[Footnote 3: From _Social Life in the Insect World_, translated by Bernard Miall, Chapter XVIII. The Century Company, New York, 1913.] [Footnote 4: This classification is now superseded; the Pea and Bee Weevils--_Bruchus pisi_ and _Bruchus lenti_--are classed as Bruchidae, in the series of Phytophaga. Most of the other weevils are classed as Curculionidae, series Rhyncophora.--(Trans.)] THE EXPOSITION OF A MANUFACTURING PROCESS MODERN PAPER-MAKING[5] _J.W. Butler Paper Company_ Though the steady march of progress and invention has given to the modern paper-maker marvelous machines by which the output is increased a thousandfold over that of the old, slow methods, he still has many of the same difficulties to overcome that confronted his predecessor. While the use of wood pulp has greatly changed the conditions as regards the cheaper grades of this staple, the ragman is to-day almost as important to the manufacturer of the higher grades as he was one hundred years ago when the saving of rags was inculcated as a domestic virtue and a patriotic duty. Methods have changed, but the material remains the same. In a complete modern mill making writing and other high-grade papers, the process begins with unsightly rags as the material from which to form the white sheets that are to receive upon their spotless polished surface the thoughts of philosophers and statesmen, the tender messages of affection, the counsels and admonitions of ministers, the decisions of grave and learned judges, and all the Wisdom of things, mysterious, divine, that Illustriously doth on paper shine, as was duly set forth in rhyme by the _Boston News Letter_ in 1769. "The bell cart will go through Boston about the end of next month," it announced, and appealed to the inhabitants of that modern seat of learning and philosophy to save their rags for the occasion, and thus encourage the industry.