ese
as they came from the press.

Whenever a certain number of papers were counted out a man came forward,
hoisted the lot to his shoulder and disappeared into the elevator with
it; or handed it to some one whose it duty it was to load it on to a
truck, carry it upstairs, and put it into one of the myriad wagons that
waited at the curb for its load. As fast as these wagons were filled
they dashed off, bearing the Sunday editions to railway stations for
shipping, or to distributing centers throughout the city; others had
wrappers put on them and were dispatched to the mailing department to be
addressed and forwarded to patrons who lived out of town.

"Some business, eh, Paul?" said Mr. Wright.

"You bet it is!"

"About one third of all the wood-pulp paper produced in America goes
into newspapers and periodicals," Mr. Hawley managed to shout above the
uproar of the whirling wheels. "That is where so many of our spruce,
poplar, and hemlock trees go. Telephone books, telephone blanks,
transfers for electric cars, city directories, play bills, consume a lot
of paper; then in addition to the papers printed in English there are in
America papers printed in fifty different foreign languages."

"I don't wonder there was a shortage of paper during the war," stammered
Paul.

"It hit us pretty close," Mr. Hawley owned. "Our Sunday editions had to
be curtailed a good deal, and many of the monthly publications were put
out of business entirely by the high cost of paper. The monthly magazine
is, you know, a great seller in rural communities. A newspaper is
usually a local affair; but the monthly circulates all over the country
and is not by any means confined to the district in which it is
published."

"It makes a nice lot of work for the Post Office Department," put in Mr.
Wright jestingly.

"Yes, it does," agreed Mr. Hawley.

"I suppose book publishing and music publishing take more paper," mused
Paul.

"Yes. The printing of music is an expensive and fussy piece of work,
too. It must be accurately done, and done by men who are experienced in
that special kind of work. One misprint will cause a discord and throw
the music out of sale. Of course if a song turns out to be popular, a
small fortune is often reaped from it; but if it is not, the cost of
getting it out is so great that little is netted by the publishers."

They moved on into another room where it was more quiet, leaving the hum
of the presses behind them.