Newspaper Page Text
AUGUST 30, 1902
THE SUNNY SOUTH
NINTH PAGE
British Experience with Municipal Owner
ship of Public Utilities
that I visited the city gas office in the elded to own it, had a fixture store and
Cities
Fornlsha
in a Their
Own
Gu
council house to learn something about
how these corporations
manage their gas works.
1 find that nearly all the
cities of England are now
gradually buying the gas
plants. Two hundred and
thirty of them have al
ready done so. and they are extending
the service so that the poorest man can
ave his gas at low cost.
M'e first entered the gas counting room,
where we found clerks taking In money
:"rom the consumers, and from there went
n Into the sales room, where all sort* of
gas fixtures, from brackets to chandeliers
and from gas tips to gas stoves, are sold.
The Birmingham Gas Company, which
controlled the buslness when the city de-
the corporation bought this with the
plant. The prices of the fixtures are about
the same as In the Cnited States, but the
terry? of payment are much more lenient.
The city will sell you gas fixtures on time
and It will. even rent them out for a
consideration.
If the Birmingham man does not care
to buy a gas stove the ettv will put 1ft
one for him at a rent of 2 cents a week,
or $1.04 a year, or he can have a larger
stove for S cents per week. A small gas
boiler about as big around as a tea plate,
with little holes about the edge, is fur
nished for nothing.
The gas for poor people is largely dis
tributed through pennv-ln-the-slot meters
These meters are like the ordinary gas
meters, save that each has a hole In the
top. Dropping a penny In the hole opens a
valve, which lets out enough gas to run
three burners for three hours. The gas
can be turned on and off. so that the
economical man can burn less and have
his lights for peThaps 1 cent per night.
The meter is connected also with a gas
stove, and I am told that t penny will
give enough gas to cook a dinner for a
family. There are other meters so ar
ranged that you can put a shilling In ths
slot and get a proportionately larger
amount of gas. These meters are used
to some extent by the better class fam
ilies. I noticed especially that all the flex
ible connecting tubes In this gas office
were of American make, and the manager
told me that the city bought all such sup
plies from the United States.
Mussels From the Mississippi and Arkansas
Rivers Support Pearl Button Trade
Birmingham s new street. Built on ground leased from tne corporation tor seventy-rive years.
By FRANK G. CARPENTER.
OW would you like to have
a street car ride for a
cent? You ran get it in
Sheffield, where the city
owns the tramways and
charges different rates,
cording to distance. I rode
from one end of the town
to the other for a penny,
and my r-hort rides as a
rule cost me a halfpenny.
The car fares in Liverpool
are a penny, cr 2 cents, for
the ordinary trip, and lit
is the fvLme ir: Manchester. The rates
are not different in old Chester, which
was a town In the days of the Romans,
nnd about tho same in the college town
of old Oxford. In Glasgow the munici
pality owns the trams, and charges 1
cent a mile, or 6 cents for 6 miles. Bel
fast charges 6 cents for 5 miles. Llver-
pcol 1 e?nt a mile and Manchester 2
cents per mile. . There are many of our
American cities in which you can ride
in miles for a nickel, which is equal to
1 ajf a. cent a mile, hut as the most oft
cur street car rides aro short, the British
cn the average pay much less than we
do in the Uhlted States.
The cars-are mostly double deckers,
with seats below and also on the roof,
high above which are the wires of the
trolley. You rldo na high up in the air
as though you wero on tho top of an ele
phant, but it is delightful, although tho
cars do not go half as fast as our own.
The tramways are rapidly increasing in
Great Britain and the- tendency Is en-
t’relv toward city ownership. A score of
different municipalities are now ncgotJaf-
h g for the purchase of street cars or are
laying down new lines. Many etties own
lhe tramways and lease them out to
companies who manage them. In nearly
every caso the municipal tramways pay
a profit, thus reducing the tax rate.
I have already written something as to
how the British cities are managing tliein
own business. Manchester is making
about $400,000 out of its gas works, elec
tric lights and markets. The markets
bring it an income of $ST>,000 a year, and
at the same time give the best of facili
ties to the people. The markets have a
big cold storage plant and freezing cham
bers connected with them. As I rode
down the Manchester ship canal I went
by the abbntoirs, which belong to the
city. They have wharves and buildings
for tho accommodation of a thousand
head of cattle and 1.000 sheep. There a^e
slaughter houses and chilling chambers
adjoining them in which 1.200 sides ol
be*»f can !>e chlllojg Jn twenty-four hours.
