MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

SPECIAL CONVENTION EDITION.

 

VOL. 8.

GRAND RAPIDS, DECEMBER 3, 1890.

 

A GRAND SUCCESS.

FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
THE M. B. M. A.

 

OF

 

Full Text of the Various Reports and
Papers Presented.

Tue fifth annual convention of the
Michigan Business Men’s Association
convened at Royal Arcanum hall, Grand
Rapids, Tuesday morning, Nov. 25. The
meeting was called to order by President
Whitney, who read his annual address,
as follows:

Sixteen months have passed since we
met in session at the city of Muskegon,
during which period the mill of time has
been grinding out its grists of successes
and failures. Each patron of this mill—
and all must patronize it—has received
the results of what he brought, but only
so much good as he furnished the materials
for. Results have never depended upon
chance but have ever been the products
of good plans carefully matured and well
earried out, subject ever to natural law.
The only good luck a man has in this
world is when his business knowledge
joined by study and experience enables
him to so interpret natural causes and
apply natural laws that with energy and
promptness he is enabled to command
success.

Whatever is true of individuals is also
true in eases of associated effort, except-
ing that possibly another element, the
combination and use of forces of mind
and self interest not always in harmony,
must needs be taken into consideration.
The forees of this element should be
studied and utilized. Organized bodies
succeed or fail in about the same propor-
tion as do individuals and for the same
or similar reasons. The Michigan Busi-
ness Men’s Association is no exception to
the general rule, neither are the local
business men’s associations of this State,
as we have abundant proof.

Sixteen months ago, the large and suc-
cessful meeting at Muskegon seemed to
indicate success everywhere; yet a close
inspection reveals the fact that only a
small proportion—less than one-third of
the local organizations—were there rep-
resented, many of them not having as
many delegates as they were entitled to.
A further examination shows that over
one-third of the local bodies were not en-
titled to representation at all in that
body. The report of Secretary showed
a falling off of membership of nearly
one-half. Many of those present at that
meeting were anxiously inquiring what
to do to make their local bodies success-
ful. The condition of the Association
can be stated in afew words. The As-
sociation sixteen months ago had reached
and passed its highest point in numbers
and efficiency and was far along on its

decline. I may shock some present with
the bold statements made. To cure a
disease the physician must make a

thorough diagnosis of the case and use
the knife if needs be. The case, how-
ever, is not quite hopeless—something
may be saved from it and much be
learned for future use. The associations
of business men are not essentially dif-
ferent from other organizations. This
decay is not a new feature in organiza-
tion. Every society has been subject to
similar rapid growth, has had dark days
which were followed by partial decline.
Some have failed entirely—ceased to
exist. Others have recovered rapidly
and many have come back into good
working order and ultimately attained a
good, sound standing, by slow, hard ef-
fort.. So may many of the associations
we in some manner represent here to-day
be brought into a healthy existence and
do good work and benefit many.

 

At the Muskegon meeting there were
many inquiries relative to means and
methods of making meetings interesting
and the local societies a success. Many
seemed to think a missionary should go
abroad and give instruction and inspira-
tion at one and the same time. This
seemed a wise plan, a practice followed
by all successful organizations, only it
was put into use too late in our case.
About the middle of September, or six
weeks after the meeting at Muskegon, a
meeting of the Executive Board was held
at Grand Rapids, and it was agreed that
the President of the State Association
should visit the local organizations and
do them such good as he could. A cam-
paign of many weeks, even months, was
duly mapped out, and a letter of inquiry
and notice was duly sent to the various
societies by the Secretary of this body,
informing them that the ‘‘Missionary’’
was soon to visit them and that they
would be invited to receive his encourag-
ing visits without cost or price, save a
place to speak and to rest his head. Not
one in ten replied at all, and, instead of
forty or fifty meetings, we had difficulty
in finding six places willing to have a
meeting, and only two of them were
really a success, The President and
Secretary thought this scheme a failure
and abandoned it; yet every town visited
needed just such a meeting, and many
needed an organization of business men
badly. A few only could spare the time
or make the necessary effort to even at-
tend when visited by this officer of the
Association at large.

This low condition of the local asso-
ciations was further seen in their failure
to pay the per capita tax, hold meetings,
and, upon the approach of the expected
midsummer meeting at Saginaw, when
the Secretary sent a circular to each
association, how many delegates might
be expected to attend the annual meet-
ing, not a quorum of the whole body
reported! The last fact, coupled with
the knowledge that many were taking
summer vacations and all running short
of help to lessen expenses, and the
further fact that it would be difficult to
get any concession from the railroads de-
cided the Executive Board to postpone
the Saginaw meeting for a time, at least.
Our annual meeting should be held
either in June or July, or after the vaca-
tion season has closed, say September.

The fact now stares us in the face that
our Association is.in a bad condition.
The local bodies are dormant, many of
them, and the State body is almost with-
out a constituency. What shall be done
and how shall we do it? are questions be-
fore us to-day that should receive most
careful attention. What is the matter?
is a question easily asked but not so
easily answered. There are times of ebb
and times of flow in the life of all such
bodies, and if, when the body has
reached low tide, it is judiciously offi-
cered and skillfully handled, it may
come again to the majesty of strength
and exert a greater and wider influence
than ever before. It is not singular that
business men’s organizations should feel
depression and many of the weaker ones
pass away entirely. The same has been
the record of organized effort in many
other callings. We may examine some
of the causes:

1. General apathy amoug all classes of
people, each taking little interest in any-
thing that does not directly inure to his
benefit;

2. Incongruous elements of composi-
tion, each local union of necessity being
made up of those who are naturally more
or less opposed to each other in matters
of religion, politics, business interests—
many times bitter rivals in trade—and,
further, there are often social differ-
ences, real or fancied, peculiarities of
nationality, tinctures of caste, clan and
prejudice—all preventing rather than

 

helping the perfect union desired.

3. Want of time is another cause of de-
cay in local organizations, or, rather, a
want of devotion of time of the members
to the care of the association’s wants,
officers and members neglecting this duty
and leaving this labor to be in turn
neglected by others. Can any person
who leaves his duties, individual or cor-
porate, to be done by others expect suc-
cess from neglect?

4. The breadth of the Association and
the variety of objects embraced within its
scope have often been a weakness, when
they should be elements of strength.
The great mass of people have but one
object of pursuit at a time, some
baving one and some another. To
obtain this one aim many seek organiza-
tion, wherein they fail because others
have their rights and all cannot at once
be in control. Such persons soon drop
out of the society in which they fail to
secure this object of pursuit, and are
soon found trying something else, injur-
ing and weakening each body they as-
sume to fraternize with.

5. Too little time and means have been
employed. The masses of the people
expect results without the necessary ele-
ments of cause viz., time, money, effort.
Something for nothing is the desire of
the many when there can be nothing
desirable without its cost. An organi-
zation worth having must cost time,
money and patient effort to each and
every one of its members, or it cannot
be truly successful. Men will recognize
this fact in their own personal endeavors
—why should they deny it in corporate
relations?

6. Many of the causes already named
arise from a want of comprehension of the
power and management of the complex
machine they would use. They treat it
as an inanimate existence, or, at best, as
an animate one but foreign to themselves,
forgetting that they themselves are but a
part of the veritable forces that make the
machine they use only to gratify selfish
aims and attain personal ends.

Many other dependent causes exist
that have entered into the apparent failure
of our local organizations. There is need
of a closer relation between the local and
the State organizations. Each must feel
the true dependence of each upon the
other, each sustaining and, in turn, being
aided by the other.

Do we need business men’s associa-
tions? Whatis association? ‘‘A union
of persons into a company or society for
some particular purpose or purposes,’’
says the lexicon. In short, ours is an
organization of business men for certain
purposes. Coleridge asks, ‘‘What is
organization but the connection of parts
in and for a whole so that each part is at
once end and means?”

Have all our local organizations been
true to nature? Has there been such a
connection of parts that each is and has
been at once an end and a means? Test
our local societies, and few will
stand the test in either the crucible of
the lexicon or of Coleridge! How many
have had purposes in common shared
and in union wrought, and in the State
Association how many of the local bodies
have been end and means at one
and the same time.

I will not say, nor can it be said, that
the business men’s effort at organization
has failed—neither can it be said that it
has sueceeded; but much good has been
done, furnishing positive proof that true,
faithful organization honestly shared by
all can and will succeed and prove a
power among business men of all classes
to the accomplishment of great results.
It makes little difference what title is
given the organization, so that it is nota
burden. In some of the larger towns
Boards of Trade or Boards: of Commerce
seem to be popular, yet the name does
not give them success. Other cities are

 

fully as fortunate in achieving results

with a plain business men’s association.
Others have an Exchange to do associa-
tion work. What matters it whether we
have a Board, a Chamber, a Club, Bureau,
Union, Exchange or Association, if there
is nothing ina name? To make any one
of them a success, there must be a union
of purpose, of hearts and hands, with
minds to comprehend and direct. There
must be also a wide comprehension of the
objects to be attained by the forces used.
An association with a single aim must
needs be limited in numbers and, failing
to attain the stipulated object, must cease
to exist, while a broader organization
would have a larger membership, a wider
field for the exercise of effort and attain
more and better results. Such was the
scope of our local business men’s associa-
tion, embracing enough to commend it to
the hamlet as well as the small village,
enabling all who produced or aided in the
production or exchange of wealth in any
form to co-operate in the development of
the general interests and the protection
of mutual rights. Each person in such
an association would use its power, truly
understand and fully carried out, and be
able to obtain for himself and others
great results. It would be each for all
and ali for each—each ‘‘an end and
means’? in doing and receiving. Then
the good time promised would come when
each could say to his neighbor, ‘‘Brother,
be of good cheer.’’

It may be here truthfully said that the
objects and aims of these associations,
so many in number and so broad in scope,
have not been well understood by either
the people at large or those who have
had membership therein. They have
often narrowed its broad aims down to
the mere collecting of a few bad debts
and the punishment of debtors incident-
ally by publishing them as dead-beats.
Beyond this, most of the members and
many of our associations have never
ventured, and they did not succeed even
in that effort because it was not under-
stand and not used aright. The collec-
tion system in itself is broad and liberal,
just to creditors and yet not ruinous to
debtors. This system, while efficient in
the collection of bad debts, could not
succeed in the impossible, as collecting
disputed accounts, as of persons at a
time when not earning living expenses.
When the debtor was prosperous, had an
income with which to pay slowly, the
creditor was busy and had time to do no
more than give more credit, not even try-
ing to learn to whom he was giving it.
Collections begun under our system were
not, as a rule, begun in the best time and
were not followed up to completion. The
ground gained was lost, enemies were
made when friends were desired and
the greatest and best part of the system
was lost sight of—the prevention of fur-
ther unworthy credit by judicious con-
certed action in rating would-be debtors
and the general refusal of credit to those
unworthy of it. Let the collection sys-
tem be supplemented by a thorough rat-
ing, and let both be faithfully worked.
There is enough of value in that alone to
pay well for the maintenance of an asso-
ciation in every village of the State.

The association is a medium of co-op-
eration by which a community may cope
with the questions of transportation and
insurance, enabling its members to know
and demand and secure their rights, sav-
ing a per cent. of the cost in either case.

Each and every individual in each and
every community has greater or fewer
trade interests, either as buyer or seller
or both, and these interests can best be
served by organized action, by first gain-
ing an understanding of the length and
breadth of those interests and by intelli-
gently co-operating to secure the better-
ing of these interests.

The general improvements of a town,
large or small, in which one lives and in

 

2

which he should be interested and identi-
fied, is a subject meriting greater atten-
tion than is usually accorded it. This
may not only include the development of
the features that make the town attrac-
tive to residents and strangers but also
includes the question of protection in |
time of need.. These important matters, |
in all their bearings, furnish numerous
topics for discussion for many a meeting
of our associations in towns where im-
provements are sadly needed—and where
they will never be had without organized,
united effort.

Every town desires growth, an increase
of paramount industries to utilize mutual
resources and employ capital and labor;
yet the resources of atown must be known
or they can never be used. People at
home as well as abroad must be informed
of the existence of such resources and
invited to come and use them. This needs
associated, intelligent efiort, just such as
a business men’s association can and will
give if rightly used, such as has been
found useful in the development of many
a town and industry. One or two men
cannot and will not, as a rule, use indi-
vidual means and effort to build upa
town for the benefit of others too willing
they should. Join hands and hearts and
means and minds in an effort to interest
manufacturing capital to come to youand
encourage what you now have. You will
then increase productive industries in
your midst, and every addition opens the
door for others.

It may be of interest to all to enlarge
upon these themes, but time forbids.
These worthy objects of the business
men’s association ought to be sought by
every hamlet in the State, yet there are
greater advantages even than these to be
taken into consideration. We are all
social and moral creatures, and as such
we need cultivation and development, we
need recreation and relief from the bur-
den of daily duty. We also need the
educational advantages given by such
associated efforts, united by the ties of
local interest, of similar callings. Busi-
ness men everywhere ought to use organ-
ised, systematic means to develop to

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

Secretary Stowe then read his annual
report as follows:

The past year has been an uneventful
one for the Michigan Business Men’s As-
sociation, few additions having been
made to the list of local bodies and no
work of special importance having been
undertaken by the State organization.

Financially, the year’s showing is as
follows:

 

RECEI!IPTs.
ern Oe $239 50
Charter fee....... ee eee eee 3 0)
ee Oe 12 00
eee CCR
eee $304 55

The receipts have all been deposited
in the Kent County Savings Bank, hav-
ing been forwarded to Treasurer Parker
in three installments, as follows:

2 choca tl $100 00

Nov. 6, 1008, check No. 2............ --. oo @
ce. 7, OS, Cheek Bas... . 104 55
a... Ow

Our liabilities are $8.50—$7.50 for the
use of this hall and $1 for reduced rate
certificates. Our assets are $15, due
from the Burnell Collection Agency.

There is no denying the fact that
apathy has overtaken too many of our
associations, frequently resulting in the
termination of their usefulness. The
lack of interest is first manifested in the
small attendance at the meetings, fol-
lowed by a general failure, on the part
of both officers and members, to perform
the duties incumbent upon them. Some-
times a faithful set of officers have be-
come disgusted at the half-heartedness
of the members and given up in disgust,
and not infrequently active and ener-
getic members have grown weary of the
shortcomings of their official representa-
tives and ceased attending the meetings
and acted independently of the organiza-
tion. These are some of the drawbacks
which have attended the effort made to
build up a compact and vigorous set of
local associations in the principal cities
and towns of the State. This effort hav-
ing resulted in partial failure, it is not
to be wondered at that the State organi-
zation has not flourished as it should.

 

greater usefulness the latent abilities
God has given them, improving them-
selves and their families, benefitting all
about them, promoting the interests of
the community and all associated there-
with. Where there is unity of action,
such associations become a power for
good in case of need and must be honored
by all who feel their influence. Such an
organization should the local organiza-
tion be. With such, would it be difficult
to tell what a State organization, com-
posed of the representative members of
such local bodies, would be? The foun-
tain cannot rise higher than the source.
The body cannot be better than the com-
ponent parts, and it will ever reflect the
local training of its assoeiations. Givea
State good local societies of business men
and the State Business Men’s Association
will be a body of the best men, ready to
do the will of an able constituency. Such
abody we cannot hope to have, but we

must do the best we can with a conven- |

tion of men not sent, but who come from
a sense of duty. We, as business men,
will feel bettered by coming together for
a short time, to discuss matters in which
all have an interest, and devise ways and

methods by which we can serve the un-|

Dependent directly upon the local bodies
| for sustenance, it thrives when the sub-
|ordinate branches thrive and famishes
| when they withhold their support.

| In no case does there appear to be any
lack of appreciation of the value of asso-
ciation work or the benefits derived
|therefrom. , Business men in towns
where organizations have been allowed
| to lapse invariably deplore the fact, and
| cite numerous instances where the as-
| sociations have benefitted them and the
| community at large; but, in the majority
| of cases, they appear to lack the neces-
| sary incentive to re-organize and resume
| the work which was begun so auspici-
|}ously. Why this is so, and wherein lies
| the remedy, I leave to those more able to
| cope with a subject of such surpassing
| importance to the business public.

President Whitney then announced the
| following special committees: *

| On President’s Address, Secretary’s
|and Treasurer’s Report—E. W. Hastings,
Traverse City; J. V. Crandall, Sand Lake;
| A. N. Woodruff, Watervliet.

| On Credentials, Order of Business and

 

organized people to the best advantage, | Resolutions—N. B. Blain, Lowell; Geo.
or enable them to better serve them- | W. Caldwell, Grand Rapids; R. D. Me-

selves.
The first and most important question |
to settle seems to be, ‘“‘How ean the|!

| Naughton, Coopersville.
The report of the Ex-Board was pre-

masses of business men utilize organiza- | Sented by Frank Hamilton, detailing the

tion for the promotion of their interests |
and the protection of their rights?”’
second is, ‘‘What is to be done for the|
interests of the business class through |
legislation at the coming session of our |
State Legislature or that of Congress
soon to convene?’? Weshould consider |
not only what we ought to have done, |
but also what ought to have been left un- |
done by legislation. When we have!
agreed upon a course of action, let us act
with all the means we have at command |
to carry out our plans.
Our session is to be brief, but let it be |
useful. You will have valuable reports |
and papers to digest and dispose of. May
your action be freighted with good results |
that shall reflect honor upon this body.

proceedings of the three meetings held

The by the Board, reports of which have al-

ready appeared in THe TRADESMAN.

Chairman Blain, of the Committee on
Building and Loan Associations, stated
that the Committee considered that no
report was necessary, as the work origin-
ally undertaken by the Committee was
now looked after by the State Associa-
tion of Building and Loan Associations.

Chairman Conklin presented the report
of the Committee on Insurance, as fol-
lows: i

Your Committee on Insurance would
respectfully report that we made an ef-

 

fort to secure subscriptions enough to
organize the Business Men’s Insurance

Company, such as was outlined at your |

last meeting—a stock company to be!

owned by the business men of the State,
with $100,000 paid in and put out at in-
terest as a permanent guarantee fund,
mutual so far as the division of all pro-
fits is concerned, after paying losses, the
small expenses and a fair rate of inter-
est to the stockholders. This we con-
ceive to be by far the best insurance that
the business men of the State could ob-
tain. The first thing to be acquired is
positive and absolute safety from fire.
This is only possible when your capital
stock—your guarantee fund—is so large,
and your risks so remote from each
other that no one or two fires could bank-
rupt the company.

We made an effort through Tue
TRADESMAN to have the local business
men’s associations take stock. In some
locaiities they responded splendidly.
Battle Creek and Flint did nobly, and
had every organization in the State re-
sponded as did these two cities, we
would have had a Business Men’s Insur-
ance Company doing business long be-
fore now. As there was no provision
made to pay our expenses while canvass-
ing the State, and as the other local as-
sociations did not respond, we have to
report to you about $8,000 stock taken
and nothing further done.

The above stock-mutual company we
recommend as the very best insurance
the business men of Michigan could get,
as it gives the maximum of safety, the
minimum of cost and a reasonable inter-
est to stockholders. To most of our
business men a total loss and no insur-
ance means financial ruin. The small
accumulations of a life-time are swept
away inan hour. No ordinary business
man can afford to be a moment without
insurance.

A purely mutual insurance company,
well managed, works well when it is or-
ganized to take but one kind of risks,
and then only those risks which are, by
their nature practically isolated, as
farmers’ mutuals, and the Millers’
Mutual we think a good one; and if we
had a law that would allow the organiza-
tion of druggists’ mutuals, hardware
dealers’ mutuals or any other mutual
that, by its nature, would take a very
few risks in any one city or village,
doubtless it would be a good thing; but a
business men’s mutual that takes all
kinds of risks and can extend its busi-
ness over three counties only must, of
necessity, take too many risks in one vil-
lage or city. Should that place be swept
away by fire, it would ruin many persons
who had taken insurance in that com-
pany. This kind of insurance is repre-
hensible. A mutual insurance where
the insured pay their premiums
and give their notes for three to five
times as much as the cash premium
is good in times of no’ disaster by fire,
but let a city be visited by a great con-
flagration, as Grand Rapids and Muske-
gon have been—then the insured could
get but a small amount of their policies,
and all those insured outside of the
burned district would have to pay large-
ly. Hence, this kind of insurance is
very faulty. It cannot give a positive
guarantee, and it may cost the insured
very much more than he should pay. It
has, in some degree, the same element of
insecurity and financial risk that the
purely mutual companies have. This
kind of mutual is much better and safer
than a purely mutual company could be,
but itis only a part guarantee—it does
not really and fully insure.

We would recommend that efforts be
made to do away with the three per cent.
tax that is placed on all outside insur-
ance companies doing business in the
State, for the business man has to pay
enough without paying this extra tax.
We understand that this tax amounted to
$100,000 during the past year, and why
the business men of the State should be
willing to pay this extra tax is beyond
comprehension.

Chairman Wells sent the following re-
port for the Committee on Legislation:

The Legislation Committee of the As-
sociation has held no meeting during the
last year. We have shared the apathy
which has fallen upon the State body

 

and a large proportion of the auxiliary
bodies. For this reason, we have no rec-
ord of our actions: to present to this
meeting, for either consideration or criti-
cism. Wehave no apologies to make
nor reasons to assign for the failure, up-
on the part of the officers and members
of our Association, to take the same in-
terest in its usefulness and suecess dur-
ing the past year, than they have in
former years. We leave the solution of
the cause for this lack of interest, to the
Association, should they regard it profit-
able to consider the problem.

We. think it, however, fair to pre-
sume, from the present condition of
our organization, that either the causes
which brought it into existence were
inadequate, that they have ceased to ex-
ist, or that the efforts of our Association
have had little or no influence upon
them. Should the inaction of the past
year be from any or all these reasons, it
seems to us evident, that we should
either disband or start again under a
new impulse.

Though the avowed scope of the asso-
ciation has been sufliciently large, and
the interests it has sought to affect sufti-
ciently extensive, two only have seemed
to be of paramount importance. These
have been the listing of *‘deadbeats,”
and ‘‘local improvements.” The first
named seems to have been drifting into
the hands of commercial agencies, whose
efforts appear to be appreciated, mainly,
because they charge fees for their ser-
vices. The subject of local improve-
ments in cities and villages is always of
absorbing interest to business men. En-
terprise in this direction is an ingrained
characteristic of the American citizen,
which finds its expression in Michigan
more intensely, perhaps, than in any
other State of the Union. The emulation
for building up manufactories and pro-
moting all kinds of commercial ventures,
tending to increase the capital and popu-
lation of towns, is never ceasing. Com-
petition in securing prizes of this nature
is frequently quite sharp. Such efforts,
being local in their nature, must be set-
tled by local organizations or individual
work. A Siate body cannot take any
partin them. Societies of business men,
brought together for this purpose alone,
are becoming common in our large cities,
while the bond which still hoids together
most of the auxiliary bodies of our own
association owes its power to this cause.
It seems evident that a State organization
which should have in view only ques-
tions of general interest and importance
to business men is of no value in decid-
ing questions of purely local concern.

