The manner of addressing papers adopted in the WITNESS office is to print the names and addresses, with the date when the subscriptions expire, directly on the papers themselves, in red ink. This method has several disadvantages, but these are counterbalanced by the fact that when once the name is printed it can never come off, as is the case when addresses are printed on little slips of colored paper, and then pasted on. In either method the subscribers' names are first set up in columns, under their respective post-offices, these offices being arranged alphabetically for facility of reference. It will be noticed that the post-office is only printed once, and then in large heavy type, the subscribers' names following it in the column. Five of these columns, containing on an average two hundred names, are placed in a "chase" and locked up. There are altogether in the office some three hundred and fifty of these chases constantly in use. They have to be continually revised, at which from two to ten men are constantly engaged. When the mailing time comes the chase which is to be used is inked and placed in the mailing machine, which is shown in the engraving. The machine is worked by the operator's foot. A paper is put under the hammer, as shown, and the treadle being pressed the name in the chase beneath is plainly stamped on the paper. Only the first paper of each parcel has the name of the post-office as well as that of the subscriber. When all the papers going to one post-office have been stamped, they are tied in one parcel and that with the name of the post-office being uppermost, the general address of the whole is known. When the parcel arrives there it is opened, and the postmaster makes the further distribution.
Those who read this account will understand how it is that sometimes papers go astray. It would be wonderful if, out of nearly a hundred thousand names always in type at the WITNESS office, while changes are constantly being made in the lists, there were not some mistakes, and it is creditable to the system adopted by newspaper publishers that the number is comparatively so small.
As will have been observed, the type from which the WITNESS is printed when in the turtles assumes a rounded shape. Readers of that paper know that on many occasions it is embellished with wood cuts, and that wood engravings are ordinarily cut on a flat surface. They may have wondered how the difficulty is got over. In the WITNESS all the engravings are electrotyped. To perform this operation an impression of the engraving is first made in a sheet of wax by means of a powerful press. The wax is so fine and the pressure so great that the finest lines are reproduced. The wax is then blackleaded with graphite, made especially fine for the purpose, and the waxen plate is inserted in an battery in which is a strong solution of copper. In a few hours a thin film of copper, the exact counterpart of the engraving, is formed. This is laid on its face in a hot iron pan and over the back a covering of tin foil is placed to give it consistency, the heat causing it to melt and fill all the finer interstices of the engraving. Over this again is poured a "backing" of lead or type metal, which is shaved down to the exact thickness required. This is again backed with wood, to raise it to the height necessary for printing. This wood has been curved to the shape of the press and the electrotype is bent to correspond. Some papers stereotype the whole form--a shorter process, but one impracticable for an afternoon paper in editions, as, in the latter case, even fifteen minutes' delay would be more than could be spared.