Manchester now has its own telephone
system belonging to the city in which the
hello girls are city clerks.* Glasgow owns
its telephones and charges 2 cents a call
or gives you an unlimited number of calls
for $25 a year. Idverpool, Nottingham,
Hull. Tjclcoster nnd a half dozen other
cities are now thinking of bnying up the
telephones or of establishing telephone
systems run by the city.
I spent some time in the Sheffield mar-
k* N during my stay there. These re- i
cently belonged to the duke of Norfolk,
who still owns a large part of the city,
hut the government bought them at a
Mg price and is now’ running them at a
profit. "London has control over a part
e? Its markets, although the big vegeta
ble and fruit markets of Covent Garden
still belong to the duke of Bedford. Bol
ton owns its markets and also the street
cars, gas works, electric lights and
tramways.
There aro five towns in England which
turned into their tax funds $250,000 • last
year ns the profit of their municipal un
dertakings. and the extent of such un
dertakings is steadily increasing. I have
told you how the Manchester corporation
borrowed $25,000,000 to loan to the Man
chester Ship Canal Company, and how
Liverpool is making a profit out of its
investment of more than $100,000,000 in
docks.
Many of the city corporations are now
erecting homes for fieir working people.
They are buying up the slums and tear
ing down the buildings
which stand upon them
in order to put up san
itary tenements, which
they rent *t low rates.
At the same time they
are widening the streets
V and going into ^vhat might he called a
I rd office and real estate business. The
VL*-rion county council spent a million
'-d a quarter dollars to w’pe on* the
F "•ms of Bethnal Green, it being esti
mated that it cost the city $1,500 for
ev«ry family that was there turned out
: - fore a cent was spent on tiie new
* hidings for them. London now' has a
special housing department connected
*hh the city government, which has
f ^' Jr ge of such matters. It has 60.000
People in its tenements in the city, and
it is erecting cottage settlements on the
outskirts. Six thousand people are to be
housed in such cottages at Norbury and
42,000 at Tottenham. When the Totten
ham improvements are completed there
will be a good-sized town there made up
entirely of municipal cottages.
The t#iementH which have been put up
within those cities have a large number
in one building. They are, as it were,
flats of two or more rooms, rented at
different prices, according to th6 number
of rooms. The cheapest two-room^I
flats are to be found in Dublin, where
they rent for 60 cents a week; similar
quarters in Glasgow cost 80 cer^s a week;
in Liverpool, 86 cejits. and In London a
little more than $1 per week. The rents
are supposed to be on a basis that will
pay the running expenses and furnish a
sinking fund which will recoup the city
for the coat of the buildings within from
fifty to otie hundred years.
This city of Birmingham, where I am
now writing, has been noted for such ex
periments. It has erected one set of
buildings at a cost of $100,000 which have
lodgings for 100 families. There are shops
on the ground floor, with tenements
above them. The first of these structures
was finished in September, 1890, and was
at once rented to respectable people at
$1.25 per flat per week. Since then Cheaper
flat buildings have been erected, some of
the Tents being as low as 75 cents per
week.
Birmingham is noted for tho number
of things which the city owns. It prides
itself on being a business city run by
business men on business principles. It
makes Its own gas, provides its own wa
ter supply and has public museums, art
schools and galleries. It has extensive
parks, cricket fields and other- pleasure
ground*. It -has a^sewag© farm of 1.290
acres, which cost $2.-000,000. It has public
swimming and Turkish baths, and laun
dries for the poor,- where they can have
hot water and hot Irons for 2 or 3 cents
an hour.
It has magnificent city buildings. The
council house or the municipal building Is
one of the finest structures of England.
millions and steel pins and buttons for
all parts of the globe. It has glass work*
and crystal works, bronze foundries and
bridge works, and its gun works are of
enormous size. There are one hundred
thousand factory hands in the city, and
it Is estimated that ten thousand of these
are employed in making guns and rifles.
The guns are exported to all countries
The works were pushed to their full ca
pacity during our civil war, when 770,000
guns were shipped to the United States,
including a large number which went to
help the south.