Is there, then, a need for a State Busi-
ness Men’s Association, which shall con-
sider and act upon those matters which
affect all business men alike. We believe
thereis. At a time like the present,
when organization is the potent influence
in every sphere of human activity; when
its power, exerted for ages in church
and state, has been invoked in every
trade and profession; when social and
political problems are all considered and
settled by means of -its machinery and
strength; when manufacturers of every
grade from those who make pianos to
those who make pins, unite for mutual
assistance and defense; when, finally, the
class always tardiest to respond to any
new influence, the farmers, have banded
themselves together to obtain privileges
and rights either fancied or real, it
seems almost incomprehensible that the
large and intelligent class called business
men should enter the conflict of life, un-
aided by each other. The great subjects
of insurance, railroad transportation.
taxation, adulteration of food, enhanced
cost of products through the machina-
tions of trusts and combinations—these,
and many others which will oceur to
you, call for a union of those most nearly
affected by them, the business men.

If this position is a true one, and there
is a sphere of usefulness to be filled bya
Business Men’s Association in Michigan,
the question presents itself, Shall it be
the present organization or one based up-
on some different plan?

If it is to take cognizance of subjects
of a general nature only, the theory
upon which our Association is created
must be abandoned. It must be a State
Association not composed of auxiliary

 

 

a

 

 

Psy Ate. in o Seer =

 

 

 

La

 

 

 

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

  

 

associations, but of all business men
who desire to co-operate with each other,
to obtain mutual benefits and security.
Backed by the members it should pos-
sess, such an association could wield an
influence second to none in our State,
and become a blessing not only to its
members, but to every other citizen,
through the prevalence of those prac-
tices in commercial transactions, dic-
tated by honesty, and known throughout
the world as business methods.

Chairman Hamilton then presented the
report of the Committee on Trade Inter-
ests, as follows:

Assembled again after a separation of
sixteen months, we have cause to con-
gratulate ourselves upon continued pros-
perity as a whole. With all the uncer-
tainties connected with merchandising,
we meet at this time to convey to one
another the happy intelligence gleaned
from fair flelds of labor.

The confidence in trade, the basis upon
which the prosperity of our country
rests to-day, is marked to an unusual de-
gree. The common danger, threatening
trades and crafts, which existed in an
early day, formed the tie which bound
them together. Foreign enemies no
longer threaten our circles toany noticea-
ble extent, but we have daily to contend
with the resulting influences of progress,
education and competition.

Magnus, the son of King Nicholas of
Denmark, had slain the Duke Canute
Levard, the alderman and protector of
the Sleswig Guild. When King Nicho-
las, in 1130, came to Hetheby, his follow-
ers advised him not to enter the town,
for the townsmen put in force the law
with extreme severity within this guild,
and did not suffer any one to remain un-
punished who had killed or even injured
one of their brethren. The King de-
spised the warning saying, ‘‘What should
I fear from these tanners and shoe-mak-
ers?”? Secarcely, however, had he en-
tered the town, when the gates were
elosed, and at the sound of the guild bell
the citizens mustered, seized upon the
King, and killed him with all who tried
to defend him. Thus, even at the begin-
ning of the twelfth century, the guilds
enjoyed in Denmark such respect that
the lord of the land, Duke Canute, was4
pleased to become their alderman, and
they had such power that they could
venture to avenge, even upon a King,
any violation of the law committed upon
one of their great family.

This may serve as an illustration of
the fact that the confidence existing to-
day among business men arises from an
adherence to the well-established, com-
mon law of trade, in contradistinetion to
the individual defiance of all principles
upon which confidence is based. Our
laws to-day—both State and national—
are pointing toward the prevention of
violation of this confidence and, in the
event of its vivlation, furnish us with
remedies.

In refering again to the trade guilds,
as they appeared in the early centuries,
simply to mark the course of action along
the lines of trade, we recognize a com-
mon tie or brotherhood existing which
has for the most part not yet ceased to
exist, but the practical working of which
has passed into other fields, for other
hands to manipulate. On this point the
statutes of the guilds of all countries are
almost identical. Ifa brother falls into
poverty; if he ineurs losses by fire or
shipment; if illness or mutilation ren-
ders him unable to work, the brothers
contribute to his assistanee. Ifabrother
finds another in danger of life, on sea or
in captivity, he is bound to reserve him,
even at the sacrifice of a part of his own
goods, for which, however, he receives
compensation from the brother assisted
or from the community. English guild
statutes frequently mention loans to be
given to brothers carrying on trade,
often with no other condition than the
repayment of it when they should no
longer need it. The sick brother found
in his guild aid and attendance; the
dead was buried; for his soul prayers
were offered and services performed, and
not unfrequently the guild gave a dow-
ery to his poor orphaned daughter. The
numerous provisions as to the poor, as
to pilgrims and other helpless peopie, in

 

the statutes of English guilds, prove that
non-members in want found help from
them as well.

We have outgrown the family idea of
confederating into close unions, there be-
ing less demand for the mutual pledges
that were prominent among the early
merchants; we have entered the larger
field of competition among ourselves.
No less necessary is it, however, that
commercial integrity be maintained,
that wise and beneficent laws for even a
freer intercourse be established; no less
necessary is it for commercial bodies to
frequently assemble to stamp either their
approval or their disapproval upon ways
and means that not only create and en-
chance commercial honor but prevent
the vultures of trade from gaining a
foothold. Whatever affects our real in-
terests, in like degree affects the inter-
ests of all. The promulgator of a doc-
trine, open or implied, which determines
that the best interests of society are
best promoted by fostering antagonisms
between merchants, or between mer-
chants and consumers, is pernicious.

Every department of our Government is
receiving its due and timely recognition—
each has a ‘‘friend at court.’ To the
writer, it seems that Ex-Senator Mil-
ler, in his article in the North ‘American
Review, is right when he says, ‘‘Every
industry and commercial interest should
be fairly represented in our legislative
halls. Just now, when business and
commercial questions are upmost in the
public mind, there is a necessity for a
larger number of practical business men
in our legislatures than of representa-
tives of any other class.’”? He closes his
article by saying, ‘‘Shall the adjustment
and settlement of these industrial and
commercial problems be left to men who
either have no practical acquaintance
with them, or are unfitted by reason of
their subserviency to party dictation, to
consider any question from a high and
patriotic standpoint, or, to men who, by
training and experience, have acquired
a thorough mastery of these subjects?”

Two questions are now before our leg-
islators, of interest alike to the mer-
chant, to the business man, to the con-
sumer—the one, a Senate bill ‘‘For pre-
venting adulteration and misbranding
food and drugs,’’ the substance of which
has been made prominent in two of our
previous conventions. Able papers were
given upon this topic, the first by a gen-
tleman of great ability, Mr. Smith
Barnes, of Traverse City, well known to
all, whose experience in merchandising
for the last forty years enables him to
speak in denunciatory terms against the
perpetration of fraud upon an unsus-
pecting public; another by a former
President of this Association, who, too,
is deserving of praise for his able hand-
ling of the subject—I refer to Mr. Frank
Wells, of Lansing. Ido not propose to
enter this field again further than to note
that this bill, introduced at the last ses-
sion of Congress by Mr. Paddock. bears
a near semblance to previous bills intro-
duced but never passed both houses, and
it formulates the thoughts heretofore
expressed, viz., that our manufactured
food and drink should be sold for what
they purport to be, and that all brands
should indicate whether such food and
drink are pure orcompound. The bill re-
ferred to is now in the posession of the
writer, who does not think it necessary
to say more to this convention (which
will take action upon it as it sees fit)
than this: if either bill is passed by Con-
gress, let it be the Paddock bill, rather
than the House bill No. 11568, known as
the Conger Lard bill. This bill isin the
line of the Oleomargarine bill, a species
of class legislation which, if passed,
would subject buyers to imposition,
while the Paddock bill protects them
from imposition; the latter protects them
against dishonest competition, while the
Conger bill protects hog-raisers against
honest competition.

As regards the desirability of the Pad-
dock bill even, it seems to the writer a
questionable piece of legislation in view
of the recent decision of the Supreme
Court on the’ Original package and the
act of Congress following ‘closely upon
it. Can we, with any assurance of suc-
cess in ridding mankind from fraud and
bodily injury on their food and drink
question, do more than ask the Federal

 

Government to do just what they have
done on the case ahead mentioned, viz.,
subject all imports regardless of package
or bulk to the operation and effect of the
laws of that state enacted in the exercise
of the police powers in the same manner
as though they had been produced in
said state. Then let each state regulate
the food question as she may see fit, as
the exigencies of the case warrant.

As regards the Conger Lard Bill I
would like to see the influence of this
convention pitted against it. My reasons
may be summed up in a letter sent to the
Retail Grocers’ Association, of Pittsburg,
by Mr. Jas. W. Tappin. He sums up the
contents of the bill and asks every organ-
ization in the country to consider it and
report against it. I will read a few ex-
tracts from the letter.

The other question of importance to
the business world is the enactment of a
National Bankrupt Law. The bill now
before Congress is known as the Torry
Bill. It was formulated by Jay L. Torry,
of St, Louis, at the request of the whole-
sale grocers of St. Louis. Other com-
mercial bodies had agitated this move-
ment, and since the introduction of this

bill many individuals, Boards of Trade |

and business associations have urged the
passage of it. Ina memorial presented
to Congress by representatives of several
commercial bodies, the following state-
ments in brief were made, covering the
main features of the bill:

1. The constitution confers on honest
insolvents a right to have a bankrupt
law enacted.

2. Honest insolvents will be discharged,
dishonest insolvents will be punished.

3. A conservative tone will be given to
transactions between debtors and cred-
itors.

4. Commercial credit will be extended
and the prices of commodities reduced.

5. The giving and receiving of prefer-
ences will be prevented.

6. Fraud will be prohibited and such
persons as commit wrongs will be pun-
ished.

7. Dishonest and insolvent debtors will
be required to make a complete showing
and a full surrender of their property.

8. Creditors having claims of equal
merits against bankrupt estates will re-
ceive pro-rata dividends.

9. The coercion of debtors by their
large creditors, of large by little credit-
ors, will be prevented.

10. Voluntary and involuntary bank-
ruptcy are necessary in the best interests
of debtors and creditors.

While this law has been advocated by
the jobbing fraternity in nearly every
state in the Union, it is of interest to the
retailer. There are features in it that
are of great advantage to the honest in-
solvent, and the honest retailer, too, is
protected from the ‘‘machinations of the
devil’’—the dishonest insolvent. A good
bankrupt law may not make thieves of
honest men, but it is needed to restrain
them from culpable practices, and for
the better protection of the retailer. <A
case of dishonest insolvency has recently
come under my notice, and the following
noticeable points are clearly marked
fraud: The purchase of additional stock
to equal, say $10,000; mis-statements to
the jobber, coupled with a voracious de-
sire to sell by the jobber, secured to the
retailer the desired. In deference
to one jobber I will say that, for his own
safety—and it is questionable whether it
was done before or after the attachment
—he secured a mortgage sufficient in
amount to cover his.sales to the party.
This was kept quiet until the proper
time come for the raid.

The retailer goes home from market,
secretly ships goods to distant places,
pockets the proceeds, sacrifices daily
sales, ruins trade, creates distrust and is
closed up. Creditors settle down upon
the town like vultures upon a dead car-
cass. They are looking for their goods,
or the cash for them. The promising
merchant in whom they had such im-
plicit confidence has skipped, but for a
few days only, to return and defy the
law to measure out full justice to him.
The mortgagee, however, turns up and
demands 100 cents on the dollar and gets
it, while ‘‘the other fellers’’ accept the
situation very blandly and take what
they can get. In most cases of the kind
the man is again placed on his feet by

3
| the preferred creditor and allowed to
'run another course with most unhappy
; consequences to his contemporaries; or,
| the stock is bought by one of a neighbor-
|ing band for 50 per cent. on the dollar
| and his fellow merchants are the suffer-
iers. These cases are of almost daily oc-
|eurrencey, and the law and the jobber

combined permits it. There are many
| ways of proceeding, many phases of this
| work. The worst feature of it is that
|they are permitted along this line of
| thieving. Honest money is wrecked out
| of the legitimate channels of trade; crime
|goes unpunished; the innocent suffer;
ithe public are deluded. Is it not time
| for this organization to stamp its disap-
| proved upon this method of merchandis-
ing, to petition, as others are doing, our
legislations to enact a law that will cover
this whole ground of insolvency, better
known as a National Bankrupt Law, to
the end that justice and fairness and
greater confidence may parade the circles
of trade?

The convention then adjourned until
afternoon.

 

AFTERNOON SESSION.

At the opening of the afternoon ses-
sion, Rev. Chas. Fluhrer implored the di-
vine blessing, when A. J. Stebbins,
President of the Common Council, wel-
comed the business men to the city in
the following terms:

In behalf of the city of Grand Rapids,
I extend to the Michigan Business Men’s
Association a cordial weleome. Grand
Rapids claims, and justly claims, to be
the second city in the State of Michigan.
It aspires to and expects to be within a
few years the first city in the State of
Michigan. It recognizes that its present
position of solid development and as-
sured growthis mainly due to business
men, and that if we have, as we do have,
many things to be proud of as a city, it.
is chiefly owing to the enterprise, intelli-
gence, pluck and push of business men.

Our city is essentially a business city;
not only a manufacturing city—for
which, perhaps, it is most conspicuously
noted—but also as a business city in the
sense of its commercial enterprises, its
wholesale and retail houses, its commis-
sion houses, and all that is implied in
the word ‘‘business.” One thing I de-
sire to call marked attention to, and that
is that though the business men of Grand
Rapids, its manufacturers, merchants,
commission men and retailers have been
noted and marked for enterprise and
courage, and have not been slow to fore-
see the future of the metropolis of West-
ern Michigan, yet, at the same time,
they have been marked as men who have
been conservative in their methods of
business, as Grand Rapids has never yet
been blessed, or rather afflicted, with a
boom. We, therefore, recognize that it
is to business men, in the proper and
broad sense of the term, that this com-
munity owes its present condition of
prosperity. Werecognize the fact that
to associations like that of the body now
in session is largely to be attributed the
development, not only of the cities and
villages of the State, but of the State it-
self. Though physical labor is the
foundation, it requires the intelligént
and unselfish co-operation of business
men to produce the grand results of
building up a great commonwealth, such
as Michigan to-day is.

It is not at all necessary for me at this
time to praise the city of Grand Rapids,
to call your attention to its city hall, its
publie schools, to its enterprise and pro-
gress, because you, as business men,
‘thoroughly understand the _ position
which Grand Rapids holds as an impor-
tant business center of the State.

You have met here for the purpose of
still further developing the prosperity of
the business enterprises of Michigan.
These are matters with which you are
especially familiar. No. suggestions
which I can make would aid you in that
most laudable and important enterprise.

In conclusion, I will simply say that
Grand Rapids bids you a most hearty
weleome within its gates, and that all
that we can do for you to make your so-
journ here pleasant, will be done, and
that we trust that your stay here may be
both pleasant and profitable.

 

 

 

  

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

 

The city of Grand Rapids officially
does here and now grant to your body
the freedom of the city.

THE response was made by J. V. Cran-
dall, of Sand Lake, in his usual felic-
itous manner. '

E. W. Hastings, of Traverse City, then
read the following paper on ‘‘How to
Improve Ou: Collection System:”’

Credits first—collections follow, as the
night follows the day; but can there be
anything said that is new in regard to
collecting from these slow and irrespon-
sible parties whom we will continue to
trust just so long as we continue a credit
business? Yet what part of our business
is demanding more of our time and atten-
tion? What is more perpiexing or more
exasperating? What tries our patience
more, or causes us to lose faith in our
brother man, than these same poor and
worthless accounts that we carry from
month to month and from year to year?
Is there no solution to this question?
Must we be econtinally harrassed with
the ‘‘dead-beat,” as we call him, who
continues to stalk our land, seeking
whom he may devour? How shall we
exterminate him? The individual man
or woman who would successfully solve
this problem, so that these accounts
might be collected dollar for dollar and
the dead-beat be no more, would have a
bonanza! Their lithographs would
adorn the walls of our summer cottages,
their memories immortalized by having
their bust distributed to the trade as a
premium with one dozen bars of ivory
soap!

The only solution that I am able to of-
fer is a strictly cash business—not where
you will find innumerable signs and
placards with, ‘‘positively no credit,”
‘“‘do not ask for eredit—you will be re-
fused,’’ **trust in God and pay eash for
your goods,”’ etc., ete. Then, at the end
of the year, you would have from three

“to five hundred dollars less of these same
peor and worthless accounts on your
books. We havea few successful cash
stores in this State, and I have been in
hopes that our friends, the Patrons of
Industry, would stick together and live
long enough to convince them that to
pay cash on delivery was by far the
cheapest and best way for them to buy
their goods. And yet, on the other hand,
1 think you will all bear me out in the
assertion that the credit system, in one
way or another, is steadily on the in-
erease. The lease plan, which at one
time was confined almost exclusively to
the sewing machine trade, is now being
adopted by many other branches of busi-
ness. Good as this is, it cannot be used
by all, more especially by the grocer, the
dry goods or boot and shoe man. The
druggist, for instance, might take a lean
on the drugs he sold and have nothing
but a corpse to show for them. Yet the
lease plan is not always successful.
Having had more or less experience
with this plan for the past ten years, I
find that these leases must all be fol-
lowed up very closely, pushed contin-
ually, earnestly and persistently—in
fact, it is the only way a lease business
ean be carried on successfully.

But, gentlemen, I am of the opinion
that the retail merchant who is doing a
credit business is largely at fault—he
has so many of these poor and worthless
accounts. You are probably acquainted
with some who allow an account to go on
from year to year without ever getting a
settlement in any way whatever. That
is not business. All accounts should be
settled once or twice a year—if possible,
every month would be better. You get
your statement from the wholesaler on
the first of the month with, ‘Please re-
mit. Will draw on the tenth.” That is
business and you admire it; so, I say,
your customers would admire you if you
were more explicit, had a definite time
when you expected a settlement, were
not afraid to ask for what was your own,
even pushed the matter pretty hard.
‘‘Life is short.” Why leave these ac-
counts until you or your customers have
succumbed to the chilly blasts and been
laid away in the cold, cold ground—they
cannot be collected then for ten cents on
the dollar.

We find, in looking over the early his-
tory of the work of this Association, that

 

one of our fundamental principles was
the collection of bad debts or worthless
accounts and the branding of those from
whom we could not collect as ‘‘dead-
beats,’’ or, more properly speaking, pub-
lishing their names on our delinquent
list. Much printing matter was care-
fully arranged for this purpose and a
number of by laws drafted that we were
bound to support. Here isone: ‘Any
member trusting a man whose name ap-
pears on the delinquent list shall be fined
$10.’’ Iam of the opinion that we might
gather in a good many ten dollars about
this time! Now, while this system has
had a number of exceptionally good
points, we find that it did not work. I
have no doubt but what this one fact has
caused the early death of many of our
local associations. I donot believe that
it can be carried on successfully by any
local association. We, at Traverse City,
having outlived many other local associa-
tions, have had an excellent opportunity,
with our large membership, to give the
system a very thorough trial. This, I
believe, we have done and, while we try
to do something with it now, it is almost
a dead letter. Why? Because, first, we
have outgrown that part of the work;
second, it requires too much time from
our local boards, that are made up of
our busiest men. We cannot spend the
time necessary to give to these poor and
worthless accounts; they are your indi-
vidual property, of no interest to anyone
but yourself. Nor has the local Secre-
tary the time, and, if he had, he cannot
afford to push them if he has any busi-
ness of his own whereby he is dependent
upon the good will of the community at
large, for, with this system, there is
more or less friction, and the Secretary
is bound to have trouble with someone.
Unless he can have enough of this to do
so that he can give his undivided atten-
tion to the work, he will do well to leave
the collections alone; yet, we have men
in our association who think that, for the
honor conferred upon us as secretaries,
we should be perfectly willing to give
of our time to their individual business,
and to that part that they themselves
can do nothing with.

Gentlemen, just so long as you are in
business you will finda class of people
in this great commonwealth of ours—
glorious as we consider it—that, sooner
or later, you are bound to lose by—they
will beat you. This is deplorable but,
nevertheless, the unvarnished truth.
The question for us is, ‘‘How can we re-
duce this loss to the least possible fig-
ures??? What we want is to be ac-
quainted with each individual customer
who is trading or likely to trade with us.
This, you say, is impossible. 1 say that
this is our only remedy, and for this in-
formation or acquaintance you can well
afford to pay a good price, for it will be
money in your pocket. The name, occu-
pation and postoffice address of every
consumer in the county, are they respon-
sible and for how much, are they prompt
or are they slow pay, are they honest or
will they ‘‘beat’? you when they can—
these are things you want to know. It
would be of far greater value to you than
Dun’s or Bradstreet’s possibly could be
to the wholesaler.

Now, I beMeve that the system out-
lined is the coming system, but it should
be the work of an individual, or of a
stock company, with such little assist-
ance as it is possible for the associations
to give. It would require time, labor
and money, but, in the end, it would be
a permanent and paying business. |
should also turn into’ this company all
accounts that we are unable to collect,
allowing them 20 per cent. the same as we
do now for collecting. I believe that
such a company could bring more force
to bear in collecting than it is possible
for us to do as an association. With the
rating of each individual customer at
your elbow for you to refer to, it cer-
tainly will be your own fault if you have
many of these accounts to collect, un-
less, perchance, your spinal column is
of that delicate nature that you cannot
stand behind your own countér and re-
fuse aman whom you know to be un-
worthy of credit. That being the case,
your existence as a business man will be
of short duration.

I understand that something of this
kind is being carried on quite success-

 

fully in several States, both in the East
and in the West. Ihave had the oppor-
tunity of looking this up quite thorough-
ly. The business men with whom I
have corresponded are very much pleased
with this system.

I have not written this paper to adver-
tise any particular system. The busi-
ness men of this State should have the
very best, for nothing is too good for
Michigan. If it is possible to improve
this system, let us have something bet-
ter, but I believe in it thoroughly. I be-
lieve it to be practical. I believe that it
is the only way to doa safe credit busi-
ness, and in my opinion the day is not
far distant when you will demand the
credit rating and collection system. The
question is this: ‘Shall we who are
right here in the field take up this work
and adopt a system of our own, or, shall
we let someone outside of the State step
in and secure this opportunity?” It is
for you, gentlemen, to answer.

