CHAPTER XVIII 



PAPEB 



MOTHER .AMBROISINE called Claire. A 

 friend had just come to see her to learn about 

 an embroidery stitch that troubled her. At the re- 

 quest of Jules and Emile, however, Uncle Paul con- 

 tinued. He knew Jules would take pleasure in re- 

 peating the conversation to his sister. 



"Flax, hemp, and cotton, especially the last-named, 

 have still another use of great importance. First 

 they clothe us; then, when too ragged to use any 

 more, they serve to make paper." 



1 l Paper ! ' ' exclaimed Emile. 



"Paper, real paper, that on which we write, of 

 which we make books. The beautiful white sheets 

 of your copybooks, the leaves of a book, even the 

 costliest, gilt-edged and enriched with magnificent 

 pictures, come to us from miserable rags. 



"Despicable tatters are collected: some of them 

 are picked up from the filth of the street, some are 

 unspeakably filthy. They are sorted over, these for 

 fine paper, those for coarse. They are thoroughly 

 washed, for they IHMM! it. Now machines take them 

 ii) hand. Scissors cut them, sterl claws tear them, 

 wheels make pulp of them and reduce them to shreds. 

 M ill-stones take them and grind them still more, then 



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