The Birmingham of today is about as
large as St. Louis. It has one or two
streets as fine as the better streets of St.
Louis, and indeed it looks much more
•like an American city than an English
one. The streets are well' kept, and
notwithstanding the foundries and facto
ries which are scattered here and there
upon them everything is remarkably
clean.
Birmingham has been called tho town
of two great streets. Its chief business
houses are on these streets, and the lr$ ld-
Ings have all been put up within the last
few years. They are the product of Bir
mingham’s principle of municipal Inr-
provement. When Joseph Chamberlain
was mayor the business of the town
was congested. There were slums, in its
heart, and It was Chamberlain who plan
ned to wipe the slums out, to build a
great street through them, which should
be known, as Corporation street, and to
widen what Is now New street, or, in
short, to practically rebuild the business
part of the city. This undertaking was
begun in 1875 and. $S,000.000 was borrowed
to carry it out. Inasmuch as the money
was needed at once and it would, take
time to get an act of parliament authoriz
ing the city to Issue bonds. Joseph Cham
berlain offered to advance $50,000 to the
city for the purpose, other Birmingham
capitalists did likewise, though in smaller
sums, and the work was immediately be
gum The property was condemned and
bought, the old houses torn down -and
the land leased on seventy-five-year leases
By FREDERICK J. HASKIN.
HEN Bishop Berkeley gave
utterance to the famous re
mark, “Westward the
course of empire takes Its
way,” it is hardly possible
that the far-seeing divine
realized the great extent to
which his prophecy would
be fulfilled. In the matter
of the manufacture of pearl
buttons this center of ac
tivity has shifted from the
China sea to the river
towns of this Mississippi
section. Altogether unknown in this re
gion a dozen years ago, thk industry has
grown to such proportions that it now em
ploys the services of thousands of peo
ple, and the output has become so great
that it materially affects the button rac
ket of the world.
One day about twelve years ago a Ger
man button maker of the name of Boeplo
wandered into Muscatine from the old
country. He saw. for the first time the
mussel shells of the Mississippi river.
He examined them closely and expressed
the opinion that they were good material
for buttons. Up to this time soft-water
shells were considered impracticable for
any Buch use, and authorities on the Sub
ject were naturally skeptical in regard to
Boeple's opinion of their usefulness. He ,
persisted ip claiming that the “nigger 1
head” mussel from the waters of the j
Mississippi river would make, ir properly j
handled and finished, the finest pearl i
buttons yet produced. He took some !
speclments to the factories at Waterbury, 1
Conn., and after-considerable experiment
ing one concern.. there determined that
with some changes, in their machinery
the shell of the strange mussel from the
•great father, of waters’ 1 would make a
button to compete with the best of those
from other parts of the world.
At this ,time the raw material for the
button factories of this country was com
ing all tpe way from the China sea, so
tpe great advantage of
finding a shell %t home
that wou’d answer the
purpose can be readily
understood. First one
cc»rfeern and then another 1
“ bdgan to use the Missis
sippi shell, until' thfe foreign one was j
almost abandoned. In the beginning the j
shells were shipped,, east in the rough ’
and prepared for use after their arrival
there, but the freight rates were so high
that one enterprising firm soon shipped
that part of Its machinery which makes
the “blanks” out to Muscatine, and, what
generally results* when some pioneer
leads the way to a good thing, others
soon profited by the example arid came
also. Local capitaifsts were not slow in
recognizing the possibilities of the new
business and the hdvantages that might
be theirs on* accofgtt of operating alto
gether on the ground.
their Inability to move without assist
ance.
The matter of catching the mussels Is
an Interesting procedure. A fisherman
equips himself with what is known to
the clan a "John boat.” This is a
flatboat on the order of a scow, .about 20
feet long and 3 1-2 feet wide. Upon the
amount paid out weekly in wages is $10.-
000. There are factories in Davenport.
Fort Madison. Burlington, Quincy, La-
Grange. Canton nnd many other points.
