aught and laid
in place by two boys or girls who sit at a table just below. So complete
and perfect is the machinery that, in addition to the two boys, only one
man is needed in the room, and he only to watch lest either of the
machines gets out of order, or lest the paper should accidentally break.

It is quite fascinating to watch the thin pulp as it gradually becomes
strong paper, and Katie one day overheard a gentleman visitor, to whom
Mr. James was explaining the process, say something that she never
forgot:--

"It makes me think of God's way of dealing with human souls. He takes
them, polluted and sinful, from the gutters and the slums of life, cuts
and fashions them till they are in a condition to be used; then washes
out their stains by his precious blood, grinds, moulds, dissolves, and
manipulates them, till they come out pure, innocent, white paper, on
which he can write just what he pleases."

"Yes," said Mr. James. "I have often thought out that analogy, but you
have not yet seen the whole process. No saint is completed till he has
gone through the polishing and finishing of his life and character. You
will see how we polish and finish our paper in the next room."

In the next room were great steel rollers, at each of which two women
were employed, as this work was generally considered too hard and
steady, as well as too particular, for the girls and boys. One of these
women places a sheet of paper between the rollers at the top; the engine
turns them, carrying the paper round and round between them, and the
other woman takes it out at the bottom, beautifully polished by the
pressure.

It is then carried in great piles to the ruling-machines, which stand at
the other end of the room, and there other girls and women act as
"feeders" and "tenders." The sheets are carried under upright,
stationary pens, filled with blue or red ink, and ruled first on one
side and then on the other, the machine never letting go of the sheets
till the ruling is perfectly dry.

The paper is now finished, but it must be prepared for being taken away
and sold; so great piles of it are placed on barrows, and it is carried
by the "lift" down to the lowest room of all, called the "folding-room,"
and this is a very gay, busy scene.

Multitudes of girls are at work here, and everything is so clean that no
checked aprons or mob-caps are needed. Some of them count out the paper,
first into quires, and then into reams and half-reams