THE MAILING-ROOM
substantial and workmanlike character of the fittings, and is not the result of any effort to create an effect. Here some of the methods of the old-time printers are being employed. The only machines are the heavy hand-presses upon which occasional volumes of the Riverside Press Editions are printed, for many of these books are printed wholly by hand, and often directly from the types, and not from electrotype plates.
There is no other trade in which the traditions and tastes hark back to first principles to the extent that obtains in book-making. This is one reason why the personnel of The Riverside Press is far above the average of a factory. Here the old-time custom of apprenticeship, under which some of the world's best printers learned their trade, is still in vogue. Long service is the rule, several employees having had records of more than fifty years, while not a few others have been employed for thirty or forty years. It is not uncommon to find succeeding generations of one family represented in the different departments. Nearly every branch of the work requires a high degree of intelligence and education. A spirit of sympathy and assistance in time of trouble and distress, especially indicated by the Riverside Press Mutual Benefit Association, results in good feeling which contributes to the happiness of those con-
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