Overhead is a long room where thirty girls are busily sorting the rags for the various grades of papers. That the dusting machine is no more perfect than a human machine is evinced by the murky atmosphere of this room, by the particles that lodge in the throat of the visitor, and by the frequent coughing of the sorters. They protect their hair with turbans of veiling, occasionally decorated with a bit of bright color. These turbans give the room the appearance of an industrious Turkish harem. Short, sharp scythe blades, like Turkish scimeters, gleam above all the girls' benches. When a sorter wishes to cut a rag, she pulls it across the edge of this blade, and is not obliged to hunt for a pair of shears. Curious discoveries are frequently made in the rags. Old pockets, containing small sums of money, are occasionally found. A foreign coin valued at about $3 was found a few days ago. In the paper stock, quaint and valuable old books or pictures are found often. One of the workmen has a museum composed of curiosities found amid the rags and shreds of paper. Rev. Dr. Bolles, of Massachusetts, makes an annual pilgrimage to Mechanic Falls for the sake of the rare old pamphlets, books, and engravings that he may dig out. Stuffed in hogsheads, the rags are lowered from this room through a hatchway, and are given a red hot lime bath. They are placed in ponderous cylinders of boiler iron, which revolve horizontally in great gears high above the floor. A mixture of lime and water, which has been prepared in large brick vats, is poured over them. An iron door, secured by huge bolts, is closed on them. The cylinder slowly turns around, and churns the rags in the lime-juice twelve hours. This process is called bleaching. When the rags come out they are far from white, however. They are of a uniform dirty brown hue. But the colors have lost their gripe. When the rags shall have been submitted to the grinding and washing in pure water, as we shall see them presently, they are easily whitened. The lime bath is the purgatory of the paper stock.