st of the French newspaper offices, but had been obviated here lately,
by the erection of a new printing-machine, which sufficed by the speed
of its working to print the given number of copies necessary for
satisfying the wants of each day.

Having seen through the premises, and witnessed all that was interesting
in the day-time, I was politely requested to return in the evening, and
see the remaining process of printing the paper and getting it ready to
send out from the office.

Punctually at eleven o'clock I was in the Rue du 24 Fevrier. Passing
through the offices which I had seen in the morning, I was led by a sort
of guide down to some passages dimly lighted with lamps. To the right
and to the left we turned, descending stone steps into the bowels of the
earth as it seemed to me; the walls oozing with slimy damp in some
parts; dry and saltpetry in others. A bundle of keys, which were
jingling in my guide's hand, made noises which reminded me of the
description of prisoners going down into the Bastile or Tower. At
another moment a sound of voices in the distance, reminded me of a scene
of desperate coiners in a cellar.

These sounds grew louder, as we soon entered a vast stone cellar, in
which rudely dressed men, half-naked as to their breasts and arms, were
to be seen flitting to and fro at the command of a superior; their long
beards and grimy faces, their short pipes and dirty appearance, made
them look more like devils than men, and I bethought me that here, at
last, I had found that real animal--the printer's devil.

There were two or three printing-presses in the room, only one of which
was going. Its rolling sound was like thunder in the cave, in which we
stood. As paper after paper flew out from the sides of this creaking
press, they were carried to a long table and piled up in heaps.

Presently some of the stoutest men shouldered a mass of those, and my
conducter and myself following them, we entered a passage which led to
another cellar, contiguous to that in which the papers were printed.
There, sitting round a number of tables, were several young women. These
women seized upon a portion of the papers brought in, and with an
amazing rapidity folded them into a small compass. In a few minutes all
the papers I had seen printed were folded and numbered off by dozens.
Then comes another operation: a man came round and deposited before each
woman a bundle of little paper slips, which I found to be the add