The industry has developed to such pro
portions that many thousands of people
are employed and millions of buttons are
turned out daily. The button market of
inside of the boat are placed eight up- j the world has been affected by the Mls-
rfghts. which are between 3 and 4 feet ! sisslppi shell to such an extent tha*.
high and have crotched tops. Four of | prices are now fully 75 pet cent cheaper
the uprights are placed on each side of than they were a few years ago.
tne boat at Just enough distance apart to ! * n Lict, things are going at sue t a
accommodate tho four 10-foot pieces of ! rapid pace that unless somet ng is *
Inch gas pipe that rest upon them. To j *°on the mussel fishing "
each of the gas pipes is attached twenty entirely destroyed. The beds were thought
4-foot stagons. similar to those used on | to l>e practically inexhaustible at first,
on ordinary trot line, and each stagon \ ^t ** iey 1306,1 r -‘gg e ° 1 .
;„r nr on firs On the I stantly and so carelessly that manj of
the mussel? have been knled by the
rough way in which the men have sought
them. Again, there lias been no attention
paid to the season for spawning, and if
craft* could not he i ,hat £ , OTt thin ® ‘f kol ’ t lo " B ‘ h6
! mussels will soon be extinct. Se\eiai
bills have be.cn introduced in congress to
regulate matters, but they did not pass.
There is an added interest in the busi
ness of mussel fishing on account of the
. . . likelihood of finding pearls. It is not an
gas pipes, one by one. As the hooks u ncomm/ thing for a fisherman to find a
drag along the bottom of the river they ! pearl valued at $100 and one lucky fellow
has four hooks with four prongs. On the
back of the boat there is an awkward
arrangement on the order of a rudder,
which Is called in different places “mule,”
"water sail” or “drift board.” A more
clumsy or ungainl;
imagined. It is heavy and unwieldy, but
the average fisherman is brawny, and he |
goes out in his “John boat” with as-much j
confidence as if it were the finest craft j
afloat Once In the stream he casts his
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so, from this be-
Cutting button blanks from mussel shells.
come in contact with the open shells of
the mussels, which Immediately close up
on them. Thus attached (Tify afe brdught
to the surface and taken off. The distance
the hooks are dragged each time depends'
altogether on the thickness of the bed.
ginning, the lmfust¥y ha? spread both up and varies from three boat lengths to an
Cheap
Homes
for the
Working
People.
Manchester hello girls. The city owns the telephones.
It Is a great pile built In the renaissance
style in the heart of the city, with a dome
rising from its center. The main entrance
is at the front, and the building is orna
mented with sculpture and mosaic show
ing the arts and industries of Birming
ham. with a central group representing
Britannia reviewing its manufactures.
The interior of the building contains a
council chamber, the banqueting hall and
magnificent quarters for the lord mayor.
In it there is also a museum and art gal
lery and the various city offices.
Another fine building is the town hall,
designed after the model of a Roman tem
ple. This is where public meetings are
held and where the great city organ plays
regularly every week for the benefit of
the people.
Right back of this hall is perhaps the
only monument ever erected as memorial
to a living man. It is that of the Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain, who has perhaps
done more than any other to advance mu
nicipal ownership in the city of Birming
ham The monument bears a medallion
bust of Mr. Chamberlain without the eye-
a nd upon it there is an inscription
testifying to Ws services for Blrmlrtg-
ham. . . _
Indeed the city of Birmingham has
been recreated by Mr. Chamberlain nnd
for the putting up of new buildings. The
leases nvere so worded that at the end
of the seventy-five years the buildings
upon tbe land shoi!V revert to the city,
so that eventually the Birmingham cor
poration will practically own the best
part of the municipalitj*, and it will then
probably be the richest city of the world.
The holders of the leases now j>ay a
regular rent to the city, and magnificent
structures have taken the places of the
old slums.
One of the features of the new buildings
$ system of arcades which run here
and there through them from street to
street. These are beautiful structures,
roofed with iron and glass, forming large
passageways containing stores as good as
you will find in England. The interior
walls are of tiles and the fronts of the
stores are plate glass.
These arcades are filled with shoppers
at the busiest times of the day, and they
forhi a promenade and visiting place for
the people. They are extremely light. In
deed. I took some snapshot photographs
within them which have come out very
well.
In mv strolls about tbe arcades I saw
many evidences of the American invasion.
One shop was filled with American candy,
another had tomato ketchup from Phila
delphia. sweet pickles and baked boms
and down the river until almost every
town of Sny Importance from St. Paul,
Minn., to Alton, Ills., is now engaged in
some form of the industry.