J. V. Crandall warmly praised the
recommendations set forth in this paper,
but said the ‘‘raking’’ system would do
better than the ‘‘rating’? system up
around Crandall Corners.

President. Whitney commended the rat-
ing plan set forth in the paper and
pointed out the advantages it would be
to the merchant to have such a system at
hand.

Frank Hamilton approved the rating
system and hoped to see it undertaken
by men of good reputation, using one of-

fice and one headquarters through which
to prosecute the work.

N. B. Blain asserted that he obtained
better results by collecting his own ac-
eounts, but would cordially support any

system which received the support of the
Association.

P. J. Connell, of Muskegon, read the
following paper on ‘‘Fire Protection:

Having been educated to never refuse
to do my part in the interest of organized
efforts to improve ourselves, I reluctantly
consented to assume the task assigned
me by our President. Feeling my inabil-
ity to cope with the whole subject, I will
briefly touch some of the most important
points. Being a gathering of business
men and not critics, 1 shall proceed at
once and in my own way to say a few
words from a fireman’s standpoint,

I will first ask, What is fire protection?
The true fireman will answer: To pro-
vide the best means of saving life and
property from loss by fire, and at the
smallest possible cost, consistent with
proper protection.

Nearly every city in our State has a
well-organized fire department, under
the command of trained and experienced
officers, who are ready and willing to
discharge their duty under all circum-
stances; but, unfortunately, the purchase
of the necessary supplies and apparatus
is in the hands of commissioners or coun-
cils who know nothing of the needs or
wants of a fire department or who, for
political reasons, refuse or neglect to
procure proper equipments and appli-
ances for fighting, thus crippling an other-
wise efficient fire department.

There are no funds expended by any
city or village which do more direct good
to the taxpayer than those used for the
proper equipment of its fire department.
Do not understand me to advocate lavish
or needless outlay of money, but enough
to furnish and keep all fire fighting appli-
ances in good working order. Buy the
best of its kind and see to it that there is
always a good supply of hose on hand.
Do not adopt the ‘‘penny wise” plan and,
when you come to need it, find to your
sorrow that the hose will not stand the
pressure or hold water—very good for a
garden sprinkler but a failure for fight-
ing fire.
are too plentiful, and this cheap policy of
the purchasing agent has cost many a
taxpayer the savings of a lifetime or the
life of one or more members of his fam-
ily.

Another enemy of the fire service in this
country is politics. See to it that your
chief is appointed for his worth. Let
him select his own firemen. Never mind
their religion or their politics. That is

Such hose and other apparatus |

 

their business. Are they good firemen?
That is your business. If not, put others
in their places. The fire department is
no place for ornaments, paid or unpaid.
There are many cities and villages which
rely entirely on a volunteer system and
there aremany in Michigan as good as
the world produces; but, with due respect
for them and the noble work they have
done, I claim there should always be
one paid man (the chief or foreman) to
look after the apparatus; to keep it in
good working order and to see that it is
always ready and gets to the fire and
that it will work when it does gets there.
What is everybody’s business is no one’s
business, and many entire towns have
been destroyed, simply because some-
thing failed to work at the critical time,
when a few pails of water, properly ap-
plied, would have put the fire out.

There is still another class who have
no fire fighting appliances of any kind.
To them I would recommend the chemi-
cal fire engine. They are made by many
different firms from one gallon up to the
double eighty-gallon machines. A child
can use them, and they are always ready
if charged (and should be charged at all
times). No merchant or manufacturer
should be without one on his premises.
I believe it to be one of the best means
of fire fighting that modern science has
given us. Itis both efficient and dura-
ble.

Having thus briefly reviewed the pro-
tection furnished by fire fighting ma-
chines and appliances, I now ask, what
do we do to protect ourselves? Echo an-
swers, keep insured—at 21¢ to 5 percent.
premium.

Is it not a fact that our buildings, as a
rule, are put up in the cheapest possible
manner without any regard for the pro-
tection of its occupants from fire or even
a means of escape in many cases, and
this is something worthy the attention of
all business men, for even a wooden
building can be built to burn slowly, and
acommon brick building can be made
almost fireproof with a very slight addi-
tion to its original cost, and the owner or
tenant would soon save the difference in
rates of insurance.

I would also call attention to the stor-
age ofoils andjpowder. What little thought
is bestowed on this subject by the aver-
age merchant! I have seen a merchant
weigh out powder at night as careless as
in the day time, and a keg or can always
in reach of the hand—and the fire, as
well. Itsaves time, you know. How
many ever study the composition of oils
and how many different gasses they con-
tain; at what degree of temperature they
will explode, or, by coming in contact
with each other, will cause conbus-
tion? They should never be stored ina
cellar or under a building, but in an out-
house made for the purpose. If more
care was taken, we would have less of
the so-called incendiary fires to report.
It is a fact that nine out of ten of them
are caused by spontaneous combustion.

Mr. Connell explained his references
to explosive gasses by citing numerous
examples of combustion from _ that
source.

The following paper on ‘‘The Conger
Lard Bill,’”? by H. F. Bannard, of Chi-
cago, was then read by Frank Hamilton:

Few business men fully understand
how deeply mercantile interests are af-
fected by the principles underlying the
Conger lard bill, which passed the House
of Representatives last summer and now
awaits the action of the United States
Senate. These principles extend to the
ultimate regulation of all local commerce

(and retail trade through governmental

interference and it is the duty of all bus-
iness men to consider how their interests
are involved and what action is desirable
or necessary.

To go back thirty years, it is to
be noted that prior to the War of
the Rebellion, in 1860, no one imagined
that the general government ever could,
or would, interfere with or attempt to
regulate the ordinary transactions of
everyday business life. All such work
was left to the local authorities. We
thought in those days that it was not in-
cumbent upon the President of the

United States to execute laws relative to
shop-keeping.

If a man kept a mock-

 

 

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

   

5

 

 

auction, or a peddler dealt in ‘‘snide’’
wares, or a marketman sold spoiled
meats and vegetables, all these evils
were attended to by the municipal au-
thorities. The swindler’s license was re-
voked by the local police, or the un-
wholesome food was condemned and de-
stroyed by the proper health officers.
No legislation was looked for at Wash-
ington.

As the war continued, the question of
raising money to support the government
became paramount and the ingenuity of
Congress was exerted to the utmost to
invent new taxes. Among other taxes
thus devised were taxes on ‘‘dealers.’’
Nearly if not quite, every merchant and
business man in the country paid a tax
as some kind of a ‘‘dealer.’? He might
have been a ‘‘wholesale dealer,” or a
‘retail dealer,’’ or a ‘‘commission deal-
er,’? or a ‘whiskey dealer,’ ete. In
some instances merchants paid two or
more taxes as ‘‘dealers’’? to include all
branches of their business.

These were recognized as ‘‘war taxes’’
and were necessary to help to support
the government. But,in levying these
taxes, the government in no way at-
tempted to regulate or interfere with
trade and merchants’ rights, beyond what
was absolutely necessary, to make sure
of the collection of all the Internal Rev-
enue.

After the close of the war, Congress
naturally commenced to reduce the taxes
and to abolish one after another, as the
expenses of the government were dimin-
ished and the money raised by these ex-
traordinary methods was no_ longer
needed. It was all the while understood
that the Internal Revenue taxes were
the most objectionable and that these es-
pecially should be abolished, wherever
possible. General dealers’ taxes and
revenue, stamps on checks and deeds and
proprietary stamps on medicines and
perfumes all gradually vanished, until
finally the so-called McKinley bill has re-
moved the special taxes on all dealers in
tobacco, cigars and snuff. The abolition
of these so-called license taxes for. to-
bacco dealers closed out the last of the
war taxes levied by the national govern-
ment upon general merchants, grocers
and store-keepers. Meanwhile, a new
idea sprung up in Congress in 1885 and
1886.

For many years chemists and other sci-
entists had been interesting themselves
to produce a cheaper edible fat, as a sub-
stitute for butter. Oleomargarine had
been invented and from its rapid and ex-
tensive sale had proved to be a substan-
tial success. But the natural prejudice
against artificial butter led many to im-
agine that there was something unwhole-
some in the new product and that some
great national danger might be lurking
therein, concealed from the knowledge
of the general public.

It was proved that nearly, if not quite

‘all, of the oleomargarine manufactured

was sold under the name of ‘‘Butter’’
and this was considered to be a gigantic
commercial fraud. Under these circum-
stances a newspaper man in St. Louis is
credited with the ingenuity that first sug-
gested the oleomargarine law. He rea-
soned, that if the powers of the govern-
ment could be stretched to levy Internal
Revenue taxes. to meet the great danger
caused by the rebellion, then Internal
Revenne taxation should be sufficiently
elastic to include regulation of manu-
factures and commerce, to meet the sup-
posed national danger from poison and
fraud through oleemargarine.

The law was made radical and sweep-
ing. Congress undertook not only to
regulate the manufacture but also the
sale of the new artificial butter, extend-
ing the regulation to the most trifling de-
tails of the trade. Methods of manu-
facturing were to be examined into by
government chemists. Sizes and styles
of packages, and even the materials to be
used for packages, were all minutely
prescribed. Every package was num-
bered and wholesale dealers were re-
quired to keep books, showing by such
number the receipt, sale and shipment of
each individual package, no matter how
small. Then Internal Revenue officers

were hired to watch every retailer and
see that every pound and every ounce
was systematically dipped out of an orig-
inal package and rewrapped and deliy-

 

ered to the buyer with a fresh label on
it, printed with letters solemnly meas-
ured by the Commissioner of the Internal
Revenue Bureau at Washington. The
whole arrangement was crowned with a
most unreasonable and senseless outfit of
special taxes, including retail dealers’ li-
censes, at the rate of $48 per annum.

The enactment of the oleomargarine
law aroused considerable interest at the
time, but business men and merchants
generally stood aloof, and so far as_ they
were concerned the measure went
through Congress almost without objec-
tion. As a matter of faet, nobody
pointed out that there might be a distine-
tion made, and a line drawn between the
policy of governmental regulation of the
manufacture of an article supposed to be
fraudulent, or even dangerous, and the
policy of regulating the sale and _ traffic
in the same article, after it had been
manufactured under governmental super-
vision and packed in accordance with the
law under rigid scrutiny and thorough
inspection, so as to meet all the real or
imaginary necessities of the case.

These questions of policy are again be-
fore the public, and under consideration
by Congress, in the Conger lard bill, and
this is the proper time for merchants and
business men to consider whether such
legislation is altogether necessary or
conducive to the best interests of the
entire community.

It is claimed, on behalf of the lard bill,
that cottonseed oil compound is sold toa
large extent as a substitute for lard as a
cooking fat, so as to constitute a fraud
on the public, just as prior to 1886 oleo-
margarine was a fraud among edible fats.
There is, so far as we can learn, no in-
dictment against cotton oil lard, on the
ground of poison or unwholesomeness.
Governmental interference is implored,
in this instance, only on the grounds of
commercial fraud. Governmental inter-
position in the manufacture of cotton oil
lard is provided in the Conger bill, after
the fashion of the oleomargarine law,
and the question in which merchants and
traders are interested, is simply this:
Admitting that there be such a grave and
stupendous fraud in the manufacture,
does this necessarily eall for such regu-
lation of the retail trade of the whole
country, as to establish a precedent for
the regulation hereafter of all the local
commerce and market business of the
United States by national legislation?

The Conger bill prohibits the packing
of cottonseed oil or other lard substi-
tutes, resembling lard, in wooden pails
or buekets, and likewise prohibits pack-
ing the same in tin cans or caddies or
other hermetically sealed receptacles.
It further prohibits the shipping of one
package inside of another, so that small
tin pails with movable covers may not
be placed inside of boxes and, therefore,
cannot be transported. Dealers are not
allowed under the Conger bill to sell
quantities less than three pounds, except
the grease be dipped out of the tierce or
tub, or other permissible original pack-
age and repacked with a printed label,
having letters measured in inches by the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the
same as in the case of oleomargarine.
Railroads cannot transpert lard compound
in any style of package without elaborate
and most vexatious restrictions. No
dealer is permitted to sell a quantity as
great as three pounds, or upward, unless
in an original package. No original
package suitable for shipment or trans-
portation is allowed, except a wooden
tub, and thus all traffic in any cooking
fat resembling lard, other than clear hog
grease, is actually prohibited in quanti-
ties above 27¢ pounds and below an ordi-
nary wooden tub of say thirty or thirty-
fiye pounds. A full line of taxes and
licenses is provided to correspond with
the war system of Internal Revenue tax-
ation. Our dictionaries may be searched
in vain to find adjectives adequate to
characterize the absurdity and rottenness
of such alaw. In the first place, any
apparent necessity for governmental
regulation of the manufacture and label-
ing of cotton seed oil does not afford a
sufficient pretext for dictating to mer-
chants how little they must sell, or to
consumers how mueh they shall buy. In
the second place, no fraud of whatever
magnitude in trade, can possibly justify
the fraud that will be perpetrated against

 

 

the rights of the people of the United | panies in particular.

Pardon me if I

States if Mr. Conger, of Iowa, should | burden you with figures from the Insur-

succeed in dictating to the people of the | ance Commissioner’s report for ’89.

The

whole country any particular rules to} magnitude of the business can thus be

govern the purchase and sale of their}
cooking materials.

The question involved is much broader |
than appears at first glance. A bystander |
or mere casual observer might imagine |
the contest to be merely between hog
lard and cottonseed oil as a cooking fat.
Such a man might feel that it wasa'
struggle between two agricultural or
manufacturing interests, based upon
purely selfish reasons, in which the gen-
eral public had no concern. Buta close |
analysis of the points in dispute discloses |
how deep and far reaching the conse- |
quences may be.

It has been said that our forefathers in
1776 renounced allegiance to Great Brit-
ain because of a tax of three pence per
pound on tea. It was not the ‘‘three

| assets, $208,578,000.

expressed in numerals, as follows: In

| 1889, there were doing business in Mich-

igan three stock companies organized
within the State, with $950,000 capital
and $2,160,500 assets; insurance com-
panies of other states, 114, capital, $53,-
557,000, assets, $160,250,000; foreign
companies, 25, capital, $5,000,000, assets,
$46,491,000: whole number of companies,
144, whole paid capital, $59,507,000, total
This represents to
us the responsibility of the companies
doing business in Michigan, and shows a
guarantee for all insurance contracts is-
sued by stock companies. But,let us
look at the liability as against this body
of assets. The Michigan companies alone
wrote.$24,680,000 of insurance in 1889,
premiums, $352,902, average rate, $1.21;

 

 

pence’’ or the ‘“‘tea” alone that were in-| the 114 companies of other states wrote

r |
Chere |

volved in the ensuing struggle.

was an underlying principle, so plain and |

so unmistakable that the ‘‘three pence” |
or ‘‘tea,’”’? instead of being a matter of |

apparent insignificance, became an issue
of absolute grandeur.
We have to contemplate to-day, not

|
|
|
|
|
|

only as merchants and business men, but |

as citizens of a free and
country, a similar issue of equally vital
importance.

If any set of men, call them by the
name of ‘Congress’? or call them the
“Government,” can dictate to their fel-

low citizens such preposterous and out- |

landish rules of trade as those laid down
in the Conger lard bill, then, and in that
ease, this is certainly not a free country,
and we shall no longer be free men, but
mere slaves to the whims and eaprices of
any set of cranks who may happen to
have a ‘‘pull” upon legislation at Wash-
ington. e

Two hours discussion on the ‘‘good of
the order’ followed, at the conclusion of

which the convention adjourned until
evening.

EVENING

At the opening of the evening session,
Geo. B. Caldwell read the. following pa-
per on ‘Some Phases of the Insurance
Question:’’

You have requested me to give the in-
surance question some consideration at
this time; and you have made my sub-
ject very broad, but, after listening to
the report of your Insurance Committee
and the able paper of Brother Connell,
from Muskegon, on ‘‘Fire Protection,” |
must ask you to excuse my production,
prepared as it has been under adverse
circumstances and limited time. I will
not consume your time by reviewing the
work of the Association in the past, or
by drawing imaginary pictures too great
to be realized, but will try to point out a
few things which | believe worthy of crit-
cism by this body and which can ve rem-
edied by you. I will divide the subject
into three divisions—first, the relation of
the insurance busiress to other branches
of business; second, mutual insurance vs.
stock insurance, and, third, the three per
cent. tax.

In the business world it is most essen-
tial that we know with whom we deal,
and one of the first questions asked re-
garding one another is the question of
financial stability. In entering into bar-
gain, agreement or contract it is not so
much to us to know that we are compe-
tent to perform our part of the agreement
as to know that you, the second party,
will not disappoint us. So, in the insur-
ance world, to know that your property
is, to-day, protected from fire, by a small
investment by you, concerns each of us
but little. It is more to us to know that
the capital guarantying our indemnity
reaches the millions and is sufficient be-
yond doubt for any and every demand.
Our part of the contract in the matter of
paying premiums and providing fire pro-
tection also reaches many millions, as
Mr. Connell has shown you. We have

SESSION.

enlightened |

 

millions of dollars invested in our water-
works, fire apparatuses and organized |
fire departments, quite as necessary and |
as great a source of security as your in-|
surance policies.

$192,229,000 of business, premiums, $2,-
503,000, average rate, $1.37; twenty-five
foreign companies wrote $58,609,000 of
business, premiums, $875,493, average
rate, $1.65; whole amount of risks writ-
ten in Michigan, $275,518,000; whole
amount of premiums collected, $3,732,-
000, average rate, $1.41. As compared
to the business ten years previous, or in

 

| 1879, we find the amount of insurance
written 7-10 of one per cent. greater,
while the premiums collected were

little more than twice the amount, show-
ing that we paid a higher rate in 1889
than in 1879, the average rate
m 1889 was 1.41 and m is
but $1.11, or 3-10 of one per cent. more,
to-day, than ten years ago. This applies
to the stock fire insurance companies
alone.

It is surprising to most of us to know
that, while we have better fire protection,
better buildings and a better degree of
civilization, hence less moral hazard,
than ten years ago, we must pay higher
rates of insurance. If we have done so,
we have performed our part of the con-
tract, and if these statements are true
the insuring public have a right to a
lower rate of premium, or to an explana-
tion for the causes of present rates. In
analyzing the question, [ find that the
expenditures of the companies for 1879
compared with those of 1879, were 57 per
cent. in 1879, as against 60 per cent. in
1889 for fire loses. Here, then, is the
difference—the expense ratio or cost of
doing business is about the same, also
the dividend and surplus ratio, showing
that the fire losses have accounted for
the extra premium we have to pay. It
is hard to understand why, the older we
grow, the wiser we get; and the better
fire protection we have, the more our in-
surance costs us. To meit proves con-
clusively that present methods of stock
companies are not modern but old and
expensive.

It is here 1 will introduce the second
phase of this question, mutual insurance
vs. stock fire insurance. In the fire in-
surance world there are to-day two kinds
of companies: the one, where for a speci-
fied sum, you are insured for a given pe-
riod, not to exceed a certain amount—
this is the stock company; the other,
where, by your consent, and, perhaps,
the payment of a membership fee, or the
giving of a premium note, you becomea
member of the association, each member
or body of members assuming any liabil-
ity that may occur. The result to policy
holders in both eases is supposed to be
the same, but in method they so differ as
to become enemies. The one holds up a
certain capital as a guarantee to its con-
tracts; the other finds its strength in its
membership and low rates. For years
past, the mutual idea of insurance
thought to be correct, has been held to
be impracticable. Failure was predicted
to be certain, and in shorter time than in
stock companies, but, with the aid of ex-
perience, these weaknesses have been
strengthened, and, although there is still
some chance fer adverse criticism, it is
no more in that respect in mutual under-
writing than in stock companies, and it
is also true that the failures are no more
numerous. ‘The lesson we get from this
is that the factors contributing to the
success of fire underwriting at the pres-

 

It remains for me, |ent day have changed, and old theories
however, to speak of the insurance com- must be laid aside and new ones recog-

  

ereoneqer ernment or:

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

nized. The mutual companies, in their
competition for business, have so im-

proved their methods and analyzed the)
different kinds of risks as to be able to)

excel the stock companies. They are,
consequently, becoming numerous and
strong and have in many states, under a

more favorable law than ours, succeeded |
in obtaining what has always been a)
most profitable business to the stock |
I can prove the truth of this |

companies.
by pointing out to you the numerous
manufacturing concerns in this city.
They are getting their kind of insurance,
to-day, at much less than what it cost
them five years ago, but this applies to
manufacturing risks alone. While many
improvements help to bring about this
change, the greatest cause is competition.
At a recent meeting of the Underwriters
of the Northwest, held in Chicago, in
September, Mr. George P. Sheldon, Pres-
ident of the Phenix Insurance Co. of
Brooklyn, says: ‘*While I do not recognize
that all the wisdom as regards fire un-
derwriting lies under the hats of mutual
underwriters, I must recognize the fact
that, during the last two years, over ten
millions in risks have gone from our
books to the mutuals, and that, in twelve
months more, unless radical measures
are taken by us, there will not be left on
the books of the stock companies a pol-
icy on a single textile plant.’? He refers,
in his speech, to the Eastern States, where
the mutual companies have been most
aggressive, most successful and most
beneficial. We, in Michigan, do not re-
alize this. Our present laws are discrim-
inating in favor of the stock companies
and against the mutual companies in ev-
ery branch except farm property and
manufacturing risks. We, as business
men, are compelled to either write our
insurance in stock companies, or go
without. Ido not condemn our insur-
ance departments, nor present laws—
they are both very excellent, but we
alone are to blame, because we do not
have, as merchants and business men,
a law on our statute books giving us the
privilege of organizing and operating
mutual companies that can insure our
class of property. In referring to the
insurance laws of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana
and the Eastern States, | find that each of
them permit the organization of insur-
ance companies with premium notes,
having guarantee capital, to operate on a
mutual basis and insure all kinds of
property. It is now time for us to act,
and there is but one conclusion to be
drawn—if we will not gointo the insur-
ance business ourselves, pledge our own
capital and organize stock companies, we
must either submit to present rates of
stock companies in the mercantile busi-
ness, or have the competition of mutual
companies. Weareon the eve of an-
other meeting of our Legislature, and
Michigan business men can, by prompt
and harmonious action, open this avenue
for their own good. i do not advocate
the days of wild cat banking, or wild cat
insurance, but it is a fact which we will
do well to regard that other states so far
excel us as to possess more insurance
companies and cheaper rates of insurance
than we do.

