I Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said " Sver'tbing comes t' him who waits Except a loaned book." 1 THE GREATEST PUBLISHING HOUSE IN THE WORLD THE GREATEST PUBLISHING HOUSE IN THE WORLD FIFTY years ago, the firm of Street & Smith occupied a small building on Frankfort Street and issued one pub- lication — the New York Weekly. Today, besides this publication, the firm publishes three magazines with a com- bined circulation of 700,000 copies monthly. A growth of this kind fur- nishes the be£t proof as to the wisdom of the policy pursued by the firm. Ainslee's Magazine, the Popular Magazine, and Smith's Magazine each occupy their individual spheres, and are far in the lead of any other magazine of similar purport. To the advertiser who invents his money in these magazines, the solidity and strength of the house backing them is of tremendous importance. It is a guarantee that the policy of the pub- lication, which induced him to invent his money in advertising space, will be carried out, and that the cumulative value of his advertising will be assured. Amslee's, 11 the magazine that enter- tains," with its circulation of 250,000 copies at fifteen cents a copy, makes its appeal to the man or woman who is carefully discriminating in taste. It con- tains nothing but fiction, and represents the very best of contemporary literature. Mrs. Edith Wharton, Lloyd Osborne, O. Henry, Edgar Saltus, and many other writers, equally prominent, have pre- sented the best of their recent work to the American public through the medium of Ainslee's. Ainslee's is a magazine that appeals to the critical and it has won their unqualified approval. The Popular, another unillustrated fiction magazine, offers each month the biggest collection of adventure fiction possible to secure at that price. Rider Haggard, Cutcliffe Hyne, T. Jenkins Hains, Louis Tracy, — all the writers of adventure fiction who have won the at- tention of the English-speaking public are regular contributors. It contains 1 94 pages of short stories, novelettes, and serials. Its circulation of over three hun- dred thousand is composed of people who want The Popular as regularly as they want their meals. "Smith's," the youngest of the three magazines, is probably broader and more catholic in its appeal than any magazine ever issued. It is a ten cent magazine, Editorial Offices and yet it is the biggest illustrated maga- zine in the market today. It is the only illustrated magazine issued by the firm, and the extraordinary mechanical re- sources at the command of the publishers enable them to make it stronger pictori- ally than any other mon thly. It carries each month a series of half-tone art studies impossible to duplicate elsewhere. Smith's makes an especial appeal to the feminine. During the past year it has been building up a fashion department of actual practical value, and in each number there are special articles on sub- jects interesting to women. The articles on public questions contributed by such men as Governor Folk, Governor Hoch, of Kansas, and Tom Johnson ; the serials, by writers like Charles Garvice and Mrs. Georgie Sheldon; the short stories, by Edwin L. Sabin, Holman F. Day, and authors of that class — all combine to make Smith's a magazine of a size and breadth never before attempted. Smith's is a magazine that will go from hand to hand through a whole family, every member finding in it something of per- sonal interest. Its present circulation of 1 50,000 is only a small percentage of the army of readers it will attain within the next year or so. The new Street & Smith building, the most complete plant of its kind in the world, is solid and substantial and typical of the firm itself. In outward appearance it is simple in architectural treatment, yet showing how cleverly plain bricks can be put together to form an imposing structure. To produce the vast quantity of read- ing matter represented by the Street & Smith publications, and at popular prices, Advertising Department and Art Department requires mechanical facilities of an ex- ceptional order. To utilize them to the best advantage necessitated housing them in the most adequate manner. Hence the architects were told not to spare ex- pense if utility could be secured. How well these instructions were carried out may be gained from the fact that the total cost of the building could have been lessened by $ 1 00,000 with- out appreciably diminishing its useful- ness. That, however, was not according to the Street & Smith standard. From the top to the bottom of this great build- ing, as in every department of the concern itself, thoroughness must prevail. Those who observe the steel frame- work as it was being erected marvelled at the massiveness of the beams and girders, and marvelled still more at the bracings and cross-bracings; and yet their Treasurer's Office — Office for our Out of Town Friends A Corner in the Linotype Room wonder increases when, on a tour through the completed building, they are informed that great rotary printing-presses on the second floor are working night and day, that a monster bindery is in operation on the fourth floor, and that linotype ma- chines and a large electrotyping foundry are actively engaged on the seventh floor, for never a vibration is felt, nor sound is heard, except where the work is being performed. A tour of this remarkable building is an education in itself. In general modern practice the strength of steel con- struction is supposed to lie in the frame- work, while the walls are merely erected for the purpose of keeping out draughts; in the Street & Smith building the solid brick walls are themselves designed to carry weight as though the very founda- tion of the building had been built up from floor to floor. The entrance to this model plant is on the Seventh Avenue side of the build- ing, where, through a portal of granite columns supporting an entablature bear- ing the firm's name and striking in its simplicity, the passenger elevators and the stairways are reached down a wide corridor finished in dark metal and white tiling. The visitor is first conducted to the sixth floor where, far above the roar of the street, the general and executive offices of the establishment are maintained. Here one is struck with another feature of the building's construction, of vast im- portance to those who pass so many of their days within it, namely, the large plate-glass windows making it possible to secure the maximum of daylight and fresh air. The reception room is plainly but comfortably furnished in quartered oak, matching the partitions and wood-work, which are of the same material through- out; and the doors with their small dia- mond panes of bevelled glass indicate how artistic use can be made of simple materials. This room occupies the cen- tral portion of the floor space and around it is a passage from which open the vari- ous private offices of the members of the