After a little more progress through press rolls and over a large number of cylinder dryers the paper becomes dry and firm. It then passes through a tank of gelatine, and the gelatine saturates the paper in a way that makes possible a perfected writing surface. Lastly the paper is delivered at the end of the machine from a revolving cutter in fast-falling sheets of the size desired. The paper then goes to the loft to dry. The sheets are hung over poles in folds of about fifteen in a "spur" or bunch, until a room is filled from floor to ceiling. Then heat is turned on, and there the paper stays for at least twenty-four hours. The product does not look very attractive as it comes from the loft. It is so wrinkled and rough that you begin to think it is a failure after all; but when it has been allowed to season, the calender girls take it and run it between the rolls of their machines, and it comes out beautifully fair and smooth.

An interesting process called "plating" is the giving to certain papers special finishes such as linen or crash. This is done by pressing the sheets of paper, usually 21 x 33 in size, between pieces of linen or crash cloth and zinc plates, alternating in regular order. First a zinc plate is laid down, on that is put a piece of cloth, then comes a sheet of paper, then a piece of cloth, then a zinc plate-and so on. When a sufficient pile has been made it is placed in a press of two steel rolls and run between them with sixty tons pressure. Thus the surface of the paper is embossed with the designs of the linen or crash textures.

All the paper has to be sorted. The sorters, as they sit at their tables, keep the sheets swiftly turning, and put the perfect sheets in one pile, the slightly imperfect in another, and the more defective in a third.

Then "counters" take the sheets, run them over rapidly, and lay them off in reams to be trimmed and wrapped for the market. The last work is that of the