I now maintain that the proper thing
for business men to do is to con-
tribute to the organization of stock
companies. I believe that this is,
to-day, the best method for _ busi-
ness men to get cheaper insurance,
and get all there is in it, for, if you are
both a stockholder and a policy holder.
you cannot find fault because rates are
high. In that ease, it would matter not
whether rates were high or low—the
greatest concern with you would be as to
the hazard of your own risk; and I would
warrant that such a policy would stimu-
late any of you to the greatest possible
care in the prevention of fire, and to the
adoption of modern methods of fire pro-
tection.

We meet here in convention, we anal-
yze the question. We boast of our pros-
perity, of our industries, of our ability,
but we return home reluctant to turn
out of our well-beaten tracks and under-
take to do what others are reaping a ben-
efit from. It is plain enough that Mich-
igan business men have the matter in
their own hands and haye no reason to
find fault with things as they are. If
you want stock insurance and stock com-

| panies, why don’t you start them and
build them for yourselves, or stop kick-
ing about things as they are; but, if you
want competition and mutual companies,
it remains with you to provide a law
that will allow them to organize and
flourish here as elsewhere. This dis-
crimination of Michigan laws in favor of
stock companies as against mutuals
must, without doubt, compel manufact-
urers and some merchants to carry much
less insurance, or insurance written in
companies not licensed to do business in
|Michigan. These companies evade pay-
ing any tax here, have no authorized

of law can be served. They ought not to
be patronized, but there are certain
classes of our business so peculiar, so
hazardous and having such a high rate
fixed by our own companies, that they
must go without insurance or violate the
law. There is no question more im-
portant to business men than _ this
one, and there is no reason why we
ought not to enjoy, as well as our neigh-
bors, every advantage of this question to
its full extent. Some insurance agent is
aching to say, ‘“‘If this field is so profita-
ble, and these things are true, why so
few Michigan companies?” Because
Michigan, with its vast resources, has al-
ways been a profitable one for the in-
vestment of capital and consumes our
surplus as fast as it accumulates, while
foreign and eastern capital steps in and
realizes 8 to 10 per cent. on their invest-
ments. Sol will answer the question by
saying that, if the field is not profitable,
why so many foreign companies in the
State? In regard to profits, the three
Michigan companies paid last year in
dividends and passed to their surplus
fund, 16 per cent. on a capital of $950,-
000, and, out of 142 stock companies do-
ing business in the State, eight of them
paid less than 7 per gent., fifteen paid
less than 10 per cent. and 110 of them
paid from 10 to 40 percent. Is there a
merchant present who did as well? Ten
million dollars more went out of Michi-
gan last year for fire insurance than was
paid back by the companies for losses
and expense in doing the business; yet,
we are told that there is no money in the
insurance business, and are seared from
investing our own capital, and into pay-
ing present rates.

There is one other phase of this ques-
tion worthy of our consideration—it is
the 3 per cent. tax. Each stock insur-
ance company in this State is compelled
to pay a3 per cent. tax on its gross pre-
miums, which, while it goes into the
State Treasury and, in a measure, re-
duces our direct tax, is certainly a dis-
crimination against the man who has his
investments in personal property and
must have insurance and pay a direct
tax thereon, and in favor of the one who
has itin lands and mortgages and re-
quires no insurance. It seems to me
that, under the present prosperous con-
dition of our State Treasury, this tax
law should be amended or repealed. If
it is not practicable to repeal the law,
then let it be amended so far as Michigan
companies are concerned, or be modified
to 1 per cent. on the business of foreign
companies. The amount, then, would be
more than adequate to cover the expense
of the State Insurance Department.
There is no question but what this tax is
paid by the policy holders, and, as I have
stated, justice in the collection of taxes
demands that the whole law should be re-
pealed. This, gentlemen, brings before
us a few questions of present conse-
quenee, and which I trust you will take
into consideration. In conclusion, I wish
to say that I have paid due respect to every
insurance company, to any insurance
agent present, whether he be a stock or
a mutual man; but I willalso say that it
is to the credit of the Michigan business
men and the merchants and insuring pub-
lic of this State that we lead the insur-
| ance companies in the matter of providing
| fire protection, building fire proof build-
| ings and performing our part of the con-
jtract. Ido not say that we are perfect,
that it is right for us to accept your poli-
ieies without reading them, or, if
| wesuffer a loss, to find there are conditions
| of which we are ignorant, and must go to
law to adjust. I plead no excuse for the
ignorance of the business man in the
purchase of iusurance, not because you

 

agents or attorneys against whom process.

 

do not get proper insurance at a proper
price, any more than I would excuse a
man in purchasing a stock of goods in his
branch of business for which he pays too
dear and for which he alone must suffer.
But certain insurance journals and in-
surance men have branded the Michigan
Business Men’s Association as a selfish,
narrow-minded, pernicious class of men,
incompetent to analyze these questions
and good for nothing but to kick. To
them I would say, cast the mote out of
your own eye before you attempt to cast
the beam out of ours. We, to-day, show
more progress than you. There is money
in the fire insurance business, and we
know it, and, while we have no scruples
against your making a reasonable profit,
we do object to your exacting from us a
rate that will enable you to pay a larger
dividend on your capital invested than
the average in any other kind of busi-
ness. If you hold your conventions and
maintain your rates and combine
against us, do not expect us to submit
and say nothing, for I can assure you
that the Michigan business men have an
Association competent to analyze these
questions, willing to listen, eager to
learn and anxious to do, which will, in
the near future, meet you in competition
in your own line, unless you favor us in
more ways than you have in the past.
In every sphere of life the world owes
much to its men of courage, and the
Michigan Business Men’s Association
should have the praise for having inau-
gurated several reforms in insurance
methods in this State. Prominent
among them is the anti-compact law and
Michigan standard policy law. For
these two things thousands of business
men thank you, to-day; but, while we en-
joy praise for this, there is still work for
this Association and the business world
expects this Association to do it.

B. D. West then read the following pa-
per on ‘‘Fire Insurance Problems:’’

It could hardly be expected that the
Business Men’s Association of Michigan
would feel any marked degree of inter-
est in fire insurance problems generally,
but so far as these problems relate to
this State, and especially to this portion
of the State, they concern every member
of this organization. Many of these
problems cannot be readily solved, and
all of them are more or less difficult of
solution. Because they cannot be solved
immediately, the insurance managers
are frequently most roundly and unjust-
ly abused. They have been not only
thus abused, but in many of the States
laws have been enacted, the direct ten-
dency of which has been to render satis-
factory solution almost impossible.

To draw your attention to some of the
difficulties in the way, I would ask you
to bear in mind the great differences in
the conditions existing in this country
and also in the older, such as England,
France and Germany. Comparatively
speaking, the entire United States is, or
was a few years since, new and unset-
tled. At the same time, all of the condi-
tions affecting fire underwriting therein
have been exceedingly rapid in their de-
velopment and often overwhelmingly
disastrous. The great fires of Chicago
and Boston, and, back of these, of Al-
bany, 9f Vicksburg and of New York,
are sufficient evidence of the peculiari-
ties of what we may term the ‘‘North
American hazard,’’ while the changes
which occur in the business interests of
different localities, including often the
entire leading commercial affairs of a
state, are rapid enough to attract the at-
tention of the most thoughtless. The
tanneries, the woolen mills, the flouring
mills, the saw mills, in fact, mills and
manufactories of all kinds, serve their
day in some Eastern State, and are then
either paid for by the insurance com-
panies, or transferred to some locality
more favorable farther West or South,
while new and strange industries spring
up to take their places in their original
locations. The frame range cannot be
so easily transferred, and it succumbs to
the march of events and the progress of
the times in a manner quite unsatisfac-
tory to the underwriter. This rapid

transfer of business interest, this un-
ceasing change and this constant pro-
gress of events, so largely developed in
the United States, constitute some of the

 

great causes which tend to make fire in-
surance problems far more difficult of so-
lution here than in any other country.
Then, again, there are lesser items of
change, which, after all, may be equally
important. Take, for instance, the item
of light, which, at first, included only
the hazards of the tallow candle; after-
wards, the camphene and burning-fluid
lamp; then coal oil and petroleum and
gasoline in all their various phases, and,
now, the electric are and incandescent.
I might say a great deal upon thi: one
point alone, but will only remark that
electricity as thus used is, in one sense,
fire in harness, which, if given full and
eareless freedom, wili burn up almost
anything on which there is a good policy
of insurance.

Insurance managers searcely had time
to learn, from experience, the hazards of
any one of these elements of light before
the other was forced upon their atten-
tion, and another new and difficult
problem was presented. Thousands of
new labor-saving machines have also
been brought into existence, sometimes
apparently changing the whole inherent
hazards of the risks to which they have
been applied. On the other hand, there
have been many and decided improve-
ments in the construction of buildings
and, in many instances, in the prevention
of incipient fires.

The laws of average and the expe-
riences of the past are the only guide
and they must not be forgotten or ig-
nored. In life insurance these laws may
be determined with reasonable certainty,
but in fire insurance, where new and
constantly changing conditions prevail
so extensively, they are not so easily fig-
ured out. Reasonable latitude should,
therefore, be given to the managers of
fire insurance companies. The cost of
the policy cannot be readily ascertained
and stamped upon it beforehand, and
yet, notwithstanding this, if a company
would remain in a sound and solvent
condition, such cost must be ascertained
and the total premium receipts must be
something more than the total losses and
expenses. This rule applies alike to
both joint stock and mutual companies.
The value of the policy to the assured
must be the value which comes to him in
the hour of need, at the time of disaster,
no matter when that may be or how
many others may have received thebene-
fit of such value just previously; other-
wise, it is a delusion and a snare.
Therefore, the premium receipts should
be not only equal to the losses and ex-
penses but sufficiently more to provide
for a series of disasters. In view of all
these facts, no intelligent and reflecting
mind can fail to understand that it is
somewhat difficult for the fire insurance
companies to determine, in advance, the
exact and proper rate of premium that
should be charged under each classifica-
tion of risks. By reason of these diffi-
culties, certain classifications may possi-
bly be charged a little too high, while it
is certain that others are placed entirely
too low. Itis so much easier to realize
a loss than it is to make sure of a reason-
able profit. So far, however, as they are
able to do, the underwriters should place
the several classifications upon an equit-
able basis to each other; they should
also, as far as is possible, so write and
word their policies as to avoid all com-
plications and uncertainties at time of
loss. To do this, it is essential that dif-
ferent policies covering the same proper-
ty should be concurrent. To have con-
current policies and to have rates of pre-
mium, under the different classifications,
equitably adjusted, it is equally essen-
tial that agents and companies should be
permitted to confer together and, to this
extent, to act in harmony with each
other. For these reasons, laws should
not be so constructed as to prevent such
conferences and such unity of action.

A large number of companies are al-
ways in the field striving for business,
some of which, as in every other branch
of industry, are willing to try their luck
at desperate chances. The rivalries and
jealousies which creep into this, as into
all other pursuits, the hope for smaller
losses and larger premiums in the fu-
ture, the desire to succeed in some di-
rection where others have failed—all of

these will ever prevent any such consol-’

idation of insurance interests as will re-

 

 

 

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sult in any injury to the public at large.
There can be no consolidation or combin-
ation in the sense in which these terms
are applied to commercial interests gen-
erally. There are too many purely local
companies, too many small shareholders,
too many conflicting views. If it were
ever possible to establish any such com-
bination, it would have been accom-
plished immediately after the great Chi-
cago and Boston fires of 1871 and 1872.
Seventy-five per cent. of the agency com-
panies were then wiped out of exist-
ence, and rates of premium advanced
from 50 to 100 per cent. One might sup-
pose that, under such eminently favora-
ble circumstances as these, the few
remaining solvent agency companies
would have combined and permanently
maintained this advance. Such, how-
ever, was not the result. On the con-
trary, scores of small local companies
began to creep, then walk and, finally,
rush for the agency business, and in less
than five years after the Chicago fire the
rates of premium were as low as ever.

‘All history repeats itself, and the history

of fire insurance companies is no excep-
tion to this rule. It may be summarized
thus: Few companies make fair rates,
fair rates make fair profits, fair profits
make many companies, many companies
make low rates, low rates make big
losses, big losses make few companies.
Thus you get back again to the begin-
ning. All of these divergent elements
are, in point of fact, constantly tending
the wrong way, to the permanent injury
of many companies and, as a final result,
to the injury of the assured. A sound
basis both for the companies and the as-
sured must be, as before stated, one
which means permanent solvency.

It is, undoubtedly, right that the pub-
lic should demand this at the lowest rea-
sonable figure, and to reach that figure is
a question in which you are all inter-
ested. If you have the means with which
to erect afew solid and properly con-
structed brick buildings, you will soon
find that you have secured for yourselves
as low a rate of premium as you can
fairly expect, much lower, in fact, than,
as a shareholder in a joint stock com-
pany, or as a partner in a mutual com-
pahy, you would deem it altogether pru-
dent to accept from ‘‘the other fellow.”

For years the loss record of this State
was an unsatisfactory one, and many
companies would not write at all north
of the D. & M. Railway. There are sev-
eral good companigs, to-day, which will
not go much, if any, north of that line.
The shingle mills of the past, even at 10
per cent. per annum, have shingled the
tomb of more than one company, and the
sawmills have converted into dust the
assets of several. Meantime, there have
been some radical changes occurring ina
better direction and especially here in
Western Michigan. The most noticeable
of these are the recent and modern con-
structed wood-workers. Some of these
plants are of great magnitude and as pre-
fect in their construction and equipment
as any of their class to be found any-
where. They are entitled to and are re-
ceiving the lowest possible rate of per-
mium; in many cases these rates are
dangeruusly close to ‘‘the burning line.”’
and, in some instances, in my judgment,
If this ‘‘burning line’’
relates to a mutual company, the result
directly affects you if you are a partner
therein; if it relates to a joint stock com-
pany, they directly affect the shareholder
and, ultimately, the assured, also.

Iam not here to diseuss the relative
merits of the two systems; undoubtedly,
each has its friends in this Association.
I belong to the joint stock side of the
question, but the problems which I am
now considering concern all. New and
important industries are just now being
rapidly developed in the field of which
you are the leading representatives. Roll-
ing mills, foundries, wagon works, glass
works, agricultural implement works and
a large number of valuable manufactur-
ing plants are being established. The
future of this district, indeed, looks more
promising than ever before. The insur-
ance companies will find it diffieult to
keep pace with you. They have many
new problems to solve. There is, how-

ever, one of very great importance, which
can be solved here as easily as anywhere
else—it is the problem of moral hazard.

 

|
The record of the past in this respect is ductors to the earth are then developed | questions of importance brought to its

largely in your favor. The members of |
this Association, the citizens of this dis-|
trict and of this State, in intelligence and |
morals, are the peers of any.

The fire insurance policy recently |
adopted by the State is sufficiently fair |
and equitaple to all. The State laws re- |
lating to the solvency of joint stock com-
panies are sufficiently rigid to protect the
interests of the citizen, and such com-
panies, when duly admitted to the State,
are sufficiently taxed for the benefit of
the commonwealth. While thus taxed,
as a matter of fair and equal justice, the
citizen is morally bound to aid them in
excluding all companies not legally ad-
mitted and duly taxed.

As before stated, the conditions in the
Eastern States are more favorable for low
rates than in the Western, and, if we
were to cross the Atlantic and go to Eng-
land or France or Germany, we would
find them still better. It is true that the
differences in these conditions are gradu-
ally growing less each year and are con-
stantly tending toward bringing margins
of profits of all kinds down to a sharper
point; nevertheless, it would be decidedly
unsafe for any underwriter, in his anxi-
ety to secure premiums, to rush ahead of
this progress; he should rather keep at a
good and prudent distance in the rear.
Any company that would undertake to
write business here at rates of premium
current in either England or France,
would soon find itself on—if not entirely
over—the brink of ruin.

Nowhere on this broad earth do greater
opportunities for progress exist than
right here. The Great Creator of all has
blessed you with unlimited means. You
are not only surrounded with the most
valuable woods, but with a soil capable
of producing in abundance every product
of food. Beneath your feet are vast
mines of mineral wealth which long years
of labor cannotexhaust. Stone ofthe very
best quality and of very great beauty,
clay from which the finest brick are now
being produced, sand, lime and building
materials of all kinds are all at hand in
great plenty. If you cannot and will not
build beautiful and lasting structures
here, you would not doit anywhere. The
saving in the rates of insurance would,
in many cases, prove to be a fair inter-
est on the increased cost; but, when you
build, do it as intelligent men of these
enlightened days should do. 1f the build-
ing is a two-story structure, have the
walls at least eighteen inches thick on
the first story and thirteen inches for the
second; if a four-story building, let your
first story walls be twenty-two inches;
second and third stories should be eigh-
teen inches; fourth story, thirteen inches.
Do not drop off to thirteen-inch walls be-
fore reaching the last story. Parapet or
division walls should not rise less than
eighteen inches above the roof, and they
should not be less than thirteen inches
thick. If there are any openings neces-
sary in these division walls, let them be
fully protected with approved standard
doors made and placed in compliance with
the requirements of the underwriter. Let
all floors be properly constructed, both as
to material and thickness. Let all ele-
vators and stairways be properly enclosed
and cut off.

Let steam pipes and electric wires be
earefully guarded and insulated at all
points. There are many persons who do
not appear to have a proper appreciation
of the dangers arising from steam pipes
in direct contact with wood and light, in-
flammable materials or from defective in-
sulation or careless placing of electric
wires. The varying conditions of the
weather and atmosphere do not receive
due consideration, either with reference
to these two important items or in regard
to external exposure. When the weather
has been continually hot and dry fora
long period, the hazard of the steam
pipes of the frame ranges and external
exposures of all kinds become more ap-
parent tous. They force themselves on
our attention. We feel as though we
would and must have all of these defects
remedied at once; but these defects are
again quickly forgotten, when the rains
and snows have fallen and everything is
well moistened. It is, however, just at
this time, when the hazards of defective
placing and insulation of electric wires
become greater. New and rapid con-

 

 

and ‘‘short circuits’? easily made and any-
thing combustible that the electricity
‘‘short circuits” across may be set on fire.
Division walls which do not extend above

the roof are not regarded as standard fire |

walls, and interior walls ceiled up with
lath and plaster, or with lumber of any
kind, thus creating a vast number of
flues for flames as soon as started, are
allways objectionable. An occasional
brick building, properly constructed,
with substantial fire wall on either side,
will not only prove of truly great com-
mercial advantage to the interests of the
street and town, but will sometimes re-
sult in a decided reduction
of premium, not only to the owner
thereof but also to his immediate neigh-
bors.

The establishment of just and equit-
able principles and rules of guidance in
the different classifications of hazards,
in the wording and forms of policies, in
the inspection of risks and in the solu-
tion of some of the difficult problems
herein named, is the object of the Inspec-
tion Bureau, with which I have the
honor to be connected as a deputy. Its
managers are gentlemen of large exper-
ience, broad views and honest purposes,
and lam sure that there is not, and
there should not be, anything of conftict
between the interests of this Association
and this Inspection Bureau.

Integrity, equity, and fair and square
dealing constitute the foundation upon
which we are all trying to build. We may
make mistakes, but if we shall faithfully
continue to build upon such a founda-
tion as that, we shall not only have the
cheering comfort of an approving con-
science in our labors, but we shall also
find when the end is reached here, that
we have been working in the direction of
a Satisfactory solution of the great prob-
lenis of the future.

A. N. Woodruff called the attention of
Mr. West to the exhorbitant rates estab-
lished by the Board at Watervliet.

Geo. E. Steele spoke of the benefit re-
sultant upon the adoption of the uniform
policy.

P. J. Connell asserted that his experi-
ence taught him that many of the fires
were brought about by over-insurance on

the part of the agent.

Geo. E. Steele said he was glad that
the business men had secured some ad-
vantage through legislation and sug-
gested that steps be taken to prevent the
construction of fire trap structures.

Chairman Crandall presented the report
of Committee on President’s address and
Secretary’s report, as follows:

Your Committee, to whom was referred
the President’s address, would respect-
fully report that it has not had ample
time to give said address the careful con-
sideration its practical suggestions de-
serve, yet we find much food for reflee-
tion, and were our State and local associ-
ations to fall into line with its teachings,
all would receive untold benefits. The
matter so ably treated in every page of
the address is suggestive of a deep inter-
est for the welfare and prosperity of
our associations. 6

The subjects of ‘how to increase our
usefulness’? and the ‘‘causes of the apa-
thy now existing” are handled in a mas-
terly manner, which breathes an earnest
hope of immediate and permanent return
to our former condition of usefulness.

The report of our able Secretary is
brief and to the point. All accounts
have been kept in a straightforward
manner, showing his fitness for the trust
and confidence reposed in him. Our As-
sociation made no mistake when it called
E. A. Stowe to wield the pen as its Sec-
retary.

In the matter of the letter by Frank
Wells, our able ex-President, your Com-
mittee can see a remarkable coincidence
in its thoughts and spirit to the worthy
and eminent breathings so ably laid down
by our worthy President.

Chairman Bridgman sent the following
report for the Committee on Transporta-
tions :

Your Committee on Transportation
beg to report that there have been no

in the rates |

  

| consideration during the past year. At
| the annual meeting in 1889, held at Mus-
| kegon, the late Committee on Transpor-
| tation was quite severely criticized by
several of the delegates present. Com-
| plaint was made that the Committee had
|done nothing. One delegate said, ‘‘Ap-
|}point a good Committee, pay the
|} expenses necessary and let them visit
|the different railroads in the State.
| Write to them and put the grievances of
| the different towns in the hands of that
| Committee.’? Another said, ‘‘We may
| have had a good Committee last year,
but it has not met the views of this Asso-
ciation. Now, then, can we not have a
Committee. which we can bring our griev-
ances before? That is what a Commit-
tee is for.” Still another delegate said,
‘It would be useless for you to make a
Committee unless you stand behind it.
It would be basswood, just as the one
we have got now.”

Now, gentlemen, you can imagine the
feeling of the members of the present
Committee on receiving their appoint-
ment. They supposed that they were to be
a second Inter-state Commerce Commit-
tee; that large interests were to be
| brought before them for adjudication;
that they would be deluged with doecu-
ments from every town in the State and
from unnumbered shippers; that they
would have to give up their private busi-
ness, employ a stenographer and _ travel
about the country, visiting railroad offi-
cials, taking testimony, listening to griev-
ances, ete.

Your Committee has held itself in
readiness to listen to any complaints or
grievances, but none have been presen-
ted—not a peep—not a grieve. It-must
be that the railroads have taken alarm at
the fierce expressions used by the speak-
ers at the last annual convention, and
have conceded everything asked.

Otherwise we cannot understand how
it is that the members of the M. B. M. A.,
who a year ago were in such straits re-
garding transportation, have not asked
the Committee to attempt to right
their wrongs.

