are foot of space. This was not
entirely necessary but it was done as a precaution against accident.
Sometimes the mammoth rolls of paper fed into the presses fall when
being hoisted into place and drop with a crash. If the floor were not
strong the whole fifteen hundred pounds might go through and carry
everything with it. The builders wished to be prepared for an emergency
of this sort."

"They were wise."

"They could take no chances," said Mr. Hawley gravely. "The cellars, you
see, run five stories below ground. They had to dig down, down, down to
get the room they needed. The disadvantage of this is that all materials
and all the printed papers as well have to be hoisted to and from the
ground floor, and air and water must be pumped from the street level.
Nevertheless, that this can be done has been proved. The questions of
heating and ventilation are the most serious ones, for in the press
rooms the thermometer cannot be permitted to vary more than a few
degrees, either in winter or summer; any marked difference in
temperature instantly affects the flow of the ink, causing no end of
trouble. For that reason we have fans and all sorts of mechanical
contrivances to keep the rooms at the desired heat."

"I should think you had conquered almost every imaginable difficulty,"
Mr. Wright remarked.

"Pretty nearly," returned Mr. Hawley good-naturedly.

They had now reached the lowest floor and the press rooms were a whir of
noise and clatter. As the three entered, the hum of the machinery
rendered further speech impossible.

Paul gazed up at the presses that towered high above his head.

There was the mighty machine and there were the hurrying workers,
walking about it; some stood on the cement floor, and others moved here
and there along the small swinging platforms that circled the upper part
of the leviathan. In mid-air, held by mighty chains, hung the rolls of
blank paper that were soon to be transformed into newspapers. As the
vast spools of unprinted material were reeled off, the ribbons of
whiteness passed like a spider's web in and out the turning wheels, and
as they moved over the inked cylinders that printed them on both sides,
the happenings of the world were recorded with lightning speed. In the
meantime into the racks below were constantly dropping papers neatly
folded,--papers that were finished and had each section arranged in its
proper place; and to Paul's amazement an automatic machine counted th