There are forty or fifty varieties of sort
clams which belong to the mussel family,
but none of thesfe are so desirable as the
specie known as the “nigger head.” Great
care has been exercised in the selection
of their shells. Some will be of a pretty
creamy tint that Cuts well and would be
supposed to make a fine button, but when
it Is finished It is likely to streak. If it
does not turn that way there will be no
sameness to the tint, so that on tbe whole
it Is not desirable and is very seldom
used. Some kinds wITl be too brittle to
be put through the machines. Others
will be too thin, and still others too
thick.
I The mussels lay In beds on the bottom
j of the river with their shells slightly
' open. As the water runs through the open
shell the tentacles catch and retain the
food particles upon which they thrive.
If too much sand or mud settles down
upon a bed it kills the mussels. There
are many instances on record where great
beds of dead ones have been found whose
destruction was attributed to the deposit
upon them. The fact that few mussels
are found In the Mississippi below the
point where the muddy Missouri empties
into It, is explained by this cause. Au
thorities differ oipon the question c$c
whether mussels move or not,,except &s
the water washes them or the>* fasten
onto some moving object that touches
them, but the fact that sand and mud
deposits kin them seems to establish
Before
Old tel1 JOU someth,ng: the
4 Birmingham of the past.
„ w «ir- The town has for centu-
ln v ham ries been the industrial
wraited. capital of middle Eng-
land. It Is situated where
' ~ ~ | was once the forest of Arden, the scene
The Combination Oil Cure for Cancer j of Ro .bin Hood s adventures and of “As
^ ^ the indorsement of the highest medi- 1 You Like It” and others of Shake-
authority in the world. It would : s p ea re’s plays. It has Iron mines and coal
-nis associates W i^ i f ^ h 1 e d ^‘,be"t let'me ! fro ^ EalMmore. and a third jars of apple
butter from Pittsburg and canned soup3
from Chicago.
The most important sign that met my
eye as I came up from the new station
to the junction of Corporation street and
New street was that of the X^w York Life
Insurance Company, and the next thing
I saw was UV American flag waving
from the third story of a big pink build
ing farther down the way wlh the words
United States Consulate” on the window
OUT OF SORTS.
strange indeed if persons afflicted ; not far away, and before coal was J behind it. A little later on I walked Into
cancers and tumors, after knowing j upe( j f or smelting iron the people here
facts, would resort to the dreaded I ma( j e charcoal from the trees of the for-
R.’.ife and burning plaster, which have 1 ^ thus worked their blacksmith
•'■-therto been attended with ?uch fatal re- ] r ^ an( j other house industries.
S Ms The fact that m the last eight j - ^ fc nD ws when the iron making
rs over one hundred doctors have put
’ > ,-;j3Pivos under this mild treatment
their confidence in the new method
treating those horrible diseases. Per-
> - afflicted will do well to send for free
t k giving particulars and prices of
Address Dr. D. M. Bye Co., Drawer
*6. Indianapolis, IxmL
Xo one knows when
bekan. and today there is a vast amount
of work that goes on in small factories.
The citv is now perhaps the ehlef hard
ware center of the whole world. It has
foundries and shops for making steam
enzines. heavy machinery and cannon.
li makes pins and needles by the tens of
the consulate and spent an hour or so
there with Mr. Marshall Halstead, who is
Uncle Sam’s consul and business repre
sentative in this industrial section. He
was free enough in expressing hi:
Pleasant Way To Drive Away tbe
Blues.
A food that will bring back health and
rosy cheeks to the sick as well as please
the palate of the healthy Is a pretty good
fcod to know about. A lady in Minne
apolis says. “I am such an enthusiast
upon the subject of Grape-Nuts that I
want to state a few instances of its value
that have come under my personal ex
perience.
I was taken ill with a serious sfomach
trouble, so ill that the slightest move
ment caused me pain and could take
nothing Into my stomach or retain even
medicine or water. I had been two days
without nourishment ..when my husband
suggested trying Grape-Xuts.
The nurse prepared some with warm
water, sugar and cream and X took it hes
itatingly at first until I found It caused
me no pain and for ten days I took no j
other nourishment.. The doctor was sur- !
prised at my ‘improvement and did not |
resent my attributing the speedy cure to ;
the virtues of Grape-Xuts. He said he -
had a case on record or a teething baby
who grew rosy and fat on the same diet.
