How Paper is Made.
The Process,
as seen at the mills of the
Whiting Paper Company.
When one visits a stationary store with intent to purchase a supply of writing paper, and in particular if you wish something for fine correspondence, the clerk will probably display certain attractive boxes containing papers put up by the Whiting Paper Company of Holyoke. Indeed, the boxes bear their name and the acorn design which is their trade-mark. Boxed stationary has been winning for itself wide favor in recent years, and when you ask for the best, the Whiting company’s papers will be found to stand among the two or three brands of the first rank, and it is the effort of the company to make them altogether pre-eminent.
You pay fifty cents, more or less, for the box of paper that you choose, and carry the package away under your arm, but do you ever think of the time, the labor, the immense capital and the complicated processes the contents of your parcel had to go through before it was packed in that neat box you found at the stationer’s? We are all familiar with the dilapidated individual who parades the city highways and byways with an odd sack over his shoulder. He moves along with a leisurely shuffle, yet with an anxious turning of the eyes this way and
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that and a frequent stopping at basement doors to interview the servants and canvass the chances of getting rags or old bottles. Then rubbish heaps and trash barrels interest him, too, and he pokes them over with the iron hook he carries and makes them yield up their treasures. We have all seen him — perhaps heard him; for he has no gentle voice, and if the city authorities do not prohibit hawking about the streets, the rasping notes of his call are not soon forgotten.
Most people see no more than this — the first step and the rudest one in the paper-making process. In Hampden county, however, there are few who have not seen the high-walled paper mills along its stream or those lining the canals of Holyoke city. A somewhat detailed account of this industry may, therefore, be supposed to have a more than ordinary interest.
A Corner of the Rag Room.
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