A book is said to be _Pulped_ when it is sold at so many pence the thousand copies to the Pulpers[25] for Pulping. The transformation is effected as follows:--First the covers are thoroughly and skilfully torn off the edition by girls known as “Scalpers” or “Skinners,” and the Poems (or whatnot), after going through this first process, are shot in batches of twenty-four into a trough, which communicates by an inclined plane with open receptacles known technically as “bins.” Hence the sheets are taken out by another batch of hands known as “feeders”--for it is their duty to “feed” the marvellous machine which is the centre of the whole works. The Poems (as we may imagine them to be) are next thrown by the “feeders,” with a certain rapid and practised gesture, into a funnel-shaped receiver, where they are caught by Six Large Rows of strong Steel Teeth[26] known as the “Jaws,” which are so arranged as just barely to miss each other; these work alternatively back and forth, and reduce the hardest matter to shreds in an incredibly short time. The shreds so formed fall on to a wide endless band, which carries them on into the “bowl,” where they are converted under a continual stream of boiling water, into a kind of loose paste. Lest any trace of the original Poetic (or Prose) composition could remain to trouble the whiteness of the rapidly forming mixture, this water contains a 30% solution of Sardonic Oxide, two kilogrammes of which will bleach one thousand kilos of shredded Poems or Essays in from thirty-five to forty minutes. When the Poems or whatnot have been finally reduced to a white and formless mass, they are termed _pulp_ and this pulp is laid out into frames, to be converted once more into paper, Art, glazed, and medium. This principle of “the Conservation of Paper” or, as Lord Balton (Sir Charles Quarry) has himself called it, “the Circulation of Literature,” is naturally more developed among the Anglo-Saxon peoples than upon the Continent. The patriotic reader will be pleased to hear that whereas of existing German books barely 35% are pulped within the year, of French books not 27%, and of Italian but 15%; of our total production--which is far larger--no less than 73% are restored to their original character of useful blank paper within the year, ready to receive further impressions of Human Genius and to speed on its accelerated round the progress of Mankind. AMEN. INDEX. Abingdon, History of, by Lord Charles Gamber, see Pulping, p. 187. Action, Combination of, with Plot, Powerful Effect of in Modern Novels, see Pulping, p. 187. Advertisement, Folly and Waste of, see Pulping, p. 187. Affection, Immoderate, for our own Work, Cure of, see Pulping, p. 187. All Souls, College of, see Pulping, p. 187. Amusements of Printers and Publishers, see Pulping, p. 187. Art, Literary, Ultimate End of, see Pulping, p. 187. Astonishment of, Young Poet, see Pulping, p. 187.