We regret that we have no report to
make of work accomplished, but the
fact remains that nothing has been done,
for the reason that no one has made any
complaint, nor asked or suggested that
we do anything; and we greatly fear that
the Association will conclude that it has
another ‘basswood’ Committee on its
hands; but its time now expiring, we
trust that ‘another will be appointed
which will accomplish wonders during
the coming year.

The following letter was read from H.
H. Pope, of Allegan:

I regret exceedingly my inability to
attend the fifth annual convention of the
Michigan Business Men’s Association, to
be held in your city Tuesday next, and
tell that body ‘‘What I know about oil
wells.”’

My task would not be long or difficult.
You may, however, congratulate the con-
vention in not being brought too near so
unpleasant a subject. Possibly 1 might
have interested you a few moments, but
this is hardly the right time! I dislike
to talk about what is regarded as a dead
dog, but, friend Stowe, let me say to you
privately, there is oil under us down
here in paying quantities, and we intend
to find it, and when that time arrives, as
in my judgment it surely will, I shall be
loaded for you.

I bespeak for the convention a pleasant
and profitable session.

The following letter was read from
Geo. R. Hoyt, of Saginaw:

1 find it is impossible for me to be pres-
ent at your meeting. My business is so
pressing I have a large responsibility on
my hands and at this time of the year it
seems to require every minute of my
time. I trust you will have a very har-
monious meeting and that it may result
in a great amount of good and also that
it may stimulate all present to do more
than ever for the welfare of the Associa-
tion. Business men, you know, are a
little given to be a trifle narrow-minded
in the respect of legislating for the gen-
eral good and for the best interest of
business at large throughout our country.
They too often do not stop to think of

 

 

 

  

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the large amount of good that may result |
from getting together and comparing |
notes on the subject of pushing business |
locally. I really hope you may do some- |
thing that will sound throughout the}
State and stimulate us ail, whether with
you at your delilerations or not. |

The election of officers was postponed |
until the next meeting.

Chairman Blain presented the report
of the Committee on Resolutions, as fol- |
lows:

Wuereas, The House of Representa-
tives has passed the so-called Conger |
lard bill, which we deem the worst sort
of class legislation, inasmuch as it dis-
criminates against the product of one |
section of our country in favor of an-
other; and

WHEREAS, no claim is made that the
Conger bill is in the interest of purer |
food, on which subject this Association |
has repeatedly put itself on record;
therefore

Resolved—That we are opposed to the |
Conger bill and respectfully petition the |
U.S. Senate to refuse to pass such an
iniquitous measure.

Resolved—That we recommend an
amendment to the present insurance laws |
reducing the tax on insurance receipts |
from 3 to 1 per cent.

Resolved—That the Michigan Business |
Men’s Association, believing that the en- |
actment of the said Torrey bankrupt Dill |
in the form in which it passed the House
would tend to give a more conservative |
tone to transactions between creditors |
and debtors, strengthen commercial |
credit, and that it would prevent the giv- |
ing and receiving of preferences by those |
interested in a bankrupt estate, prevent |
fraud, secure creditors of equal merit}
pro rata dividends, a quick, economical |
and equitable division of a bankrupt’s |
assets, and help to guarantee the contin- |
uation of commercial prosperity in this |
country, do indorse the said Torrey }
bankrupt bill and respectfully urge the |
Senate of the United States to take up|
and pass it at the ensuing session.

Resolved—That we recommend all Jo- |
eal building and loan associations be}
placed under the supervision of the State
Banking Commission, to the end that
their efficiency may

.
be increased od Tar @ Variet
public confidence enhanced; also that} a

foreign building and loan associations be
compelled to deposit a sufficient guaran- |
tee with the State Treasurer, as is the!
ease with foreign insurance companies. |
Resolved—That the reduction of letter |
postage to one cent now appears to be}
desirable and feasible, and that such re- |
duction would be a boon to the business
interest of the country and promotive of |
the uses of the mails by all the people. |
Resolved—That we recommend the en- |
actment of legislation for the establish-
ment of a governmental! postal telegraph.
Resolved—That our hearty thanks are
due the officers and committees for the
able services they have rendered the As-|
sociation.
Resolved—That the thanks of the As-|
sociation are due to the severai gentle-}
men who have prepared and read before
this convention the very able and inter-|
esting papers to which we have listened |
with pleasure and profit.
An invitation from Jas. H. Moore to|
hoid the next meeting in Saginaw was
presented and unanimously accepted.

The meeting then adjourned.

 

MEETING OF EXECUTIVE BOARD.

At the conclusion of the convention |
proper, a meeting of the Executive Board
was called to order by President Whit-
ney. .

Each member pledged himself to work
unceasingly for the success of the next
convention and to do all that lay in his
power to revive interest in the loeal or-
ganizations in those fields where the}
work bears evidence of lagging. |

Each member present pledged himseif
to write a letter for THE TRADESMAN,
setting forth the benefits of local organi-
zation.

On the suggestion of Mr. Hamilton, it}
was decided to hold meetings of the Ex- |
ecutive Board hereafter as often as once
in three months.

SASH

East Muskegon Ave., on C. & W. M. R’y.

ship, or anything in the Produce

 

The meeting then adjourned.

 

 

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Curse ottredit

BY USING

Coupon Books

Manufactured by

“TRADESMAN”
OR
“SUPERIOR”

THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,

Grand Rapids.
See quotations in Grocery Price Current.

Urniture

Nelson,
Matter
& Co.'s

Styles New, Cheap,
Medium and Expense
sive.

 

 

 

Prices Low.

Langeland Mfg. Co.

Wholes

 

Manufacturers of

ha

DOORS

DEALERS IN

[ Umber, Leth ad Shingles

Office, Mill and Yard:

MUSKEGON, MICH.

WANTED.

POTATOES, APPLES, DRIED
FRUIT, BEANS
and all kinds of Produce.

If you have any of the above goods to
ine, let
Liberal cash advances

 

us hear from you.
made when desired.

EARL BROS.,

COMMISSION MERCHANTS
157 South Water St., CHICAGO.

    

 

Reference: First NATIONAL BANE, Chicago.
MICHIGAN TRADESMAN, Grand Rapids.

ab2Z,0U0 Knvelopes

IN ONE INVOICE.

These goods are now in transit and
will swell our stock to

OveraMillion.

By buying in large quantities, direct from the manufacturer, and
taking advantage of the cash discount, we obtain the lowest price and
are able to distance all competitors. ’

We solicit orders from the trade, printed or unprinted, case lots or
Samples and prices sent on application.

THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,

PAPER DEALERS AND PRINTERS.

less.

 

El. Puritano Cigar.
The Finest 10 Gent Cigar

ON EARTH.

 

MANUFACTURED BY

DILWORTH BROTHERS,

PITTSBURGH.

 

 

TRADE SUPPLIED BY

I. M. CLARK & SON,
: Grand Rapids.

BRADDOCK, BATEMAN & C0.,
Bay City.

Have Some Style Abovt You!

The dealer who has no printed letter heads on which to ask for cireu-
lars, catalogues and prices, and conduct his general correspondence
with, suffers more every month for want of them than a five years’
supply would cost. He economizes byusing postal cards, or cheap,
and, to his shame, often dirty scraps of paper, and whether he states
so or not he expects the lowest prices, the best trade. He may be ever
so good for his purchases, may even offer to pay cash, but there is
something so careless, shiftless and slovenly about his letter that it
excites suspicion, because not in keeping with well recognized, good
business principles. When such an enquiry comes to a manufacturer
or a jobber, it goes through a most searching examination as to charac-
ter, means and credibility, half condemned to begin with. It would be
examined anyhow, even if handsomely printed, but the difference to
begin with, would be about equal to that of introducing a tramp and a
gentleman on a witness stand in court. Besides, the printed heading
would answer the question as to whether the enquirer was a dealer and
at the same time indicate his special line of trade. Bad penmanship,
bad spelling and bad grammar are pardonable, because many unedu-
cated men have been and are now very successful in business. But
even those are less objectionable when appearing with evidences of
care, neatness and prosperity.

 

 

Piease write us for estimates.

The Tradesman Company,

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH

The P. B. Cough Drops

HAVE NO EQUAL. SOLD EVERYWHERE. MANUFACTURED BY

PUTNAM CANDY CO.
The P. B. Cough Drops

ARE PURE, CLEAN AND HIGHLY MEDICATED. MANUFACTURED BY

PUTNAM CANDY CO.

 

 

oat cae

 

 

PC -ecsprer mnie raves —e"

= eee ye on POP SOR Crema eerste p

Oe ee ee

 

= eee ye on POP SOR Crema eerste p

Oe ee ee

 

 

 

Michigan Tradesman.

  

 

 

VOL. 8.

GRAND RAPIDS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER3, 1890.

NO. 376.

 

 

ESTABLISHED 1841.
LEANN ENT

THE MERCANTILE AGENCY

R.G. Dun & Co.

Reference Books issued quarterly. Collections
attended to throughout United States
and Canada.

 

For Rent by Dunton & Bates,
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
A corner store on Cherry Street. One of the
best locations in the city for a hardware store.
A single store on Ionia Street. An excellent
location for a restaurant or harness shop.
A single or double corner store on South Divi-
sion St. Good place for drug store and grocery.
Low rent to good tenants. DUNTON & BATES,
Rooms 138 & 14 Widdicomb B’ld’g, Grand Rapids, Mich.

ENGRAVING

It pays to illustrate your business. Portraits,
Cuts of Business Blocks, Hotels, Factories,
a etc., made to order from photo-
grap!

THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,

Grand Rapids, Mich.

 

 

Playing Cards

WE ARE HEADQUARTERS

SEND FOR PRICE LIST.

Daniel Lynch,

19 So. Ionia St., Grand Rapids.

 

 

 

 

BEACH’S
New York Goffes Rooms.

61 Pearl Street.

Five Cents Each for all dishes served
from bill of fare.

Steaks, Chops, Oysters and All Kinds of
Order Cooking a Specialty.

FRANK M. BEACH, Prop.

Grand Rapids Fire Insnrance Co

CASH CAPITAL -

 

 

$200,000.00

 

Fair Rates.

Prompt Settlements.

Call on our agent in your town.

JULIUS HOUSEMAN, President.
S F. ASPINWALL, Secretary.

 

ALLEN DURFEE. A. D. LEAVENWORTH.

Allen Durfee & Co.,

FUNERAL DIRECTORS,

103 Ottawa St., Grand Rapids.

 

 

 

 

S.A.Morman

WHOLESALE

Petoskey, Marblehead and Ohio

LIME,

Akron, Buffalo and Louisville

CEMENTS,

Stucco and Hair, Sewer Pipe, Fire Brick
and Clay.
Write for Prices.
20 LYON ST., - GRAND RAPIDS.

OYSTERS

We quote:
SOLID oe aa a 25

“ Standards

Standards..
Favorites.... .
Standards, in bulk, 81. 35 ‘per gal.

Mince Meat.

BEST IN USE.
—— Pails eo eee — per lb.

2 lb, Cans (usual weight), 81. win per doz.
Pure Cider Vinegar, 10c per gal.
Choice Dairy Butter, 20c.

Sweet Potatoes, $3 per bbl.
Fresh Eggs, 22c.

EB, FALLAS & SON

Prop’s Valley City Cold Storage,
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH

Beans and Clover Seed

Parties having beans or clover seed

 

ra “c

 

for sale will find a purchaser, if samples
and prices are right.

We also want

Potatoes and Onions
In car lots.
We pay highest market price and are

always in the market.

W. T. LAMOREAUX & CO.

128, 130 and 132 West Bridge St.,
GRAND RAPIDS, - MICH.

 

WwW. Cc. WILLIAMS. A. SHELEY.

A. 8S. BROOKS,

WILLIAMS,
SHELEY
& BROOKS

Successors to

FARRAND, WILLIAMS & CO.,
Wholesale Druggists,

AT THE CLD STAND.
Corner Bates and Larned Streets, Detroit.

IT WILL PAY YOU

To Buy ALLEN B.WrIisLEY’sS

GOOD CHEER SOAP

 

Leadins Wholesale Grocers keep it.

 

ANVIL VS. MUSKET.

 

Discussion Over the Relative Merits
of the Two Implements.
Written for THz TRADESMAN.

The anvils and the fire-arms were near
neighbors in a large hardware store.
One cold, stormy night about December
first, after the business of the day was
over, finding themselves suddenly en-
dowed with speech, they concluded to
discuss their respective merits as to the
benefits they were conferring upon civi-
lization.

“You must admit,” said Mr. Anvil,
“that my family is much older than
yours and, consequently, has had more
experience; also that, while my father’s
family were always considered a
noisy and loud-spoken people, we were
far more peaceable than yours, never be-
ing engaged in fighting, nor in quarrels
of any kind—in truth, we seldom wander
away from home, except it be, perhaps,
to attend a Fourth of July celebration.
We take nothing strong, have never been
known to lounge about a saloon, while it
is an every-day saying that you go
around half-cocked much of the time,
and, if you happen to be irritable, you
hesitate at nothing, often killing inno-
cent people, even your best friends.”

“I concede a part of what you say,’’
answered old Mr. Army Musket, ‘‘but
you must consider the great work my
family and fore-fathers have done toward
civilization? Why, sir, while I admit
that our power is such that we can and
do sometimes take life, yet generally, our
very presence is sufficient to protect and
preserve the lives of others. You speak
of our habit of sometimes going around
half-cocked. We are not always respon-
sible for that. If allowed to have our own
way, we would never be found in such
afoolish and dangerous condition, but,
when in the company of ignorant and
intemperate person, we cannot always
do what is best. I contend that there
are no more efficient peace-makers on
earth than our family, and, with the re-
cent improvements of our bodies and
supplies, mankind expect tnrough the
menace of our power alone to prevent
wars altogether. In this respect it may
be said that we are confering greater
benefits upon humanity than you are.
Our entire family of Fire-arms are now
passing through a period of unexampled
prosperity in their own history, and,
through superior educational and inven-
tive genius, are achieving distinction in
the world. In time of peace we are
found to be valuable in many ways.
Where animal food must be had, or star-
vation results, we often save scores of
lives. Without our aid itis doubtful if
large bodies of treasure of any kind
could be transported with safety from
place to place, either upon land or water,
while now they may be carried in com-
parative security. We aid the com-
merce of the entire world and perform
our most important work among the
most enlightened nations of the globe.’

‘*‘Much that you have stated is, indeed,
quite true,’’ resumed Mr. Anvil, ‘‘but I
still contend that my family are in the

 

advance. Without our aid you would
not have arisen to the high eminence you
have attained, in’fact, if you had even
existed at all, it would have been in* a
crude and rudimentary state. Again [I
will say in the presence of our friends
around us that my family, while promi-
nent in the artjof} war, have been still

more distinguished in thearts of peace.
We have been the forerunners of all
the great and vast quantity of machin-
ery which has increased the food supply
for mankind‘ beyond anything ever be-
fore accomplished. In the past centu-
ries, not_a metal implement was in use
that did not owe to our family something
connected with its existence. To-day,
however, great pressure, together with
rollers and knives, have superseded some
of our labor.’’

Messrs. Stove, Shovel “and Chain had
been!interested listeners to this conver-
sation and{could{not resist an exclama-
tion of surprise or gratification as the
argument proceeded. Just then Mr.
Chain asked the privilege of a word,
which was granted. ‘‘So far as ultimate
results to mankind are concerned.” said
he, ‘‘it seems to me that the claims of
Mr. Anvil and the family called Fire-
arms are about equal, and each should
have the same credit as the other, for,
while their different lines of work lie far
apart, they converge to the same point,
and either one deprived of the other’s as-
sistance would fail to accomplish even
one-half of what he does with the help
of his colieague. - I myself owe my birth
to the Anvil family, and yet, in many
instances, the usefulness—nay, the very
existence—of our family would have
been in jeopardy had not the Messrs.
Fire-arms stood guard over us.

‘‘Mr. Stove! Mr. Stove! Let us hear
from Mr. Stove,’’ cried several of the com-
pany. Mr. Stove was already upon his
feet on the platform and _ facetiously
spoke as follows:

‘Brothers, owing to my corpulency
and consequent inability to move about
easily, I beg the privilege of standing
where lam. Ordinarily, 1am more apt
to take part in somewhat heated discus-
sions, and sometimes I am an inveterate
smoker of an old pipe, even in the pres-
ence of ladies. To-night, 1 will promise
not to smoke—in fact, my pipe is not
with me—and to keep cool. My drum
has received the impression of your
words, and I must agree with Brother
Chain that the disputants, Anvil and
Fire-arms, are inseparable in the good

 

 

Perfection Scale.

The Latest Improved and Best.

 

Dues Not Reouire Down Weight
oes sae be robitee Gheeee ie pono

 

ia

eet ae eae

 

 

|

preaiper rises Sasa

q
B

fe

—

Ps THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

work of aiding civilization. Only a | in much nefarious work, against which
small portion of my royal family owe | they always protested. Our family have
their birth to either of you, but I think | | ever been favorites everywhere, even in
to the Fire-arms family nearly all are | royal families, and we have been called
indebted for their lives. Personally, 1 | upon to remove several crowned heads
am a fire-worshipper and acknowledge | and, during the past century, to assist at
no other creator, as I came direct from | publie executions. The most useful and
the furnace into this regal existence. I civilizing part of our work has been in
will adé that lam a rough looking and aiding agriculture, that most peaceful of
plain old Cookstove, though possessing a/all avocations. In closing, allow me to
warm heart, while many of my family by | say that all of us can trace our common
whom I am surrounded, with the aid of | parentage to one source, the great father,
our friend, Mr. Anvil, and some of his/ Iron, and each of us being useful te the
more youthful relatives, are so richly | other, there should ever be the warmest
adorned and decorated that their fore-| friendship between ns.” iH.

fathers would hardly recognize them. a tn ; ae oe ne ‘
Allow me to introduce a little friend, etn a a

Mr. Hammer. His family are among the I saw a grocer the other day measuring
Re aes eek be alld Sale wie,” chestnuts in a tin pint measure. It might
hak tie ie neal eins Mr ihicen have been none of my business, but I was
a nate seciaitiaads nee ven wedi ia about to speak to him about it, when the

: lady customer saved me the trouble.
sisted upon the counter where he could}... ea

: re ‘See here, Mr. Smith,’ said she, ‘‘are
be plainly heard. In ringing tones, he

: you aware that all kinds of nuts are
— ._ | Classed as seeds, (which they really are)

“There are probably no two others in A a

. : ee and if you do not choose to sell them by
this audience more intimately connected if

i i : i the pound, the law says it must then be

by the closest family ties and whose vital wy |
: : dry measure? “Is not this cup a dry
interests are so interwoven than my

s 979 : /
tgs Bt oy nme | wen he an
[Cries of ‘Hear! Hear!’ in which the}, —~ a § any

. for myself, Mr. Smith,’’? continued the

tongues of several bells joined.}] In what-
ay lady, ‘‘but for those who cannot afford to

ever good work Mr. Anvil is awarded

. buy them in this way. You bought those
praise, I claim a small share of the honor, inci ti Urteiatnilt waite es
e hy she ; s-

without in the least detracting from his. vo on 7 ee

While I acknowledge his superior weight ee

i. : . and now I submit the question—ought
and standing in the community, particu-| — . aia si te a
larly as a Fourth of July speaker, the oe ee ie ne

familiar sound of my voice and that of woassebaet - eee oe
members of my family is heard daily in _ way? The merchant was called
almost every village and homlet of the — = a ens _— ro
land, and many of the most costly edifi- not wait to bear the conclusion of the
cies owe much of their substantial char- argument, but it gave me food for thought
acter to us. Some of the finest and rich- and a — for asermon that I will not
est ornamental work of the world is solely eee this week. I remembered the
due to the labor of our family. Without little square wood boxes of strawberries,
us, mankind would be obliged to dispense by courtesy called a quart, and the effort
with gold and silver leaf, which isa large of my grocer once to get half a peck of
factor in the ornaments made. With re- a a eee
cord to my friend, Mr. Fire-orm, he is in which he succeeded in packing three
more indebted to me thanItohim. I of the vegetables and four large vacan-
s ciieiek etait that he bee ever vondored cies—and I thought all kinds of measur-
me the least service. Ihave no respect ing about an even thing, and that I should
for his mission and do not agreee with appeal to the blind-folded lady who holds
those who consider that he has done so the scales on the a of the — house
much for civilization. I might enlarge to come down and weigh everything for
upon the extent of my usefulness in all | "S Renee. i : CrrizEn.
the arts of peace or war, but, as time is} George L. Thurston, a valued contri-
pressing, I will cease by asking Mr. Axe | putor of Tuk TRADESMAN, was married
to make the closing remarks of the even- | Thursday, November 27, at Central Lake,
ing.” to Miss Lenore Mohrmann. His many
‘*My work,” said Mr. Axe, ‘has been | friends will join with THe TRADESMAN
mainly not of a hostile character. Ij)in wishing the happy couple a long life
have been aided greatly in all my best/ of married happiness.
work by our friend, Mr. Anvil, and Il

 

 

 

 

ie
agree with Brother Chain and others who Crockery & Glassware

 

 

look upon Messrs. Anvil and Fire-arms as LAMP BURNERS.

  

 

equal claimants for the glory of the age) No-QSW@ 00 °0INLIIIIIND fe
in which we live. My family is very a. beets fren eee eine oe =
ancient. Our forefathers were a dull ‘LAMP CHIMNEYS.—Per box.
and strong-hearted set, with no bright- No.0 Sun. _ see ial
ness or sharpness in their natures and ae tent eeecercertee seen ceee es eree es --1 88
quite unlike our refined and polished "neds. ee —
family of to-day. Ihave said that our| No-9Sun, crimp top........... .
work has been mainly peaceful. It is <n . 40
only just, however, to say that one dis-| No, aes. Crimp tOP.....--+ 2.0022 seeeeeee vee 2 60
tant branch of our family, by the name No o- “ ee
of Hawk—a most detestable little rascal} Pearl top.

—sold himself to the Indians long ago| yo jenn Tree at et----------
and has aided them in their bloodiest | No.2 Hing Se eee ”
deeds ever since. His given name was} _ = ‘plain bulb, per doz. et heres =
Thomas, although he is generally known | No. 1 crimp, per doz..........-....--.----+044 1 35
as Tommy Hawk. He is the only mem-| ®-? aoe “teen cinrwae 1 60
ber of our family who ever voluntarily | ButterCrocks, per gal......... ..........-. 06%
entered upon a life of crime. Others of | 7¥8* 2 gal, ee aoe renot net tabaott ne >
the most respectable of the Axe family|_“ 2 . tO nape cece sees etce sees ees 1 80
have, in feat past, been forced to assist = 4 op).. Ree om. es $3°::: S

 

LEMON & PETERS,

IMPORTING AND

Wholesale Grocers.