firm, the executive officers, the editorial rooms, and the art departments, besides the offices of the accountants and other clerical force. Naturally a tour of the building be- gins at this point, and properly enough the seventh or top floor must next be visited, for here are the composing-rooms with their long rows of typesetting ma- chines — the machine of all others that is "almost human." Just beyond is the A Section of the Pressroom — A Magazine Press electrotyping foundry, one of the most complete in the city, where the type is cast into page plates, shaped, and made ready for the great cylinder presses be- low. One with the slightest love for machinery — and who has not felt its fas- cination — would linger long on this floor among these wonder workers ; but there is much more to see and the allotment of time is all too soon expended. Making one's way down to the fifth floor by the iron stairway on the farther side, a glimpse is caught of the huge freight elevators, seven feet square, and each capable of lifting a New York Cen- tral locomotive. Two interesting sights are to be met on the fifth floor : one is the paper stock, roll upon roll and tier upon tier. There are constantly stored here $70,000 worth of paper — as much as is carried by the ordinary warehouse, but which is all needed to feed the hungry presses downstairs. If all this paper were piled up on the promenade of the Brooklyn Bridge as it is here, it would reach from tower to tower. If the rolls were un- wound and the flat sheets placed end to end it would reach from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. The visitor, unacquainted with such things, wonders how these rolls of paper, weighing hundreds of pounds each, are placed one atop of another clear to the ceiling until, upon turning a corner he stumbles across a "tiering" machine or portable hand elevator, by means of which one man can lift a roll of paper to a height of ten feet. The other interesting feature of this floor is the stack after stack of back numbers all in orderly, yet wonderfully simple arrangement ; none of the Street & Smith publications are ever out of print, and if one should ask, say, for the New York Weekly of Christmas, 1 855, it could be furnished almost on the instant. Descending to the fourth floor a sight is encountered long to be remem- bered — the bindery — the immense plant necessary to turn out the 2,000,000 books and magazines issued by Street & Smith every month. There are folding machines that lift up one sheet of paper while holding down the one underneath, and slipping it between rollers clap it down out of sight only to have it come out in a jiffy as a folded "signature" of thirty-two pages at the rate of 1,500 an hour. The cover machines reveal the secret of the neat and substantial appearance of the Street & Smith publications — work that is ordinarily done by hand is here performed much more thoroughly at the rate of 2,500 an hour. The third floor is the great way- station between the presses below and the bindery above. The greater por- tion of it is used for the storage of hundreds of thousands of printed sheets and the remainder for the millions of covers for the magazines. It is a won- derful sight and a silent testimony of the tremendous circulation of the Street & Smith literature. Down another flight of stairs — and here at last is the most thrilling of all the sights in this wonderful building — the press-rooms. Thirty presses, from the small job to the huge cylinder machines, of which there are six, are working ceaselessly night and day. The big rotary book presses are turning out 4,500 32 -page signatures an hour, printed both sides and folded ; the mag- azine presses 5,000 an hour. High- class flat-bed presses are printing covers and advertising sheets; a two-color press is laying on both colors at once ; the little job presses are making a brave attempt to keep up with their big broth- ers and are succeeding, too, in the work they are supposed to accomplish. It is the most fascinating of all the depart- ments — the great, living heart of the establishment sending its life throughout the length and breadth of the land. The ground floor is full of surprises. The tumult of the press-room directly overhead is scarcely perceptible, so solid is the great building; this is surely a surprise. But even greater is the state- ment that 4,000,000 books are stored on this floor. Was there ever such a library? And yet more surprises — the 6,000 titles forming this library, all of them always in print, are so arranged and classified that any book can be se- lected with as much ease as if it were lying on a table at the other end of the room, waiting to be picked up — cer- tainly a triumph of skill in classification and arrangement. In the cellar are the engine-rooms, boilers, dynamos, and similar equipment, but most interesting of all, the vaults for the storage of the plates — the secret of why Street & Smith books are always in print ; for if an edition runs out it is simply a matter of getting out the plates, putting them on the press and running off a new edition. There are 23,000 boxes of these plates weighing in all 1,725,000 lbs. and representing a first cost of $4,000,000. Subscription Department — Magazine Backing Machines Composing Room i — Freight Elevator The magnitude of the stock contained in this building may be realized when it is stated that to move it up from the old quarters on William Street required nine vans making three trips a day for six weeks to accomplish it. Could it have been done all at once, it would have taken a continuous procession of vans reaching from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Harlem River. To protect this vast equipment from fire, all possible precautions are taken. The building itself is fire-proof; but in case the stock should catch fire, automatic sprinklers are placed throughout the building served by a tank on the roof holding 1 2,000 gallons, while stand- pipes are also provided to which four fire-engines can attach their hose. Street & Smith owe their success al- most entirely to their attitude toward the newsdealer, and what this attitude is no one better appreciates than himself. A half-century's study of the public taste has enabled them to accurately gauge what the public wants. Sound business management has enabled them to build their enormous plant. Every newsdealer has an interest in the superior equipment of the Street & Smith estab- lishment because it makes it possible to reduce the cost of manufacture to a minimum, and consequently lower the price to the dealer so that he can make a greater profit from the Street & Smith publications than from those of any other house. During more than fifty years Street & Smith have stood by the news- dealer, and the great Street & Smith building is a monument to the fact that the newsdealer has stood by them. FRANK PRESBREY CO NEW YORK |AV£t;Y tr law*:;