Another Government Hive—The Largest Printing Establishment in the World—Judge Douglass’s Villa—The Celebrated “Pub. Doc.”—“Making Many Books”—The Convenience of a “Frank”—The Omnipresent “Doc.”—A Weariness to the Flesh—An Average “Doc.”—A Personal Experience—What the Nation’s Printing Costs—“Not Worth the Paper”—A Melancholy Fact—Two Sides of the Question—Invaluable “Pub. Docs.”—Printing a Million Money-Orders—The Stereotype Foundry—A Few Figures—The Government Printing-Office—A Model Office—Aiding Human Labor—Working by Machinery—The Ink-Room—The Private Offices—Mr. Clapp’s Comfortable Office—The Proof-Reading Room—The Workers There—The Compositors’ Room—The Women-Workers—Setting Up Her Daily Task—A Quiet Spot for the Executive Printing—The Tricks and Stratagems of Correspondents—A Private Press in the White House—The Supreme Pride of a Congressional Printer—Rule-and-Figure Work—The Executive Binding-Room—Acres of Paper—Specimens of Binding—The “Most Beautiful Binding in the World”—Specimen Copies—Binding the Surgical History of the War—The Ladies Require a Little More Air—Delicate Gold-Leaf Work—The Folding-Room—An Army of Maidens—The Stitching-Room—The Needles of Women—A Busy Girl at Work—“Thirty Cents Apiece” Getting Used to it—The Girl Over Yonder—The Manual Labor System—The Story of a “Pub. Doc.”—Preparing “Copy”—“Setting Up”—Making-Up “Forms”—Reading “Proof”—The Press-Room—Going to Press—Folding, Stitching, and Binding—Sent Out to “the Wide, Wide World.”

Getting into the airy little Boundary car at Fifteenth street, it soon brings us far out on H street to another busy Government hive—the largest printing establishment in the world.

As late as 1859, the Government Printing-Office stood upon the suburbs. “Judge Douglass’s Villa” was then one of the mile-stones which marked the road thither, leading through grassy fields to the youngest faubourg of the capital. Closely-built metropolitan blocks already stretch far beyond it, and the great Public Printing-Office no longer stands on the “edge” of the city.

There is nothing so plenty in Washington, not even Congressmen, as the “Pub. Doc.” We see it everywhere, and in every shape. Piles on piles of huge unbound pamphlets, cumber and crowd the narrow lodgings of the average Congressman, waiting the superscription, and formerly the “frank,” which was to convey each one to ten thousand dear constituents. They cram every available nook, “up stairs, down stairs, and in my lady’s chamber.” They are patent receptacles for the dust, which defies extermination. They overflow every public archive, and, falling down and running over, demand that greater shall be builded. Thousands on thousands have no covers, and tens of thousands more are clad in purple and fine linen. The average Public Doc. is a weariness to flesh and spirit. You get tired of the sight—so many, so many! And as for the knowledge which it contains, it may be of infinite value to mankind, but the pursuit of it through endless tables, reports, briefs and statements is a weariness to the soul. I have tried it and know. If I had not, you might never have known how many of these “Pub. Doc’s” are printed by the Government, what for, and at what cost.

Well, I will give you a few items in figures, as they appear on the books of the office. Of all executive and miscellaneous documents and reports of Committees, there were printed in the Government Printing-Office, last year, one thousand six hundred and twenty-five copies for the Senate, and one thousand six hundred and fifty for the House, also eight hundred and twenty-five copies of bills and resolutions for the Senate and House each.

Statement showing the cost of Public Printing done in the Government Printing-Office in the year 1872:

Printing and PaperTotal costBlankAggregate
Department.for same.ofbooks,cost of
printingbinding,printing,
PrintingPaper.andruling,paper
paper.etc.and binding.
State Department$8,445 45$4,244 40$12,689 85$11,416 55$24,106 40
Treasury Department141,933 1765,809 27207,742 44115,119 06322,861 50
Interior Department128,414 5337,593 76166,008 2959,789 71225,798 00
War Department45,171 6929,049 8374,221 5268,184 57142,406 09
Navy Department52,156 7712,302 9564,459 7223,541 6888,001 40
Judiciary Department38,303 021,219 3739,522 392,951 0242,473 41
Post-Office Department81,301 6346,817 28128,118 9139,247 44167,366 35
Department of Agriculture9,828 297,599 7717,428 064,362 3921,790 45
Office of Congressional Printer1,077 43135 541,212 97290 451,503 42
Total506,631 98204,772 17711,404 15324,902 871,036,307 02

Tens of thousands of public documents are published here whose intrinsic value is not worth the paper they are printed on. After witnessing the manual labor expended on them, it is melancholy to reflect that, with it all, they are often less valuable than the unsullied paper would be.

While this is true of an immense number of “bills” and documents, and reports of contested election cases printed in this building, it is equally true that thousands of others are published here which are of extreme value not only to the Government but the world.

It is through the presses of the Government Printing-House that the public is informed what the Government is doing for science and for philanthropy. It prints all the reports of the Smithsonian Institution; Professor Hayden’s reports of yearly United States Geological Surveys, including his very interesting and valuable reports on Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and the famous Yellowstone Valley. The Medical Reports of the War; Surgeon-General Barnes’ Medical and Surgical History of the War; and Chief-Medical-Purveyor Baxter’s Report of the Medical Statistics of the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau; Reports on the Diseases of Cattle in the United States; on Mines and Mining; Postal Code and Coast-Survey Reports; Reports of Commission of Education; of the Commissioner of the United States to the International Penitentiary Congress at London; Reports of the Government Institution for Deaf and Dumb and the Insane, etc.