SOLE AGENTS FOR

McGinty’s Fine Cut Tobacco,
Lautz Bros. & Co,’s Soaps,
Niagara Starch,

Acme Cheese--Herkimer Co., N. Y.
Castor Oil Axle Grease.

GRAND RAPIDS.

 

RINDGE, BERTSCH & CoO.,

12, 14 AND 16 PEARL ST., GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

 

We ask the trade to examine our line of Lumbermen’s Socks. All the staple
kinds, men’s and boys’, at popular prices; also the best line of Felt Boots made, in
prices from $9 to $14. We can show you a fine line of Beaver Shoes and Slippers,
foxed and plain, turns and M.S. Agents for the Boston Rubber Shoe Company.

BANKRUPT SALE

Of Sporting Goods.

 

Having bought the entire stock of
Spalding & Co., 100 Monroe St., of the
assignee, it must be sold out at once at way
below wholesale prices. Avail yourselves of
this opportunity.

Cc. B. JUDD.

 

FLOGLE OT CoO,

Wholesale and Retail Dealers in Oils

and Makers of Fine Lubiicants.

OFFICE—19 and 21 Waterloo St. WORKS—OnC & W. M. and G. R. & I. R. R.,one

Telephone No. 319. | mile north of Junction. Telephone No. 611-3R

_The largest and most complete oil line in Michigan. Jobbers of all kinds of

Cylinder Oils, Engine Oils, W. Va. Oils, Lard Oils, Neatsfoot Oils, Harness Oil,

Signal Oil, Axle Grease, Boiler Purger, Kerosene Oils, Naptha, Turpentine, Lin-

seed Oils, ‘Castor Oil, Cooking Oils, Axle Oils, Machinery Grease, Cotton Waste
Ete. See Quotations.

 

 

 

 

:

 

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN. 3

 

 

A Mistake Which Might Have Been

Fatal.
Written for THE TRADESMAN.

‘Did I ever tell you how I barely es-
eaped killing a baby?” remarked a Mon-
roe street druggist, as we were discuss-
ing the responsibilities of the business.
‘‘No? well, then, as the result was all
right, I will give you the story: I was
younger than I am now, though no less
careful.. 1 was working away down
East, where the old heads think no
change must be made while life lasts.
This man had his father’s old sign,
‘Apothecary Shop,’ over his door, which
had been in existence over seventy years.
His yellow paper labels on the bottles
were also ‘back numbers’ in every par-
ticular—printed on such poor paper it
would not do to wash the bottles, though
we did, occasionally, wipe them with a
damp cloth. The labels had been in use
so long that many had portions of them
rubbed off and we had to familiarize our-
selves with what was left and, like a true
Yankee, guess at the balance of the word.
I had asked if I might not re-label a few
prominent bottles with new paper labels,
as I was confident he would admit no
other innovation, but his only answer
was, ‘I never allow any change of labels
for fear of accidents.’ One cold winter’s
night I was the last to leave the store. It
was ten o’clock, and I had turned off the
gas, and, with a small hand lamp, was
just putting the prescription case in or-
der for the night, when the door opened
and two young ladies came in. Istepped
toward the front counter with my light,
when one of them said, “Ten cents’ worth
of powdered ipecae, please?’ ‘Shall I put
it up in one powder?’ I enquired. ‘Yes,
please. It’s for a young child, and
grandma knows how to useit. Baby has
a severe cold.’ I returned to the pre-
scription case and glanced along the
shelves—saw ‘Puly. Ipecac’ —took a
spatula and weighed out sixty grains, la-
belled it properly and handed it to the
lady, when they quickly departed. There
was no snow on the ground and it was a
fearfully dark night. I was weary and
anxious to get home and again hastened
to put things in order, that I might leave.
Returning to the case, I was about to re-
place the bottle I had left standing where
I had used it, when, as my light fell upon
the paper where I had handled the medi-
cine, a few bright, glistening particles
attracted my attention. Quick as
thought I knew they were sulphate of
potassa and, uttering several hasty
words (which, if in print, should have
an exclamation point at the termination),
I jumped for the door and listened; then
ran up and down the street a short dis-
tance to listen again. No footsteps
could be heard and I neither knew the
young ladies, nor in which direction they
had gone. The bottle I had taken the
medicine from read ‘Pulv. Ipecac,’ but it
had once read ‘Pulv. Ipecac et Opii’ (Lov-
er’s powder) and the last two words had
long since been gone, but the ragged end
of the label was to remind us of the miss-
ing words. The bottle I should have dis-
pensed from also read ‘Pulv. Ipecac,’ al-
though its label was cut smoothly at
each end. Ihad been both sleepy and
cold before my customer came—now I
was wide awake and perspiring freely.
I locked the door and left for home and
to bed, but not to sleep, and had no ap-

petite for breakfast. I had not asked
the age of-the child and wondered how
much that dear old grandmother would
give it. If she would only give one-half

 

or all of it, the child might vomit and
live. There was one grain of opium to
every ten of that powder, and two grains
or less of opium would probably kill that
baby. The door never opened the fol-
lowing day but I expected an officer to
arrest me, but, still hoping something
would occur to save the child, I locked
the secret in my own breast. As-day
after day passed, I grew less nervous and
had quite forgotten my fright, when one
day in the early spring as I was at the
counter, my two evening visitors of long
ago entered the store and asked me for
some perfumery. I knew them in an in-
stant. As they seemed very happy, I
ventured to remark that they did not
visit us often. ‘Yes,’ was the reply, ‘we
have been in several times since the
evening we came for the ipecac, and we
enquired for you, but you were out. We
wanted some medicine and grandma told
us to ask for you, as she liked the ipecac
so well. When we got home that night,
the baby was suffering great pain and
she gave it a powder from the package at
once. It quickly went to sleep and
never awoke until nine o’clock next day.
Ma wanted to wake it up, but grandma
said it was all right, as it was dripping
with perspiration. It awoke perfectly
well, but was so weak it could hardly
make a noise, and it required no more
medicine of any kind.’ ‘Has she used
any of the ipecac since?’ I anxiously en-
quired. ‘O! I forgot to tell you that
when she was putting it away, after giv-
ing the first dose, the balance was spilled
over the carpet, which she always re-
gretted, as it was the best and purest
ipecac we ever purchased.’ ”

—————(_—.
Chickens Come Home to Roast.

SranTon, Nov. 25.—The suit brought
egainst the original stockholders of the
defunct Carson City Savings Bank came
up in the Circuit Court here to-day. Con-
trary to expectation, C. W. Middleton,
S. W. Webber, L. L. Trask, E. H. Morse
and Geo. H. Thayer swore that they paid
in their stock in full. It is claimed that
this statement can easily be controverted.
The defense will endeavor to establish
the fact that M. J. Miner, who signed the
company’s notes, was not authorized to
doso. The case was adjourned until
such time as the attorneys have time to
prepare and present briefs.

oo
About Half a Crop.

Guenx ARsor, Nov. 29—Dr. W. H.
Walker has completed picking the cran-
berries on his thirty-acre marsh and finds
he has 250 barrels—about half an average
crop. The shortage is due to cold weather
during the blossoming season in July.
Dr. Walker markets his berries in Mil-
waukee, where he receives more than
Cape Cod stock commands.

Bicycles,
VA | Trisysles,
os, | \elocipedes

AND

Sporting Goods

Agents for A. G. Spalding & Bro.’s
Sporting and Athletic Goods and
American Powder Co.’s Powder.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

We have on hand a complete line of Columbia,
Victor and other cheaper bicycles, also a splen-
did assortment of Misses’ Tricycles, Children’s
Velocipedes and small Safety Bicycles.

E. G. Studley,

4 Monroe St.,

 

Calland see them

or send for large,
illustrated cata-
GRAND RAPIDS | logue.

[ rare 6 UO,

Foreign and Domestic Fruits.

9 No. IONIA ST., GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
HEADQUARTERS FOR

ORANGES, LEMONS and BANANAS.

ALL, FRED J. BROW N,
SEEDSMAN AND
Fruit Commission Merchant.

We are direct receivers of CALIFORNIA and FLORIDA ORANGES and are headquarters
for BANANAS all the yearround. The leading features in our line just now are

Cranberries, Grapes, California Frait, Bananas, Oranges, Kite, Ete.

Parties having Clover Seed and Beans to offer please mail samples and we will endeavor to
make you a satisfactory price.
THE ALFRED BROWN SEED STORE, Grand Rapids, Mich.

SEEDS hie santciuone
GRAIN, CLOVER and TIMOTHY

Hungarian, W hite Clover, Red Top,
Millet, Alfalfa or Lucerne, Blue Grass,

Orchard Grass, Lawn Grass, POPCORN,ete.
CHOICE CLOVER and TIMOTHY SEEDS
a specialty.

Orders for purchase or sale of Seeds for future delivery

wa ee Se ae a at solicited.
arehouses— rie St.
Office—46 Produce ianae.s TOLEDO, OHIO.

WM. R. KEELER,

JOBBER OF

Confectionery and Mus Nuts and Cigars,

412 SOUTH DIVISION

 

 

—AND—

 

Mention this paper.

 

TELEPHONE 92-3R.

My stock includes everything generally kept in my line, which 1 sell at rock bottom
prices. Send me your mail orders. 1 will guarantee satisfaction.

PEHEREINS & HESS

DEALERS IN

Hides, Furs, Wool & Tallow,

NOS. 122 and 124 LOUIS STREET, GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN,
WE CARRY A STOCK OF (CAKE TALLOW FOR MITE USE

WANTED!

Potatoes and Onions
Car Lots.

GRAND RAPIDS FRUIT AND PRODUCE CO.,

GRAND RAPIDs.

WM. H. THOMPSON & CO.,

WHOLESALE
COMMISSION MERCHANTS.

SPECIALTY

OTAT OES

No. 166 South, Water St., Chicago. Fair cash advances made on consignments.

in

 

Offers of stock for direct purchase, in car lots, will not be entertained unless
quality, size, variety and condition of stock is statéd, condition guaranteed, and
price named per bushel delivered track Chicago, with weights guaranteed not to
fall short over two per cent. from invoice billing.

MOSELEY BROS.
Fruits, Seeds, Oysters Produce.
All kinds of Field Seeds a Specialty.

If you are in market to buy or sell Clover Seed, Beans or Potatoes, will be
pleased to hear from you.

26, 28, 30 and 32 Ottawa St., - -

 

GRAND RAPILS

 

Sis AeA SION

ss eR ORE ie seit

ne cacermer ne merrspenng tates

eer

—

sere tel Sw SEE “ORIN ES INE IY SOF SH

pitecinesscerig ot senttan oe ire et

ee

 

 

 

hie aoe ema

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

AMONG THE TRADE.

AROUND THE STATE.

Sherwood—R. M. Beckwith,
dealer, is dead.

Lake Odessa—M. L. Eaton succeeds J.
C. Torrey in the grocery business.

Alpena — Eller & Deadman succeed
Eller & Beyers in the grocery business.

Martin— Murray & Backman have
bought the meat market of E. N. Jacobs.

Saginaw—John McLeod succeeds John
C. Hammer in the hotel and saloon busi-
ness.

Harrison—P. E. Witherspoon succeeds
Witherspoon & Sugnet in the drug busi-
ness. °

Owosso—D. L. Murphy succeeds Mur-
phy & Connor in the wall paper busi-
ness.

Quincy—Barnes & Son has sold their
grocery stock and meat business to
Clisbe & Rogers.

Muskegon—E. R. Ford & Co. have
opened a meat and vegetable market at
52 W. Western avenue.

Mancelona—Edson, Moore & Co. have
caused the arrest of H. L. Welling ona
eapias, alleging fraud.

Detroit—J. L. Hudson has bought the
Barnes Bros. stock of paper, stationery
and printers’ supplies.

Saginaw—Slawson Bros. are closing
out their boot and shoe stock and will
retire from the business.

West Bay City—Grow Bros. succeed
Grow Bros. & Judd in the clothing and
merchant tailoving business.

Middleton—There is no drug store at
this place and the man who takes advan-
tage of the opening here presented will
put shekels in his purse.

- Flushing—L. A. Vickery & Son have
sold their creamery machinery and fix-
tures to E. H. Dudley, of Owosso, who
has removed them to that city.

Whitehall—C. S. Anderson, who has
elerked for A. Linderman and C. Mears
for many years, has engaged in the gro-
cery business on his own account.

Albion—The John Brown drug and
stationery stock, which was recently pur-
chased by A. J. Gale & Son, is now con-
ducted under the style of Thomason &
Gale.

Owosso—C. H. Peacock, who recently
removed his drug stock from Corunna to
this place, has discontinued business
here and shipped the stock back to Co-
runna.

furniture

MANUFACTURING MATTERS.

Omer—Parker & Haley are putting up
a small shingle mil! here.

Mt. Pleasant—Horning Bros.’ new
heading factory is now in operation.

Coldwater—C. W. Johnson has re-
moved his cooper business to Union
City.

Saginaw—E. O. & S. L. Eastman are
operating camps in Gladwin county, and
expect to bank about 10,000,000 feet of
logs during the winter.

Tawas—William Long has taken a con-
tract to cut and skid 2,000,000 feet of
pine and hardwood on the Loon lake
branch for E. B. Warren, of Bay City.

Lansing—E. F. Cooley paid $90,000
for the Lansing [ron Works, last week,
and will consolidate his new purchase
with the Central Michigan Milling Co.

Kalamazoo—Wm. E. Hill & Co. have
decided to erect a two-story brick addi-
tion, 40 x 80 feet in dimensions, and a
foundry, 40 x 100 feet, as soon as spring
opens.

 

Wingleton—W. D. Wing, associated
with others, are about to locate in the
Upper Peninsula, and are organizing
what is to be known as the Trout Creek
Lumber Co.

Mt. Pleasant—Forbes & MHardgrove
have purchased the pine timber on 2,000
acres of land in Chippewa townShip, Isa-
bella county, which will stock their
shingle mill for four years.

Michigamme—F. W. Read & Co. shut
down their sawmill last Saturday. This
mill has cut about 12,000,000 feet this
year, and is one of the liveliest single
circular mills on Lake Superior.

Onekama—The Onekama Lumber Co.’s
mill shut down last week, and will be
repaired ani putin order to run during
the winter if necessary. The company
will have a full supply of logs as soon as
snow flies.

Gladwin—Wagar & Pfeiffer, who own
a shingle mill near this place, will start
the mill as soon as the ground freezes so
that logs can be hauled. They will com-
plete operations this winter in that sec-
tion if itis necessary to run night and
day. ‘

South Manitou—The Garden City Sand
and Gravel Co., of Chicago, is putting up
a sawmill on the Dick Kitchen timber
tract, which was recently purchased by
the corporation. A summer resort hotel
will be erected by the same concern in
the spring. i

Pequaming—The sawmill of Hebard &
Son will run until Christmas if the fair
weather continues. The burning of the
mill in the spring and its not being re-
built ready for work until the first of
July leaves the operators quite a stock
of logs yet.

Matchwood—A shingle mill is being
built here by Brown & Kelly, who expect
to have it ready for operation early in
the spring. They are putting in a stock
of shingle timber, and as soon as the
mill is ready will be prepared for a full
season’s run.

Saginaw—The McLean planing mill,
which has been idle for a while, has been
purchased by Frank Dennie. He has re-
fitted the plant, increased its capacity,
and will manufacture sash, doors and
blinds in addition to mill work. Itisthe
intention to run the mill full capacity
during the winter.

Owosso—The Estey Manufacturing Co.
has purchased six acres of land for its new
plant and will immediately erect thereon
three buildings—a frame building, 80x256
feet in dimensions, three stories high; a
brick engine house, 26x46 feet; a brick
boiler building, 34x36 feet, and a brick
shaving room, 12x24 feet.

Bay City—A $50,000 company has been
organized for the manufacture of A. C.
Haven’s new disinfectant, which is called
Purifine and is made from the residue of
brine. The manufactory will be removed
to Chicago after Haven gets it fairly go-
ing in a small building he has built to
start the thing along.

Saginaw—The Tittabawassee Boom Co.
has suspended operations for the season‘
having rafted and delivered abéut 302,-
000,000 feet. The final footings will not
be made up for several days. It is esti-
mated by the company that there will be
fully 275,000,000 feet put into the streams
to come through the booms next season.

West Bay City—The Saginaw Steam-
ship Co., composed of Saginaw and Bay
City lumbermen, expects to contract with
Wheeler, to construct during the winter
two more iron ocean freight steamers of

 

the Mackinaw pattern. The latter
steamer, launched in September, is now
on her way from Cape Breton to New
York, with 3,000 tons of cval, on a $1.75
freight.

Saginaw—The Michigan Log Towing
Association has filed articles of incorpo-
ration, with a capital stock of $75,000. It
is organized for the purpose of towing
logs from Georgian Bay, Ont., to Michi-
gan mills. Emery Bros., members of
the Saginaw Lumber & Salt Co., Nelson
Holland and others, are the incorpo-
rators. The Loveland Transportation
Co. will be bound up, and two steamers
owned by it will be put into the new as-
sociation. Mr. Loveland states that
there are 15,000,000 feet of logs being
puti in _by the Saginaw Lumber & Salt Co.
over there this winter, “whieh will be
manufactured on that side, as arrange-
ments were consummated to that effect
before the Canadian authorities removed
the log export duty.

—_—.>3 .- <>
Struck the Trade Favorably.

GRAND Rapips, Nov. 29.—You frank
and manly editorial, entitled ‘‘Is it Good
Policy?’ in your last issue, has {been fa-
uorably commented upon by many retail
druggists outside of Grand?.Rapids and
has made you many warm friends. The
fratricidal policy of a leading dry goods
house of this city does not affect the re-
tail druggists of the city alone but of ev-
ery druggist within 100 miles of Grand
Rapids, as the cut prices on staple toilet
articles are frequently quoted by their
customers. As‘‘South Division” states, the
antagon.sm of half a hundred local drug-
gists will not help any house. Add to
this the active antipathy of half a thou-
sand druggists within 100 miles of Grand
Rapids and the results are by no means
problematical. As a case in point, I re-
fer to an instance which recently came
under my observation.
merchant in a certain Northern town
came to the city to purchase an outfit of
earpets, drapery, table linen, bedding,
ete. The bride was favorably inclined to
the cut-rate dry goods store, but the hus-
band happened to consult with a friend
who is a druggist, in consequence of
which a $300 order went to another
house. Unless the dry goods house
ceases to cut prices on the staples of the
drug trade, every druggist and drug clerk
in the State will lift their hands against
such competition and make their influ-
ence felt in other directions of which it
is unnecessary to speak.

DRuG SALESMAN.
ier Aone

A Supply of Red Ears in Reserve.

MAPLETON, Nov. 28.—Capt. Fred L.
Johnson, who is known to many Grand
Rapids people as the master of the Queen
of the Lakes, recently gave a husking bee
at his commodious farm house on Bower’s
Harbor. It was noticeable that the Cap-
tain drew all the red ears and that he
had enough to enable him to kiss every
lady present, which gives ground for the
belief that he had previously secreted
all the red ears in the neighborhood for

that occasion.
> —_—

nc
The World’s Oldest Law Suit.

The oldest law suit on record was on
trial during the past spring and summer
in the highest Russian tribunal at St.
Petersburg. It was begun five hundred
years ago by the heirs of a dead noble-
man against the city of Kamenes Podolsk
for the recovery of a large tract of land,
which the municipality had incorporated
within their city limits. It is needless
to say that a decision has not yet been
reached.

 

— <>
To Druggists or Physicians.

LisBon, Nov. 28.—l very much desire
to communicate with Dr. W. J. Bruce,
formerly of Boyne Falls, Mich. Should
this come to the Doctor’s notice or should
any druggist or physicion in the State
know his address, or his present wherea-
bouts, he or any one so knowing will
confer a favor on the subscriber by com-
municating with me by postal or through
THe TRADESMAN. S. J. Koon.

A newly-married |

 

FOR SALE, WANTED, ETC.

eae TATA aa OOOO COTTE,

Advertisements will be inserted under this head for
two cents a word the first insertion and one centa
word for each subsequent insertion. No advertise-
ment taken for less than 25 cents. Advance payment.

BUSINESS CHANCES,

V ANTED—ALANSON WANTS A GOOD LIVE DOC-

tor to locate there. Ohe who can put in a drug
store in connection with his practice would do well;
to such, a warm reception will be given. For farther
information write to John, care box 45 _—

OR SALE—CHEAP FOR CASH, CLEAN stock. OF

general merchandise invoicing $8,000 in flourishing
manufacturing town in Saginaw county; best location
and building in town, surrounded by first-class farm-
ing country: doing ‘best cash business: bargain for
right person; reason for selling too much other busi-
ness. Address box 200, St. Charles Mich. 50

OR SALE—$3,000 STOCK OF GENERAL MERCHAN-

dise in good town in central Mich. Best location.
in State for capital required. Address 154, care Michi-
gan Tradesman. 154

OR SALE—JEWELRY STOCK WITH SPLENDID
trade in Grand Rapids on one of best streets, will
invoice about $2,500. This is the best opening in
Michigan for limited capital, best reasons given for
sale. Address 155 care Michigan Tradesman. 55
OR SALE—DRUG STOCK AND FIXTURES—GOOD
business; established six years; will sell at inven-
tory. O. H. Richmond & Co., Grand Rapids, Mich

 

 

 

 

| Say SALE—A SPOT CASH CLOTHING AND GENT’S
furnishing goods business ina live town of 2,000
population; factories pay out regularly every week
in wages $2,500; only clothing store in town; rent
$150 a year; stock will inventory $4.000 by lst of De-
es good reasons for selling. Write at once to
M. 8S. ROGAN, Otsego, Allegan Co., Mich. 149
ESIRABLE BUSINESS FOR SALE AT A BARGAIN—A
L 7,000 stock of dry goods, well selected and well
arranged, with a well established patronage of twenty
years’ standing; best location in St. Johns,a lively
town of 2.500 population and one of the best county
seats in Michigan fur general trade. For information
apply to W. Bunday, St. Johns, Mich.

