336 HARPER S PRINTING-OFFICE. [CHAP, xxxix. 



operations, by two or three in Great Britain. They 

 give employment to three hundred men, manufacture 

 their own types and paper, and have a &quot; bookbindery &quot; 

 under the same roof; for, in order to get out, with 

 the utmost despatch, the, reprints of foreign works not 

 entitled to copyright, they require to be independent 

 of all aid from other traders. We were shown a fire 

 proof vault, in which stereotype plates, valued at 

 about 300,000 dollars, are deposited. In one of the 

 upper stories a long line of steam-presses was throw 

 ing off sheets of various works, and the greater 

 number were occupied with the printing of a large 

 illustrated Bible, and Morse s Geography for the use 

 of schools. In 1845, the Harpers sold two millions 

 of volumes, some of them, it is true, being only 

 styled numbers, but these often contain a reprint of 

 an entire English novel, originally published in two 

 or three volumes, at the cost of a guinea and a half, 

 the same being sold here for one or two shillings. 

 Several of Bulwer s tales are among these, 40,000 

 copies of his &quot; Last of the Barons&quot; having just issued 

 from this house. It may, indeed, be strictly said of 

 English writers in general, that they are better 

 known in America than in Europe. 



Of the best English works of fiction, published at 

 thirty-one shillings in England, and for about six 

 pence here, it is estimated that about ten times as 

 many copies are sold in the United States as in 

 Great Britain ; nor need we wonder at this, when 

 we consider that day labourers in an American vil 

 lage often purchase a novel by Scott, Bulwer, or 

 Dickens, or a popular history, such as Alison s Eu- 