Grape-Nuts are so dainty and delicious
that it appeals to the whole household
and when either husband or I feel gen
erally ’out of sorts’ we try confining our
selves exclusively to the food for a day
or two with the happiest results.
For a year I have had for a neighbor a
delicate girl—an epileptic—when I first
knew her she was a mere shadow, weigh
ing 70 pounds, and Subject to fearfu;
attacks, having as many as 12 and 16 con
vulsions in a day. At such times she took
no nourishment whatever. She had neve:
tiled Grape-Xuts and as any food seemed
to increase her trouble at such times it
was with difficulty I persuaded her to try
It But I told her of my experience and
induced her to try a few spoonfuls.
The taste delighted her and ever since
she has made it her chief article of diet
eighth of a mile. The number of mus
sels brought up each time ranges from
forty to seventy, although there arc in
stances Where the beds were particularly
thick that oVer 100 were brought up at a
single haul.
The rivers of Arkansas are said to be
so thick with mussel beds that they crop
out ot the water when it is low. The men
put on rubber boots and shovel the' shells
into the boats. In the upper Mississippi
district shells are quoted in car lots,
ranging.from fifteen to thirty tons in
weight, but tbe Arkansas dealers have
astounded everybody in the business by
sending out quotations on 500-ton lots and
promptly filling all orders sent them. If
they continue to do this the fame of the
Arkansas mussel will soon travel very far.
The men sell the mussels to the button
factory operators at so much per 100
pounds. The wages they make depends
upon their diligence and the luck they
meet with in getting In a thick bed, but
range from $1.50 to $5 per day: There is
one big mussel bed near Canton, Mo.,
about 8 miles in length. There is plenty
of shell all the way from Hannibal to
Grafton, but it is more scattering. Be
fore the shells are ready for the button
makers the mussels first have to be boiled
in order to separate the meat from the
shell. For this purpose a large pan is
used. Eighteen gallons of hot water are
poured over 1.400 pounds of mussels and
allowed to boil for fifteen minutes, at the
end of which time the meat and shell
separate easily.
The process of making the shells into
buttons Is interesting. The shells are
first cut up into blanks the exact size
the buttons are going to
MalCfnf? be; then they go to the
SHells grinder, a machine which
Into grinds the black back off
Finished of them; after that to the
Button*, facing machine, which
cuts the face on them;
next to the backer, which bevels the back;
then to the drill, which puts in the eye
holes; from here they go to the polishing
room, where the glossy finish is put upon
them; after that they are sorted, put on
cards and boxed.up.
A great many cf the factories do not
make the complete button, only doing the
preliminary work. Such places are call
ed “blank factories.” Muscatine Is where
the industry originated and where it has
flourished to the greatest extent. There
are about forty factories there and the
found a beauty which sold for $5,000.
Every follower of the business has a little
bottle filled with specimens, which event
ually find their way to the finisher and
the market from the professional buyers
Who travel up gjid down the great river.
After the shells have had the button
blanks sawed out of them they are used
to make ifcralks around residences and
they serve admirably for this purpose. In
other localities they have been used suc
cessfully for making roads, notablj* in
New .Orleans and Galveston. A new use
to which the discarded shells are now be
ing put is in the manufacture of strings
of beads, such as rosaries for sacred use.
and also for the purpose of femlnfe orna
mentation. Experiments are being made
in the way of grinding the shells into dust
and afterwards manufacturing small
articles from the composition thus ob
tained.
Button making was Introduce! Into the
rnlted States in 1855. all the material
used in their manufacture helng secured
from abroad, and allowed
Interesting to. enter our pbrts free
Tales Of duty. The center of
ofthe the Industry has always
Humble been In the east until
Button*, recently. Buttons were
originally made of metal,
and were as much for ornamental pur
poses as to hold the garments of the
wearer In place.
In the old countries the dandies used
to adorn themselves with innumerable
buttons, but it seems for purposes of
ornament they have never appealed to the
practical mind of the American. The
only buttons on the clothes of our men
which have no use are the small Ones
on the end of the coat sleeves. There
is a tradition in connection with these
that few people know about. A resource
ful king put buttons on the sleeves of his
soldiers' coats to prevent them from wip
ing their noses on them. That was long
ago. When handkerchiefs, came into
vogue the tailor began gradually to re
duce tbe number of buttons on the coat
sleeves until now there are but two. and
these, for several centuries, have had no
purpose other than ornamentation.