OR SALE—TWENTY SHARES STOCK IN THE
Hazeltine & Perkins Drug Co. at 105, No. 146, care
Michigan Tradesman. 146

OR SALE—BLOCK OF STOCK IN THE PEOPLES’
Savings Bank. Address No. 147, care —"

Tradesman. 147
OR SALE—600 SHARES FULL PAID STOCK
American Eagle Tobacco Company at 15 per cent.

discount. Wm. 8. Hopkins, St. Clair, Mich. 148
wa BE SOLD ON ACCOUNT OF FAILING
health, a No. i stock of boots, shoes and rubbers,
groceries and provisions; best jocation and good
trade; easy terms and a big bargain. For particulars
see Rindge, 8ertsch & Co., Olney & Judson Grocer Co.,
Mich. Rapids, or address Lock Box 25, Harbor —_—

ic

‘YOR SALE OR EXCHANGE—A GOOD noe TK
Charlotte for grocery stock; any location. Address

J. D. Burkhead, 694 South Madison, Grand Rapids. 142

LOTHING MEN—ATTENTION—NEW STORE VERY
centrally located in one of the smartest villages
in Michigan can be had for the clothing business;
rent reasonable. Address 139, care Michigan Trades-
man. 139
OR SALE—WELL-SELECTED DRUG STOCK AND
new fixtures in desirable location in this city;
wiil sell at invoice on reasonable. terms; reason for
selling, owner has other business. Mills, 54
South Ionia street, Grand Rapids. 135
OR SALE—SHOE STOCK. J. E. FOSTER, oo
giac, Mich.
JANTED—TO PURCHASE STOCK OF WERCHAN.
dise, hardware, groceries, boots and shoes; send
particulars. Address Box 67, Salem, Neb.

O EXCHANGE—I HAVE $40,000 IN FARMS AND

city property to exchange for merchandise in

stocks of $1,000 or upwards. G. W. Watrous, ——
L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mich.
OR SALE—A COMPLETE DRUG STOCK AND FIX-
tures; stock well assorted can be bought at a
a Address for particulars 8. P. Hicks, ———
¢
R SALE—$300 STOCK OF DRUGS. ——. az
care Michigan Tradesman.
OR SALE—STOCK OF HARDWARE AND BUILD:
ing in the best town of Northern Michigan. Ad-
dress No. 96, care Michigan Tradesman. 96

ANTED—I HAVE SPOT CASH TO PAY FOR A
general or grocery stock; must becheap. Ad-
dress No. 26, care Michigan Tradesman. 26

SITUATIONS WANTED.

ANTED—BY A YOUNG MAN WITH GOOD REFER-
ences, position as book-keeper. Has had actual
experience. Address 151 care Mich. Tradesman, 151

ANTED—SITUATION BY A REGISTERED PHAR-

macist of five years experience. Best of refer-
ence. Address H. E. H., Stetson, Mich.

ANTED—SITUATION IN GROCERY BY AN EX

perienced grocery clerk twenty-one years old;
best of references. Address No. 144, care Michigan
Tradesman. 144
V ANTED—POSITION BY REGISTERED PHARMA-

cist; four years’ practical experience. Address
Box 170, Bangor, Mich. 141

ANTED — SITUATION IN OFFICE BY YOUNG

lady of 20, who has had the advantage of col-

legiate education; does not write short hand, but is
good penman; wages 1 ot so much an object as a pleas-
ant place to work. Address Z, care Michigan —
man

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS.

ry.0 DRUGGISTS OR eee ce VERY MUCH
desire to communicate with Dr. W. J. Bruce, for-
merly of Boyne Falls, Mich. Should this come to the
Doctor’s notice or should any druggist or physician in
the State know his address, or his present whereabouts
he or any one so knowing will confer a favor on the
subscriber by communicating — me by postal or
through the TRapESMAN. S. J. Koo
V ANTED—5,000 BUSHELS OF ae CLOVER SEED;
state price and how much you have for sale.
Gooding & Son, Gooding, Mich.

OR SALE OR RENT—A NICE BRICK STORE IN
the village of Morrice; size of store, 25x60 feet;
insurance low; good opening for general store. Cali
on or address B. F. Rann & Son, Morrice, Mich. 121
BOLISH THE PASS BOOK AND SUBSTITUTE THE
Tradesman Coupon, which is now in use by over
5,000 Michigan merchants—all of whom are warm in
praise of its effectiveness. Send for sample order,
which will be sent prepaid on receipt of $1. The
Tradesman Company, Grand pids.
AMPLES OF TWO KINDS OF COUPONS FOR RE-
tailers will be sent free to any dealer — will
write for them to the Sutliff Coupon Pass Book Pe
Albany, N. Y.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Albert B. Steele, general dealer,
“Tus TRaDESMAX is a dandy.”

Advance:

«
*

 

 

i

 

 

}

 

 

 

 

 

enemies sans

‘
1
|

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

5

 

GRAND RAPIDS GOSSIP.

 

Another jobbing house in a line akin |

to the grocery business is likely to be es-
tablished here in the near future.

Will Barry, grocer and druggist at
Harrietta, has added a line of boots and
shoes. Rindge, Bertsch & Co. furnished
the stock.

Elmer Des Voigne has engaged in gen-
eral trade at Crystal Lake, Houghton
county. I. M. Clark & Son furnished
the grocery stock.

The suit brought against Hessler Bros.,
the Rockford druggists, for selling liquor
as a beverage, was nolle prosequed by
the Prosecuting Attorney Saturday.

Henry Van Dyke, formerly engaged in
the grocery business at the corner of
East and Sherman streets, has opened a
grocery store at the corner of Tenth
street and Alpine avenue. The Olney &
Judson Grocer Co. furnished. the stock.

D. A. Brown, formerly engaged in
trade at Ganges, has formed a copartner-
ship with Fred Spafford and the two
have engaged in general trade at Grange
Hall, near Ganges, under the style of
Brown & Spafford. The Olney & Judson
Grocer Co. furnished the grocery stock.

 

Purely Personal.

Will Barry, the Herrietta grocer and
druggist, was in town over Sunday.

Geo. H. Smith, general dealer at Pearle,
was in town Saturday.

Eli Lyons, general dealer at Altona,
was in town a couple of days last week.

C. W. Caskey, President of the Northern
Michigan Lumber Co., at Tanderagee,
was in town Monday.

A. DeKruif, the Zeeland druggist, now
stands sponsor for thirty-one head of
horses on his stock farm.

J. M. Flanagan, manager of the Brook-
ings Lumber Co.’s store, at Brookings,
was in town one day last week.

Peter DeWitt, the Spring Lake drug-
gist, slaughtered seven deer on the occa-
sion of his hunting trip in the Upper Pe-
ninsula.

John Harvey, of the firm of Harvey &

He Lived: They Died.
From the New York Tribune.

Benovolent Citizen—Don’t you think,
uncle, you might live a great deal longer
if you didn’t use tobacco?

Uncle Pete (aged 97, lighting his pipe)--

I s’pect I mought, honey, but Ise gittin |

so old(puff)’ pears like I cain’t quit.

“Did you raise your children to use
tobacco, uncle?’’

‘“TLan’, no! The’s mammy hated it
iike p’zen.’’

‘“‘And they never touched it?”

‘‘Nuvver. Nur her, nuther.’’

‘‘I should like to meet your wife and
ehildren, uncle.”

“They(puff, puff)died ’bout forty yur
ago.”

Visitor changes the subject.

— 2
Why She Wanted Him to Chew.

Mrs. Jones—You should make your
husband quit chewing tobacco. If you
ask him to do it I reckon he will.

Mrs. Brown—I dare say, but I am not
going to ask him to quit chewing.

‘*‘When your husband kisses you, don’t
the taste of tobacco make you sick?”

‘Yes, but I want him to keep chewing
tobacco just the same. He kisses three
or four more women, and the tobacco
makes them sicker than it does me, for
they haven’t got used to it yet like I
have.”

 

 

 

FINANCIAL.

 

Local Stock Quotations.
Reported by the Michigan Trust Company.

Anti Kaisomine Co............ --- 100
Alpine Gravel Hoag Co -.. ....... ... pete ces 7
Alaine Manufacturing Co..........2........-. 60
Belknap Wagon & Sleigh Co.............. ....i100
Canal Street Gravel Road Co.................. &
With Wales! Gael... es... 100
Fourth National Bank.... bee
Grand Rapids Brush Co.... se
Grand Rapids Packing and Provision Co. ...102
Grand Rapids Fire [Insurance Co . ...........115
Grand Rapids Electric Light and Power Co... 75
Grand Rapids Savings Bank.................- 120
Grand Rapids Chair Co . -110

  
 

Grand Kapids National Bank.

Grand Rapids Felt Boot Co......... -107
Grandville Avenue Plank Road Co...........150
Rent County Savines Bank. ............. -.... 125
mee eee te... .......... «........ 100
New England Furniture Co...... .. ......... 6
eT
Old Raton! ee 132
Plainfield Avenue Gravel Road Co............ 25
Pcs Puree Cn... 58... el
Bren Purine Co.... -...-...-.......-- .--- 85
Street Railway Co. of Grand Rapids.......... 40
Walter Grave: Road Co .......:.......:...... &
Peninsular Club 4 per cent. Bonds.... ....... %5

 

 

KNIGHTS OF THE

Heyman &

|
|
|

|

6838 and 65 Canal St,

 

Company,

Manufacturers of

MIOW Cases

Of Every Description.

 

WRITE FOR PRICES.

First-Glass Work Only.

GRAND RAPIDS.

 

ORDER

HUDSON
LINEN

“POR YOUR STATIONERY.

 

Printers usually buy linens a ream or so at a
time, paying roundly for this buying ‘thand to
mouth.’’ By using large quantities we are able
to buy of the maker, thus obtaining a paper
which, while it is not pure linen, is equal in
writing qualities and appearance to that cost-
ing the smaller printer double what this costs
us. Furthermore, our output is so large that we
have reduced the cost to the minimum, while a
margin of a few cents on each order gives us
satisfactory returns. In view of the close mar-
gins we must insist upon cash with order from

all customers not known to us or not having a

satisfactory rating with mercantile agencies.

was Spanien mee

 

$2.25@$2.50 per M.
2.50@ 2.75 “
3.00@ 4.00 “
2.75@ 3.00 “

COMMERCIAL NOTE HEADS, 54x84, - -
PACKET NOTE HEADS, 6x9%, - -
LETTER HEADS, 8x11, - -
ENVELOPES,

Benjamin, proprietors of the Hope flour-

ing mills at Hamilton, was in towna

couple of days last week.
Se
Gripsack Brigade.

Handsome invitations to the annual
traveling men’s social party have been
sent out by Secretary Seymour.

“Doe? Withey went to Chicago Mon-
day to tender his resignation as trayeling

salesman for N. K. Fairbanks & Co. Would y ae ne ; : j
D. A. Harrison, traveling representa- re eee ee ee ee

tive for Farrand, Williams & Clark, of establish agents or sell to the trade? j
Detroit, was in town acouple of days If so, address I e Cd, eY S W l al S,

last week.

a —— — Bell Furniture and Novelty Co. In our opinion the three chief drawbacks of the retail trade are

wardenship of the Ionia House of Cor- NASHVILLE, MICH.

SEND FOR SAMPLES.
THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,

GRAND RAPIDS.

   

 

t rection is said to be assuming gigantic
Pee Dead-beats |
{ Jas. D. Wadsworth has resigned his € 9

position with Lemon & Peters and will
remove his family to San Francisco in
the near future.

Walter E. Cummings has sold_ his resi-
dence on Lake street and removed his
family to Chicago, which has been his
headquarters since the beginning of the
i year.

J. H. Green, who travels for a Cleve-
: land house, was seriously ill at the Bai-
ley House, Stanton, last week. He was

cared for by members of the I. O. O. rs
of which order he was a member.

Peddlers and
Combination Goods.

The Dead-beat can be avoided by giving no credit; the Peddler can be ostra-
cized by enforcing the State law; and goods not controlled by trusts and combina- :
tions can be obtained by dealing with our house. Every dealer, therefore, has it :
in his own hands to curtail the abuses which serve to make retail trade unprofitable.

Telfer Spice Company,

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

isan on alaccaias oe nian gies

 

 

CVI ean

Benes teh Stn) 8 | eA Tt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

Dry Goods.

Utilizing Buttons for Advertising Pur-
poses.
Written for THs TRADESMAN.

While the best of all ways of advertis-
ing is to make a free but judicious ust of
printer’s ink, a Kalamazoo clothing mer-
chant suggests a novel and, perhaps, val-
uable aid, based upon the fact that, if

 

any commercial article which it is de- | Com

sired to sell is universally talked about,
its sale is assured beyond question, pro-
vided if has any merit whatever. He
does not say that this novel method is by
any means to take the place of printer’s
ink, but would prove a useful aid and
adjunct. He says, “I would first visit
one of the largest button factories in the
country and, if my advertising was to be
national, would contract to purchase, say
half a million gross of buttons for gen-
tlemen’s clothing—possibly this might be
extended to buttons for ladies’ garments,
also—and engage the maker to stamp
certain words in a circle or circles @pon
them; as, for example, ‘Purchase the
Electric Hand Lamp,’ Use Langdon’s
Liquid Dentifrice,’ ete. In contracting
for so great a number of buttons the cost
would be insignificant, although it would
still’more enhance their value and ensure
their use, if made of more than ordinary
good material. Of course, it is under-
stood that they must be of the styles
most in use. I would then have, if pos-
sible, every tailor and ready-made cloth-
ing manufacturer in the country visited
and furnish them all the buttons they
could use in their own places of business,
either gratis, or so low in price as per-
haps to partially cover the cost only. Of
course parties ordering suits specially
made might object to this button, but a
far greater number of others would not
from the fact that it would have a half
military appearance and would ‘take’ as
a curiosity with thousands of men and
boys who would care very little about
the kind of button they wore, and still it
would tell its own story, as other eyes
would see it. The same system could be
made a local one for all or any one kind
of merchandise at a slight advance in

the cost.”
>.> —
The Advertisement Paid.

MARSHALL, Nov. 28—It has well paid
my firm to advertise their business in
your paper and you will surely receive
another order from them next season.
You have my permission to make such
use of this acknowledgment as you see
fit. Wa. Connor,
Traveling Representative for Michael

Kolb & Son.

Katon, kyon & Go,

 

 

 

School Supplies,
Miscellaneous Books
School Books,
Stationery.

Our Fall Line Now Ready
OM LYON &CO.,

 

 

 

St., Grand Rapids.

 

Prices Current.

 

 

UNBLEACHED COTTONS.

 

 

 

AGentic A.......... , cor. ....... 6%

- se 6%} ‘“ Arrow Brand 5%

_ ok 6 “World Wide.. :

_ _ 6 . se...

SS 2 5% |Full Yard Wide..... o%
a ae 74|Honest Width....... 6%
Archery manne . 444\/Hartford A ......... hg
Beaver Dam AA Ss: Madras cheese cloth 6%
Blackstone O, 32.... ae ............. 5
 — ; Our Level Best..... 6%
nee, ............ oo
Chapman cheese cl. 3% — Sede shes eaes os

%
Dwight a... V4|\Top of the Heap.... 7%
BLEACHED COTTONS.

aes... . . eee... 7
Blackstone AA..... 6 Mold Modal......... 1%
ee 4%/Green Ticket....... 8%
Copvebend........... 7 Maeme Peis.......... 64
......... ™ a a
ree Bi 6X \Just Out...... 4%x@
Dwight Anchor ee 9 King Phillip oe a
aC lUr.lClUUC!.
ni TE 6 |Lonsdale Cambric. “10%
Ns piiieeeel oc 7 |Lonsdale...... . @ 8%
ae... 7% |Middlesex.... ..
Fruit of the Loom.. 8% et. 7%
are ..... .... 7% |Oak + eng et
Poms Pree... ...... re OW... 55 45 5%
Fruit of the Loom %. : oe ot the West...12
Po e.......... See... oe
Pall Vorne.......... Fs Soniight ke i
Geo. Washington... 81¢|/Vinyard............. 8%

HALF BLEACH

tenet... ..3......-. bn
(es

ED COTTONS.
Dwight Anchor..... 8%

UNBLEACHED ia FLANNEL.

 

ass .......... 54%{ Middlesex No. 1.

Hossiiien B......... OG o ee
ica L oo a = 2.

Middlesex AT...... 8 e me —
- a... ” r

9
. Ho. %.... 9

BLEACHED CANTON FLANNEL.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

ee sane J cada ok ba sey en
. Sos..... 144%4| Lancaster........... 12%
as brown a Lawrence, 90z...... 13%
Aniover........--..5 ” No. 220....13
Everett, blue........ i - No. 250....11%
- tae... 2 " No, 280....10%
GINGHAMS.
Glenarven.......... 6%{Lancaster, staple... 6%
Lancashire.......... 6% - fancies . 7
Normandie..... .... ™ ” Normandie :
Renfrew Dress...... ™ Westbrook...
Teel Ge Dere.... ee cote ww cnice "9
Pe a 6%
. APU.2..45 10%|Hampton........... 6%
Peien........ 0.4 84|Windermeer.... .... 5
meses... ...... ..... Si eee... .... 5
ieee... wo... os cae 4%
WA
Peerless, wuite...... eT —— colored. ..20%
GRAIN BAGS.
Amoskeag.. -17 [Valley City
Harmony. ..16% |Georgia ....
Stark..... --20%|Pacific ...
American..... --16%
THREADS.
Clark’s Mile End.,..45 |Barbour's........... 88
oer, 3. & P.....45 45 |Marshall’s.......... 88
Holyoke. ee 22%
KNITTING COTTON.
White. Colored. White. Colored.
me 6S... Le - me. M....... 37 42
- £2... me OM. 38 48
- SS 39 44
. 2. 41 Y 2 oe 45
in —. .
oe 4%|Washington......... 4%
White Star...... oe Sree Come... .....,.. 4%
ae Gilove........... ig \Lockwood.... ...... 44%
Newmarket......... are eee... .... .... 4%
eres. ....5. ..... “a Brunswick ........ 4%
RED FLANNEL.
32%(T W

 

--30 35
ae a —— eee... R%

D FLANNEL.
ao oa ...,.... 17%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a... T™% Middlesex A A cis = th & Blue, seat -40
Middlesex rv... 8 oe ee 22\4| Western W ......... 18%
ie 9 a AO Windsor ee Se Oe a es cca 18%
- 2s... 9 . 6 oz Weatern........ 21 ee: See... 33%
. a2... - 10% C Demee B...o5, 2934 Manttobe.... ....... 23%
DRESS GOODS DOMET FLANNEL.
Hamilton poets... ..... 20 | Nameless ..... : @ 9% eee 9 as
i eee eee 10% | eo a ee 4%@10 ee
se : : oe ANVASS AND PADD
G G Cashmere... ..21 eo otatsesee sees 30 | slate. Brown. Black|Slate. Brown. Black.
Nameless o Nae Mo sete teen eens 32% 9% 9 9/13 13 13
a ST i i lai ili i 35 10% 10% 10% 15 15 15
— JEAN! 11% 11% 11%)17 17 nn
a - a eulitos Naumkeag satteen.. be 12% 12% ie 20 20
runeweek. .... .... GE Ser par...........
PRINTS. Severen, 8 0z........ 9% {West Point, 8 0z....10%
Allen, —_ Loe 5% Merrim’ ckshirtings. 4% Mayland, See... 10% 10 oz. ---12%
eer........ Repp furn . Bs Greenwood, 7% oO 9% Raven, oe... 138%
ne ae... .... 3 Pacific fancy........ Greenwood, 8 o.. -.11% 18 gg 13%
American fancy.... 5%| ‘* robes......... 8% poe
Americanindigo.... 5%/Portsmouth robes... 6 | white. doz.... 25 |Per bale, 40 doz....87 50
hme shirtings. 4 Simpson mourning.. 6% Colored, doz....... 20 | ’ ie
rno greya .. .... 8% | en re
_ cloth B.10 “ Solid black. 6 SILESIAS.
“ S B 1088 Washington indigo. :* Slater, Iron Cross... 8 en Loe cies 10%
“century atk 7 “Turkey robes.. i i ea ctr... © oan... 9
ss old seal..... 10 “ d es... :'10% Bedford es Saal oak 10%
g % India robes.... 7%} ,,
“ Turkey red..10%| “ plain T’ky x % 8 Best AA..... 124%)Valley City......... 10%
Berlin solids........ 5%; ‘* x... CORSETS.

= oF Seee...... 6%| “ Ottoman = Coeamne...........2 89 oS apenas eo . =

= ™ soon .... ll Revere... 6 Scbiiling’s......... 0 @ormeeom.. ........
Cocheco — i. 6 |Martha Washington

_ madders... 6 Turkey red X..... 7% | Corticelli, doz....... ay {Corticelli ees,
Eddystone fancy... 6 |Martha = twist, doz..3744| per %oz ball...... 30
Hamilton or. > . OS Turkey red........ 50 yd, doz. .37%

g e . 54%| Riverpo nt robes.. HOOKS AND EYES—PER
Manchester ancy .. 6 |Windsorfancy...... * Oss No : BI’k & (White. 10 No 4 Br ‘& ‘White. 15
new era. 6% 3 old ticket -12 8 -20
Merrimack D fancy. 6%} indigo blue....... 10% | “ 3 = 2, = ' . 25
ee.
Amoeba ACA. INO AL 12% No 2-20, M C....... 50. “[No418, F 3%...... 40
Hamilton . come eps anton Pemberion AAA.. 3—18, 5 C........ pon eis

ce ee = .

Awning. .11 Swift Rie. Os No 2 White & BIE12 No 8 White & BI’k..20
eee 8 |Pearl River......... mci 2 ci --15 | “ 10 - 3
First Prise.......... Hawn 14 6 Foor an - 26

COTTON DRILL. 3
Atlanta, eee oi stark, a 1% Mee... 3... 28 ee ee 36
i ae ee ine meeee........ « oe an
Chitton, K.. - 74|Top of Heap........ 10 | A. James....... neat Stienmebeek.... -.. 40
SATINES, ~-k Suuee Byed.......... 150
Simpson Ee -— eee... 10% M 100
ne eee oan 18 Black...... pone 9% TABLE OIL CLOTH.

SS  ceeeecsiee cl 10% | 5—4....2 25 6—4...3 25/5—4....195 6—4...2 95

Ceara... 10% . 2. | * ee

 

 

XMAS GOODS

 

 

IN HANDKERCHIEFS, MUFFLERS, GLOVES, NECKWEAR,

 

TABLE COVERS, NAPKINS, SPLASHERS, APRONS, DOLLS,

 

PERFUMES, JEWELRY, CLOCKS, POCKETBOOKS, KNIVES,

 

FANCY

SOAPS, FANCY CASES, PAPETERIES, AND A

 

COMPLETE LINE OF FANCY NOTIONS.

 

P. STEKETEE & SONS,

IMPORTERS AND JOBBERS,

81 and 83 MONROE

ST.

10, 12, 14, 16, 18 FOUNTAIN ST.,

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

 

Voigt, Herpolshelmer & Co,

Importers and Jobbers of Staple and Fancy

Dry Goods

NOTIONS AND HOLIDAY GOODS.

Manufacturers of

Shirts, Pants, Overalls, Rte.

