CHAPTER XLVI.

THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING-OFFICE

A "PUB. DOC."

HISTORY OF

Another Government Hive-The Largest Printing Establishment in the World - Judge Douglass's Villa - The Celebrated "Pub. Doc.". Making Many Books"- The Convenience of a "Frank"- The Omnipresent "Doc."- A Weariness to the Flesh- An Average "Doc." A Personal Experience What the Nation's Printing Costs "Not Worth the Paper" - A Melancholy Fact-Two Sides of the Question Invaluable "Pub. Docs."

ders

Printing a Million Money-OrThe Stereotype Foundry - A Few Figures - The Government Printing-Office - A Model Office - Aiding Human Labor-Working by Machinery - The Ink-Room-The Private Offices - Mr. Clapp's Comfortable Office-The Proof-Reading Room - The Workers There - The Compositors' Room The Women-Workers - Setting Up Her Daily Task A Quiet Spot for the Executive Printing - The Tricks and Stratagems of Correspondents A Private Press in the White House The Supreme Pride of a Congressional Printer - Rule-andFigure Work - The Executive Binding-Room-Acres of PaperSpecimens of Binding-The "Most Beautiful Binding in the World" -Specimen Copies - Binding the Surgical History of the War - The Ladies Require a Little More Air-Delicate Gold-Leaf Work - The Folding-Room An Army of Maidens The Stitching-Room - The Needles of Women - A Busy Girl at Work" Thirty Cents Apiece" Getting Used to it-The Girl Over Yonder - The Manual Labor System The Story of a "Pub. Doc." - Preparing "Copy". -"Setting Up"- Making-Up "Forms" - Reading "Proof" The Press-Room Going to Press - Folding, Stitching, and Binding - Sent Out to "the Wide, Wide World."

ETTING into the airy little Boundary car at Fif

teenth street, it soon brings us far out on II street to another busy Government hive- the largest printing establishment in the world.

THE NOTORIOUS "PUB. DOC."

521

As late as 1859, the Government Printing-Office stood upon the suburbs. "Judge Douglass's Villa" was then one of the mile-stones which marked the road thither, leading through grassy fields to the youngest faubourg of the capital. Closely-built metropolitan blocks already stretch far beyond it, and the great Public Printing-Office no longer stands on the "edge" of the city.

There is nothing so plenty in Washington, not even Congressmen, as the "Pub. Doc." We see it everywhere, and in every shape. Piles on piles of. huge unbound pamphlets, cumber and crowd the narrow lodgings of the average Congressman, waiting the superscription, and formerly the "frank," which was to convey cach one to ten thousand dear constituents. They cram every available nook, "up stairs, down stairs, and in my lady's chamber." They are patent receptacles for the dust, which defies extermination. They overflow every public archive, and, falling down and running over, demand that greater shall be builded. Thousands on thousands have no covers, and tens of thousands more are clad in purple and fine linen. The average Public Doc. is a weariness to flesh and spirit. You get tired of the sight so many, so many! And as for the knowledge which it contains, it may be of infinite value to mankind, but the pursuit of it through endless tables, reports, briefs and statements is a weariness to the soul. I have tried it and know. If I had not, you might never have known how many of these "Pub. Doc's" are printed by the Government, what for, and at what cost.

Well, I will give you a few items in figures, as they appear on the books of the office. Of all executive and miscellaneous documents and reports of Committees,

there were printed in the Government Printing-Office, last year, one thousand six hundred and twenty-five copies for the Senate, and one thousand six hundred and fifty for the House, also eight hundred and twenty-five copies of bills and resolutions for the Senate and House each.

Statement showing the cost of Public Printing done in the Government Printing-Office in the year 1872:

Tens of thousands of public documents are published here whose intrinsic value is not worth the paper they are printed on. After witnessing the manual labor expended on them, it is melancholy to reflect that, with it all, they are often less valuable than the unsullied paper would be.

While this is true of an immense number of "bills" and documents, and reports of contested election cases printed in this building, it is equally true that thousands of others are published here which are of extreme value not only to the Government but the world.

COST OF THE NATIONAL PRINTING.

523

It is through the presses of the Government PrintingHouse that the public is informed what the Government is doing for science and for philanthropy. It prints all the reports of the Smithsonian Institution; Professor Hayden's reports of yearly United States Geological Surveys, including his very interesting and valuable reports on Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and the famous Yellowstone Valley. The Medical Reports of the War; Surgeon-General Barnes' Medical and Surgical History of the War; and Chief-Medical-Purveyor Baxter's Report of the Medical Statistics of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau; Reports on the Diseases of Cattle in the United States; on Mines and Mining; Postal Code and CoastSurvey Reports; Reports of Commission of Education; of the Commissioner of the United States to the International Penitentiary Congress at London; Reports of the Government Institution for Deaf and Dumb and the Insane, etc.

These make a very small proportion of the really interesting and valuable reports issued yearly by the Gov

ernment.

When we remember that many of these works are accompanied by copious maps and illustrations, and that the processes of photolithographing, lithographing and engraving are all executed within these walls, you can form some estimate of the value of its services to the country.

The demands made upon it by each single department of the Government is immense. The Post-Office will send in a single order for the printing of one million money-orders; and the other departments cry out to have their wants supplied in the same proportion.

The Stereotype Foundry, under the same roof, long ago vindicated itself in the facts of convenience and economy. The following is a correct exhibit of the product of its labor for the year ending September 30, 1872:

Value of plates, &c., manufactured, at trade-prices, $35,371 08 Amount expended for labor and material consumed, 16,516 80

Net saving to the Government,

$18,854 28

The Government Printing-Office, from an external view, is a large, long, plain brick building of four stories, with a cupola in the centre, and flag-staffs at either end, from which the National banner floats on gala days. If we enter from II street, a large open door on the side reveals to us at once the power-press room, with its wheels and belts; its women-workers and its mighty engine. This engine of eighty-horse power, swings its giant lever to and fro, with the accuracy of a chronometer. The boiler which supplies its steam-power is placed in a separate building, so that in case of explosion the danger to human life would be lessened. This boiler also supplies steam for heating the entire main building, and for propelling a "donkey engine," which performs the more menial labor of pumping water.

This is not only the largest, but is one of the model printing-houses of the world. Its typographical arrangements are perfect, and in each department it is supplied with every appliance of ingenious and exquisite mechanism to save human muscle and to aid human labor. In the press-room, stretching before and on either side of the majestic engine, we see scores of ponderous presses, their swiftly-flying rollers moving with the perfect time of a