyoke for this contract. It comes in
cases separated In reams. and about two
carloads, or 10000 pounds. are used daily.
out ream at time-5O0 sheets-put 1t in
a cutting machine, and by the pressure of
the foot cut 800 blank forms at a time with
a die. These blanks are put into racks and
delivered at the machines fast as they
are needed. The machines were invented by
a Hartford man thirty years ago. The pat
ent has expired. SO that anybody can use
them. and the new Dayton company viii
have that advantage. Each machine turns
out about 1900 envelopes an hour The
blank forms pass through a bewildering
mass of machinery and come out bearing
the stamp and the return request gummed.
folded, counted and separated into packs Of
twenty-five ready to have Bands fastened
around them-all by one operation; and In
the meantime. the envelope Is having a de-
lightful ride upon endless chain The
girl who runs the machine, having nothing
to do but watch it, employs her time in
placing paper bands around the envelopes
and dropping them into boxes. The boxes
are made In the house by mysterious ma
chinery girl puts piece Of pasteboard
in one end of machine and a complete
paper box comes out at the other without
saying a word. 49,,
The envelope-making habit has been ac-
quired by a good many people up in this
part Of the country. Eghty-five per cent
Of all the envelopes used in the United
Springfield. Holyoke and other places in
this vicinity. The Hartford factory has the
largest capacity of any single establish
ment. Most of the stock Is owned by
Springfield people.
Young Gallaudet's Mission.
During the early years OF the nineteenth
century Lydia Sigourney. the poetess. had a
school for girls in Hartford. and among
her pupils was Alice Cogsweli. a beaut-
full child. who had lost her hearing before
she had learned to talk. One day. while
Alice was playing in the garden of her
fathers house. in Prospect street, where
the building Of the Hartford Medical So
ciety now stands. a young theological stu
dent. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. taught
her how to spell the word hat with her
fingers, according to a sign language he had
recently read about in French newspaper.
He afterward taught her other words. and
ultimately she learned to express some of
her wants in a few simple sentences. Mrs.
Sigourney also learned q few of the signs,
but, having no competent instructor. neither
she nor young Gallaudet nor Alice Cogs-
we'll was able to go any farther They
urged DR.. Cogswell to send his daughter
to London or Paris. where at that time
there were schools for the deaf and dumb.
rfl htv,oa 20 ha~