NUMBER FIFTY-THREE,

AND THE LAST OF THE SERIES.

THE NEW YORK LEDGER.

Description of the Ledger establishment-Common printing-The power press-The Electrotype process-Press work-Distribution of the paper-Eighty thousand by mail-Ross & Tousey's news agency-"Ledger day" described-Immense amount of Printing annually done in the "Ledger" office-Convention for international copyright-Mode in which the establishment has been built up and general character and objects-The "Unknown Public "-Conclusion of the Mount Vernon Papers.

HAVING Occasion lately to pass a few days in New York, I availed myself of the polite invitation of the Proprietor and Editor of "the Ledger" to visit his establishment. As I had kept close company with "the Ledger" for the last twelve months, during which, with a party of about a million of readers, we have, besides shorter excursions in the neigborhood, performed together three hundred and sixty-five journeys of twenty-four thousand miles each, and, at the same time, one of five hundred millions of miles in circuit, I felt a natural curiosity to examine a little more particularly the extent and organization of the concern.

Most of my readers, I suppose, have some knowledge of the art of printing as commonly practised. They understand that the letters of the alphabet, at the end of small pieces of metal called types, are arranged for use in little square boxes, on a slanting desk, and that a workman called a "Composi

tor," having before him the writing which is to be printed, picks up these types, letter by letter, and places them in a frame, called a composing-stick, till he has got a line. A second line is formed the same way, and so on till he has set up enough for a page of a book, or a column of a newspaper. When pages enough to form a sheet, or columns enough to form two sides of a newspaper, have been thus set up, and secured in their places by an iron frame, they are put on a broad stone, and are ready to pass through the press to be printed on paper, moistened and applied to the face of the types for that purpose. Some attempts have been made to set up types by machinery, contrived like the keys of a pianoforte, but nothing of this kind, as far as I am aware, has been introduced into newspaper offices. As far as we have now gone, and in this part of the work, there is nothing particular in the "Ledger" printing office. As one paper only a week is printed, the force employed in this department is, of course, less than in offices where a paper is to be published every day. It may be remarked, however, that in addition to the persons employed in setting up the types, a considerable number find constant occupation in designing and engraving the illustrations; an entirely separate branch of the art, for which in the daily journals there is no occasion.

Thus far, then, every thing is done by hand. At this stage of the work a piece of machinery contrived about thirty years ago, and a chemical process of still more recent invention are introduced to accelerate the printing of papers of extensive circulation. The machinery to which I allude, is the power press; the chemical operation is the process of electrotyping. Till about thirty years ago, printing presses were wrought exclusively by hand, and the operation was one requiring great endurance and strength, on the part of an able-bodied man. Presses of this kind have been superseded, except in small establishments, by presses moved by steam, heated air, or water power. These presses are of various construction and efficien

cy; the most celebrated being those of our countryman Hoe at New York, of which also there are different kinds; some called the "lightning presses," used in the offices of the great daily journals, where the utmost speed is necessary, and others of which the execution is less rapid, and which for that reason admit of greater precision and finish in the work. The "Ledger" is printed on presses of this description, of which ten are kept constantly at work twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, in printing each number of the "Ledger." In other words, so large is the number of the weekly issue, that it becomes necessary to print at the same time five editions of the paper.

And how are these five editions got ready for the press? Are the types set up that number of times? Such would have been the case some years ago, if papers of such vast circulation had existed, but by the process of electrotyping this labor is saved. This is a process, by which an exact copy of the page of types can be taken in copper, that being the metal used by printers; though silver and gold are electrotyped in the fine arts, for expensive works of taste and luxury. In electrotyping for the printing office, an impression in wax is taken of the page of types, which is to be multiplied. This waxen plate is immersed for twelve hours in a solution of copper in a galvanic trough. At the end of this time, the face of the waxen page is covered with a thin coating of copper. The wax is then removed by hot water, and melted type metal poured upon the copper net work. The back of the type metal is then smoothed off, and the electrotype plate is ready for use. This operation is repeated as many times as is required to furnish plates for all the presses; and as many persons are employed in electrotyping as in setting the types. From this statement the reader perceives, that every page of "the Ledger," to which he looks for his weekly comfort and delight, has, between the pen of the writer and the eye of the reader, passed through four states, and existed in four different

forms and substances, viz.: the first setting in type, the waxen impression, the electrotyped copper and the printed paper. How much science, art, and mechanical dexterity are developed in these several operations!

Now, gentle reader, if you will take your Ledger, before it is cut, and unfold it, you will find that it is printed on one large sheet, and that pages 1, 4, 5, and 8 are on one side of the sheet, and pages 2, 3, 6, and 7 on the other. This you will think an odd arrangement; but when the sheet is folded you see it comes right, and the pages follow in proper order. These eight pages are made up for the Press in two " forms," of four pages each, which are separately printed, so that each sheet has to pass through the press twice. Great care is required in printing the second side of the paper, to lay the sheet in the right place, so that the two sides of the paper shall exactly match. In the "lightning presses," in conscquence of the rapidity with which they are worked, this point, which is of great importance, if the papers are to be bound in a volume, is apt to be neglected. But I never saw "bad register," as this defect is called, in a sheet of the "Ledger." When the electrotype plates are ready, those of pages 1, 4, 5, and 8 are placed together ("locked up ") in one form, and pages 2, 3, 6, and 7 in another, and they are now ready to be put to press.

It would be in vain to attempt to describe a power press. In order to understand its construction and operation, you must go and see it. According to their construction, they throw off from 500 to 20,000 sheets in one hour. Mr. Bonner has eight power presses constantly at work, and about fortyfive persons are employed in his press-room, whose aggregate wages are four hundred dollars per week. Besides this, he pays about two hundred dollars per week for printing, which he is unable to do on his own presses. A good deal of this outside work is in printing back numbers of the "Ledger;

for it is perhaps peculiar to this journal that there is a large and steady demand for back numbers.

When both sides of the paper have passed through the press, that Number of the "Ledger" is printed. To bring about this result, it has required from eight to nine hundred. reams of paper every week, at a cost probably of six and a half dollars per ream, for you observe "the Ledger" is printed on very handsome paper. If six and a half dollars a ream be assumed as the average cost of the paper, the amount for eight hundred and fifty reams per week will not fall much short of three hundred thousand dollars per annum.

The journal thus printed, to the number of about Four Hundred Thousand copies, is to be distributed about the Union. How is this effected? The main supply of the country is through the medium of news-agents, and large dealers, in all the principal cities, towns, and considerable villages of the United States. These receive the paper from New York in large packages, as will presently be stated, and furnish it in detail to their customers. But beyond the reach of the news-agents, there are a multitude of persons, readers of the "Ledger," scattered over the country; who, not having any wholesale dealer in their neighbourhood, address themselves by letter to the proprietor in New York, and receive their papers by mail. About twenty-five clerks and folders are employed in the office in Ann Street in folding and mailing papers for this class of subscribers, to the number of Eighty thousand!

But the principal distribution of the paper takes place at the news agency of Messrs. Ross & Tousey in Nassau Street, who purchase weekly of the Proprietor above Three Hundred Thousand of the paper, which they furnish to all parts of the country in large parcels, by Express and Mail, to the wholesale dealers in the city of New York, and in every part of the Union, and to the news-venders for the retail circulation of the city and neighborhood. Messrs. Ross & Tousey deal exten