Since buttons came into use the changes
they have undergone have been very nu
merous. They have been at one time or
another made of almost every conceivable
sort of substance. Wood, glass, brass,
iron, porcelain, bone, ivory, horn ar.d
mother of pearl have all been used in
their turn, and now comes the unpreten
tious ‘‘nigger head'' mussel of the Missis
sippi, whose sole claim to usefulness
was the rather inglorious distinction of
being good fish bait. From a Tow estate
it has come yp to great things. It has
drawn to the middle west an industry
that is. nearly four centuries old, and
made itself the leading factor in the but
ton market of the world.
The Sonny Sooth,
Atlanta. Ga.
Dr css
for
Comfort
, , • ; outr liar* ui«tue a ner
ions about American trade, but said thaH The result has been wonderful: her im
he could not allow himself to be quoted. | provement is the subject cf remark with
as the Birmingham people have become
so sensitive on the subject of the Ameri
can Invasion that an Interview upon such
lines would do more harm than good.
It was in company with Air. Halstead
ali who know her. The attacks are les:
frequent and violent and she has gained
21 pounds since last November and her
family attribute her improvement solely
to Grape-Nuts." Name givefi by Postum
Co., Battle Creek, Alich.
In work or play the "President” is the
easiest suspender a man can wear. Con
structed on a scientific, comfort-giving
principle, it answers every bend and
twist of the body. The
PRESIDENT
SUSPENDER
is guaranteed if “President” is on
buckles. Trimmings cannot mat.
Made heavy or light—also for youths.
50 cts. everywhere, or mailed postpaid.
8ay light or dark—wide or narrow.
Holiday goods In Individual gift boxee,
now ready. President playing cards, In
structive, entertaining, unique, 26 eta.
C. A. EDCARTON MFB. COMPANY,
Box 30C C > #klrlcy. Mono.
NOTIONS FOR ROBE TRADE
time; iurlndlwr gold plated Jewelry. —....... ^
beside* handkerchief*, thimbles and. other arti<‘lo»» of
good standard value, which you can readily poll to
yonr frlcn/ln at from lOr. to 2«c. a pi ere. an marked,
when fuUd. remit us $1.00 and keep $1.00 as commis
sion. Or, if you prefer, we will send yoU k premium
Instead of commission, a watrh, clf'Ok, or other article
S m mar select from our iirt. If you cannot sell all
e goods, remit half for what are sold and return un
sold articles. We deal fairly and promptly, and enable
; ou to build up a small trade for yourself. Give ua a
trial order and we will send consignment at once. A
postal card or letter, stating your address plainly with
St rect A Xo. or P. O. Box. will be sufficient. Address,
NOTIONS TRADING AGENCY, f. 0. Bo, 95, Now York.
(Mention Th- Sunny iroutli when you Write.)
DHtlTiniMt Mav deposit mowey In banktill
r\IJI I lvl,J. position is secured, or pay ont
of salary after graduating. Ilnter any time.
1 Draughon’s J?/?/* ?
J Practical... rjj
<5 Business ... \£s*y*** g
Nashville,Atlanta, St. Lent#*
Montgomery, Little Rock, Galveston;
Ft. Worth, (Cataloiue Free.) Ahreveport.
Schools of national reputation for thoroughness
a ud reliability. Endorsed by business men.
Home Study. Bookkeeping etc., taught by mail.
For ]50 p. College catalogue, or 100 p» on Home
Study, ad. Dcp. .YJ Draushon’t College, either place
tOaDaySwe
W furnish the work and teach y
.mu/ scene on tne Mississippi.
/ Can Sell Your Farm
no matter »here it i*. Send description, state price and
barn how. Est. '96. Highest references. Offices In U cities.
W. M. Ostrander, K. A. Bldg., Pbilsdelpbia
Tour .«» ro r r‘‘«
*“™i e ?’ elop “ eSi “w»y 0n ‘ ,uk ‘-
1 MARRIED LADIES, Bend 25c for my f*-
i mouB article; hundreds using It with In.
results. Dr. Hamilton, 4(*t East 13d St,
1 Chicago, III.
INSTINCT PRINT