Complete «Fall Stock now ready for
inspection, including a fine line of Prints,
Underwear, Pants, Gloves, Mittens and
Lumbermen’s Goods. Chicago and Detroit
prices guaranteed.

48, 50 amd 52 Ottawa St.,

GRAND RAPIDS, - - MICH

 

WHOLESALE.

 

Carpets, Linoleums,
Mattings, Oil Cloths,
Rugs and Mats, Dra-
peries, Brassand Wood
Poles, Brass _ Rings,
Brackets, Etc.

Send for circular and price list.

Smith & Sanford,

GRAND RAPIDS.

 

 

FOURTH NATIONAL BANK

Grand Rapids, Mich.

 

A. J. Bown#, President.
D. A. BLopezrt, Vice-President.
H. W. Nasu, Cashier

CAPITAL, - - $300,000.

 

 

Transacts a general banking business.

 

Make ° A san oen of Collections. save ta
Country Merchants Solicited.

J.&PCOATS

 

 

BEST

SIX-CORD

Spool Cotton

WHIVE, BLACK AND COLORS,

Hand and Machine Use,
FOR SALE BY

P, STEXETEE & SOND

 

 

apres

nN er erence er nr een PE EC BEEN Dt 3 en EP ee enrenn

 

 

 

Seema tar Sen e Omen ener. ven enn er oem mmEte ro itu

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

7

 

HARDWARE.

Pen Pictures of the Traveler.
From the Supply World.

A man without brains has no business
on the road.

Why?

Because, to become a successful sales-
man, a man requires a head full of that
needful commodity. And we do not
mean merely brains in quantity, but in
quality.

Without brains—well cultivated, har-
rowed, plowed, raked and weeded—a
man cannot be ingenious.

A drummer must be full of ingenuity.

Without brains he cannot be apt,
quick, thoughtful.

A drummer must possess all these
qualifications.

He meets and deals with all kinds of
men. He ‘‘stacks up” against a perfect
medley of human nature—pleasant men,
cross men, dyspeptic men, religious men,
sporting men, business men, and men
with no idea of business methods—all
kinds, all sorts, all nationalties.

The drummer meets all these people
under all sorts of conditions and under a
variety of circumstances. Heis expect-
ed to deal with them all successfully.

Then he needs brains, doesn’t he?

He must be a man of ready resources—
ready to smile, to laugh, whoop e’-up,
feel ugly and act sweet, be able to sym-
pathize, sorrow, and, if need be, weep!
And with all this, he must never lose
his independence. He must bea man all
the time.

Show me a successful salesman who
isn’t a man all the way through, and I'll
show you a duck that can’t swim.

Selkirk Still on Top.

SoutH HAvEN, Nov. 28.—A _ recent
statement in Toe TRADESMAN, to the ef-
fect that M. V. Selkirk’s carriage and
harness stock had been seized under
chattel mortgage, does that gentleman an
injustice. The stock was not closed
under chattel mortgage, but was attached
by a competitor, who managed to keep
the business closed for a week. No pa-
pers were served on Selkirk, but the at-
tachment was then withdrawn, the at-
taching party paying all costs and $100
damages. 1 know THE TRADESMAN is
friendly to Mr. Selkirk and will be glad
to set him aright before the business
public. VINDEX.

 

 

 

In a Safe Place.

Grocer—Well, my little boy, what will
you have?

“Fifteen cents’ worth of molasses.’’

Grocer (as he hands the pitcher over
the counter)—Where is your money?

‘In the pitcher; I put it there so as to
be sure not to lose it.’’

THE PERFECTION
MEAT CUTTER

Tue LaTEsT,
BesT ano
Most IMPROVED
ror Famity Use.
CUTS

Insteao oF Masnes.

 

 

   
   
  
 
 
 
 
  

 

Requires
No Repairs.

EQuatted
By NONE FoR
Famicy Use.

Simpce To Use.

Easy To CLEAN.

Cannot Get Dut
oR OuT oF
Orver.

No. 1—$2.00.

No. 2—$2.75.
Liberal discount to the trade, and
descriptive circulars on application to
AMERICAN MACHINE Co.,
MANUFACTURERS OF HARDWARE SPECIALTIES,

Lehigh Ave. and hain St. St., Philadelphia, Pa.

No. 3—$4.00.

JOHN H. {. GRAHAM & CO.,

wens. Agents. 113 Chambers St., New York,

 

 

Prices Current.

 

  

    

 

 

These prices are for cash buyers, who
pay promptly and buy in full packages.
AUGURS AND BITS. dis.
EE ee cc 60
Ce 40
Jennings’, genuine...... Bd b ce eee wee ee cen: 25
Somme, Meee... 50&10
AXES.
First Quality, Ss. = — eed cece e. $8 50
D. meeeee.................. 12 50
' Ss. B eee... 9 50
” DOF Steel... sts 14 00
BARROWS. dis.
a— ss... 8 14 00
8... “net 30 00
BOLTS. dis.
ee 50&10
Carriage new list. oo a 70
Plow nas a . -40&16
Sleigh De 70
BUCKETS.
Dod oo 83 50
WEE GT eect cece tie se esses ciuieeences Gn
BUTTS, CAST. dis.
et Boose ri, Gewred........ 1.0... os W&
Wrought Narrow, bright 5ast eet. Seeceee aed 60410
Wrought Loose Pa! - 60&10
Wrouget Tanie........:. -60&10
Wrought — Bam... .. ae - -60&10
Wrest Gee. co %
Blind, Clark’s...... bole iat ee ecencauee 70&16
Blind, OE ——
Blind, Speperan
BLOCKS.
Ordinary Tackle, list April 17, °8........... 40
CRADLES.
——. |... .... dis. 50&02
CROW BARS.
on eee........_.......... ee per® 5
CAPS,
ss... ame m «6
eee C.F... ............. 60
C2... .... ee, i 35
Musket . ee ae “ 60
CARTRIDGES.
sre... 50
Comte) Fire. ow. ol dis. 25
CHISELS. dis.
Coe 70&10
OCMOE WAI a ie ce ce ee ee eee ot 70&16
CmOeee . 70&10
eee ree a
Beteeore Tatiged FPirwer...................
COMBS, <<
Corre, Lewreneee ...... 1.8... ss... 40
Preeeeeiee i. ..... 25
CHALK.
White Crayons, per gross.......... 12@12% dis. 10
COPPER,
Planished, 14 oz cut to sise...... per — 31
14x52 EOE 29
Cold Rolled, 14x56 and 14x60.... ........-.. 28
Cold Rolled, ee 28
EE . 30
DRILLS. dis.
moo Te eee. 50
Taper and straight Shank............ coca 50
Monee Teper ones... 50
DRIPPING PANS.

Sarit sisom, ser pound ...................... Ow
Daree dees, por pound........ ....... ..... 6%
ELBOWS.

Can, 4 piece Gim .. . doz. net vis)
Cue a 20&10&10
pe ee dis. 40&10

EXPANSIVE BITS. dis.
Clark’s, small, 818; large, 826................ 30
Peer. 1. Ge: = Ot; 5, ee _-................ 25

FILES—New List. dis.
Disston’s . Sees o eee sense oe tee ee). oo
New American. a ee ae 60&10
~-—o ieee ces eves cut ces. ss 5G
ees... . 50
Heller’ " Horse Rasps. . acco la, He 50

@ALVANIZED IRON

Nos. 16 to 20; 22 and 2; =~ 27 28

List 12 13 6 8
Discount, 60

GAUGES. dis.
Stanley Rule and Level Co.’s............... 50

HEADQUARTERS FOR

 

HAMMERS.
Ee dis. &
OE ee dis. 25
eee eo Pee dis. 40&10
Mason’s Solid Cast Steel. . .. 80¢ Hist 60
Blacksmith’s Solid Cast Steel. Hand. ...30¢ 40&10

HINGES.
dis.60&10

>. Clee 42S...
tat r doz. net, 2 50

cand _— and Strap, to 12 in. % 14 and
PO %
Screw ‘Hook and Eye, Me... net 10
Lees net 8%
. . bas - mee Ts
. _ ° eo, . net 7%
Ce ds 7

HANGER is.
Barn Door Kidder Mfg. Co., Wood track.. --30&10
Cliamemlom, anirtrction ........ -... 10
Kidder, wood track ...............- oe 40
HOLLOW WARE.

ee ee. 60
i 60
ll | oo
Giay Coamieica. «8. .- 40&10

HOUSE FURNISHING GOODS.

Stamped Tin Ware... ............... -new list 70
Japanned Tin Ware. oe 25
Granite Iron Ware ............... “new list 33% &10
WIRE GOODS. dis.
Co oo 70410810
coe eee... SC. 70&10&10
Hoek s.. ..-. 2... |
Gate Hooks and Eyes. bbe aaa 70&10&10
LEVELS. dis.
Stanley Rule and Level Co.’s 70
KNoBs—New List. dis.
Door, mineral, jap. trimmings . : 55
Door, porcelain, jap. trimmings .. 55
Door, porcelain, plated trimmings 55
Door, porcelsin, trimmings ...... ..... 55
Drawer and Shutter, porcelain... 70
LOCKS—DOOR dis.
Russell & Irwin Mfg. Co.’s new list ns 55
Mallory, Wheeler & Co.’s........ 55
eee 55
Rawenes 55
i MATTOCKS.
Adze Eye | #16.90, dis. 60
Moet nee... $15.00, dis. 60
Hunt’s el $18.50, dis. 20&10.
“MAULS. dis.
Sperry & Co.’s, Post, handled..
MILLS. dis.
Coffee, Porkors Cae........ ..- i 40
P. 8S. & W. Mfg. Co.’s — a“ 40
«Landers, Ferry & Cl: &’s. Loo 40
a ~Clt—....... 25

MOLASSES GATES, dis.

   
 
 
 
 
  

Seeeein s Femern ws... 60&10
Glepom se Geman. 66&10
Enterprise, self-measuring. . ae 25
NAILS"
Steel nails, base...... oe es su 1%
Wie Galle bee... ll... C8, 2 45
Advance over base: Steel. Wire.
ee Base Base
ee Base 10
ee 05 20
ES ie 10 20
Ee 15 30
i .. 15 35
i... se. 15 35
Ee 20 40
a ee eS 25 50
ee 40 65
ee ae 60 90
aS 1 00 1 50
meses 50 2 00
eee 8 i 1 50 2 00
ee 60 90
. -.. 7 1 00
_ . .. ...... ee 90 13
Finish 10.... . 100
- Ss... 1 @ 13
. Se... 1. 1 50
Clinch! 10.. . & %5
ve S.. -1 00 90
ie 6. -—. 1 00
caf... 1G 2 50
TLANES. dis.
Olio Tool Co.'s, fancy ...................... @4)
moles Deen Qe
Sandusky Tool Co.’s, fancy.............-..- @4
Hench fest quality..........................
Stanley Rule and Level Co.’s, wood. . .... &10
PANS.
ee dis.60—10
Galen, polished Be eee neue were sce 4s dis. 70
IVETS. dis.
Tron ang Tigmee........................._..
Copper Rivets and Burs.............--....- 50
PATENT FLANISHED IRON
‘A’? Wood’s patent planished, Nos. 24 = 27 10 20
“B” Wood’s = at. planished, Nos. 25 to 27... 9 20
Broken packs 4c per pound extra.

 

 

ES.
—_, ¥% inch and inane Ded accede oe cane cas 10
ey 15
SQUARES. dis.
ee v4]
ey ane Devers. : 60
Bee... 20
SHEET IRON.
Com. Smooth. Com.
ee 1009 Ms %20 86% 10
ee Beeeee. 4 2 3 20
ee eee e..,..............._... 420 3 20
Nos. 3 3 30
Nos. 25 to 26 . 3 40
No. 27 3 50

 

4 60
An sheets No. 18 and lighter, over 30 inc
wide not less than 2-10 extra
SAND PAPER.

o
@
a

nee hw dis. 40&10
SASH CORD.
Silver Lake, Wane 4... list 50
ee A... Sue 55
“ Whee 2. i 50
“ BO . 55
° Witte. - 35
Discount, 10.
SASH WEIGHTS.
Sei ee per ton 825
SAWS. . dis.
“ EN ei ae
Silver Steel Dia. X Cuts, per foot, ... 70
‘* Special Steel Dex X Cuts, per foot.. 50
‘¢ Special Steel Dia. X Cuts, per foot.. 30

‘ Champion and Electric Tooth xX

Cus perro.
TRAPS. dis.
Hece: Game. €0&10
Oneida Community, Newhouse’s......... 35
Oneida — Hawley & Norton’s .... 70
Mouse, CHGNer 18¢ per doz.
Mouse, Se TS 81.50 ~ _
WIRE.
ae
Asionled Marmet..... .. 70-10
Conperee Mermee 60
Sioned Martee -. 62%
Berbea F oo...
Barped Fence, galvanized........... ..... 3
painted . 4 —— 2 90
HORSE NAILS.
a Sete. dis. ee
A dis.
INORGRIWEMORM dis. 10810
WRENCHES. dis,
Baxter’s Adjustable, nickeled..............
toes Genutie 50
Coe’s Patent oe — ou, 75
Coe’s Patent, malleabl 75&10

ania aloe
mca Cages se
eran, CMeer ke 5

  

Perewe, NCW i 50
Casters, Bed and Plate Panes
Dampers, American. ..
Forks, hoes, rakes and all steel. goods i &
ALS,
PIG TIN.

OO EE 28e
Pig DOR i
ZINC.

Duty: Sheet, 2%c per pound,
Gey POUNG COMMA i 7%
ee
SOLDER.
ee ee ee ale ees een ¥
a =~ teed eau ese ae
The prices of the many other qualities a

solder in the market indicated by nrivate brands
vary according to composition.
ANTIMONY

ne pe ee eee per pound 16

ee 13
IN—MELYN GRADE.

10x14 IC, Charcoal eee ai we ee ea 8700

14x20 IC, ee eget 710

10x14 Ix, ao 8 7

14x20 IX, Ces 8 75

 

Each additional X on this grade, 81.
TIN—ALLAWAY GRADE.
= ic Charcoal . ee

10x14 i 4

  

20 TX eau
Each additional X on this grade 81.50.
ROOFING PLATES

14x20 IC, “  WOreemier. .. 2... 6 25
14x20 IX - . tteeee cece. luce ie
Mate | Ee 13 00
14x20 IC ‘<6 Allaway Grade........... 5 50
14x20 IX, i i eennsnseses 7 00
9 on mY ‘

a 4 8. 8. ee

BOILER SIZE TIN PLATE.

Me TS... $14 CO
faust IX... x oe pies ett cre 15 50
een ae for 9. : oilers, | per pound . 10

 

FOSTER, STEVENS & Co.,

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
Send for Price List.

 

Dogetentiakonaeai tae

 

 

a Laan a

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

[he Michigan Tradesman

Official Organ of Michi Busi Men’s A lati

 

 

4 WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE

Retail Trade of the Wolverine State,

Tradesman Company, Proprietor.

 

Subscription Price, One Dollar per year, payable
strictly in advance.
Advertising Rates made known on application.
Publication Office, 100 Louis St.

Entered at the Grand Rapids Post Office.
E. A. STOWE, Editor.

 

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1890.

The past week has witnessed the birth
of another enormous combine, twenty-
one manufacturers of threshing machines
having joined hands in a corporation
having a capital stock of $20,000,000. It
is claimed that all the details attending
the organization have already been set-
tled and that the combination will go in-
to effect as soon as Jan. 1.

 

 

Complaints continue to reach THE
TRADESMAN from grocers who have
taken the trouble to count the pickles in
a barrel and found them short from 10
to 25 per cent. THE TRADESMAN will
shortly publish a list of the packers who
put less pickles in their barrels than
they brand on the heads, and dealers
who have investigated the matter are in-
vited to send the results of the investiga-
tion to this office.

 

It affords THE TRADESMAN no small
pleasure to be able to present a complete
repori of the fifth annual convention of
the Michigan Business Men’s Association
in supplementary form. It is issued
separately from the paper, so as to be in
eonvenient form for preservation. Like
all other reports which THe TRADESMAN
has been privileged to present to its
readers, it is a valuable contribution to
the literature of business.

The critical situation of the fur-seal
interest is disclosed by the report which
Professor Elliot, of the Smithsonian In-
stitution, has prepared for presentation
to Congress, in which he estimates the
number of animals remaining in the
American ‘‘rookeries”’ at no more than
100,000, and advises that the catching of
them be suspended for some years to
come. This is a scientific report, with a
seientific recommendation, but of what
avail are they against the poachers of
British Columbia? Whether the busi-
ness be butchery and folly, or not,
whether the United States has a right
to forbid it or not, the poachers will go
on and exterminate the seals while the
process continues profitable, unless they
are heid back by the strong arm.

 

 

The meeting of the International Law
and Order Society, in Pittsburg, marks
an era in the progress of civilized com-
munities toward an appreciation of, and
command over, their organized legal ma-
chinery. The principle that the suprem-
acy of the law is essential to free govern-
ment is quite generally recognized, but,
oddly enough, there is a large num-
ber of law-abiding people who ap-
pear to think that this supremacy
will maintain itself through some in-
herent virtue, and that, so leng as we
have legislative bodies busying them-
selves by entering new acts upon the
statute books, we need not ‘worry our-
selves yery greatly about the matter of
enforcement. Itis a sad truth, never-

 

theless, that executive functions are not
always conscientiously discharged, and it
is to the Law and Order Leagues in this
country and Canada that we are at pres-
ent indebted for much of the improve-
ment which has recently been recorded.
So long as these societies confine them-
selves to existing laws and avoid the
temptation to undertake the procurement
of new legislation, their position is a
strong one. A yielding to this tempta-
tion has oceasionally hampered useful-
ness, but, on the whole, the record pre-
sented at the Pittsburg meeting is one
concerning which a little honest pride is
quite pardonable.

 

WhatI Noticed at the Meeting of the
M. B. M.A.

I noticed that although few in numbers
the delegates were terribly in earnest.

That they felt themselves a power
which should and does command respect.

That each one present acted as if he
represented a thousand constituents.

That the questions they discussed were
of vital interest to the Association.

That every delegate showed the deep-
est interest in the welfare and prosper-
ity of the organization.

That they expected much from the as-
sociation in the future and that the
next annual meeting would be composed
of hundreds of representatives.

That they devised many methods to
benefit the Association and resolved they
should be made practical.

That fire insurance was a leading ques-
tion and ably discussed.

That they resolved to ask the aid of
enactments from the State Legislature,
if required.

That all present were in the best of
humor with themselves and mankind in
general. A VISITOR.

lee
Bank Notes.

John W. Baldie, formerly connected
with the Steele Packing and Provision
Co., has returned to Ionia and resumed
his former position as Teller of the Page
bank.

J. S. Schmittdiel, Cashier of the Home
Savings Bank of Detroit, has originated,
and the Bank will put into practice, an
entirely new method of aiding people to
save their pennies. It is a handsome
nickel-plated model of a bank. It con-
tains four compartments, for as many
depositors, the name of each to be placed
above the slot in which each depositor
places his or her savings. The banks,
which are secured by a patent lock, will
be loaned to families, and once a month
the collector of the Bank will visit them,
collect the deposits and give each person
credit for the amount on a savings de-
posit book, when it will begin drawing
interest at 4 per cent.

—_——_~ -4
Dishonest Pickle Packers.

Owosso, Nov. 28.—The pickles re-
ferred toin our communication of last
week were purchased of E. D. Dailey &
Co., of Detroit. They were packed by
the Highland Vinegar & Pickle Co., of
Highland Station. We could get no sat-
isfaction from either dealer or packer,
so rejected the goods.

LAWRENCE & Son.

— _ > +o
Referred to Mr. Vernor.
GRAND Rapips, Dec. 1.—I notice that
Secretary Vernor is sending out the
pharmacy certificates for 1891 under a
2-cent stamp, whereas the regular post-
age is6 cents. This involves the pay-
ment of 4 cents to the postmaster at the
receiving office by the recipient of the
certificate. Why is this thus?
DrueaGist.

 

KEEP INSURED.

 

Experience of a Merchant Who Held

No Policy.
Written for THs TRADESMAN.

“T have called this morning to see if
you will not allow me to place that $3,000
insurance on your stock of goods. It is
now December and as the winter ap-
proaches your risk is always greater;
and every windy night I think of you,
and of your large and handsome stock of
groceries, entirely unprotected, and what
a calamity it would be if a fire should
once start in this wooden block of build-
ings. You cannot afford, in justice to
your family, to be a day without insur-
ance.’’

“TI know that your words are true, Mr.
Burns,’’ I replied, ‘‘but I have been
waiting for just a little more available
means, so as to pay asI go and really
expecting every day to take the policy,
and next week I will surely be ready for
you.”

“Better give me fifteen minutes of
your time this morning, Warren, and fix
this matter now, as the money will make
no difference for a few days, and your
mind will then be at ease.”’

“IT am really obliged to you, Mr.
Burns,” I replied, ‘but 1 am so full of
business just now that you will have to
excuse me.”

‘“‘All right, Mr. Warren, only I trust
you may not delay too long,’? and the
gentlemanly agent bade me good day.

I had moved into the village of Wal-
tham, six months before, and engaged in
the grocery business with a $4,000 stock,
to which [ had made large additions, and
was doing well. My large store was a
wooden building, closely surrounded by
other structures no less inflammable, and
while I had often serious thoughts about
fires occurring, I had not one dollar of
insurance, and was prejudiced against
all such companies, and regarded them
with little favor. In return, they looked
upon my situation as bad and the risk as
extra hazardous, consequently the pre-
mium was high, and 1 felt disposed until
now to carry the risk myself. Alas! de-
lays are particularly dangerous as re-
gards fire. Of late, the subject had
preyed upon my mind to the exclusion
of many other matters. My dwelling
house was just two blocks away and the
store was in plain sight from my bed-
room window in the second story and my
last thought, night after night, was
about fire and to look from that window
over the peaceful village and—toward
my store.

+2 &

A dreamy consciousness of the rapid
tap of a fire-bell, the rattling of a hose
eart and the shouting of men, as if in
great haste, aroused me from slumber.
‘‘Mary! Mary!” I cried, ‘‘do you hear that
noise? Is it fire!’ and 1 sprung from
my bed to notice that the room was red
from the glare of light, then to the win-
dow only to see at the first glance that
my store was wrapped in a sea of flame.
My God! Iam ruined! I have no in-
surance! It has been neglected!’ and I
sank upon the floor and gave way to a
paroxysm of grief.

&t

‘Why, James, what in the world is
the matter and why do you weep so?
You seemed to be ill and I arose some
time ago tolight thelamp and see if I
could not do something for you- Here,
drink this hot stimulant,” and my wife
held the glass to my lips. I swallowed

 

a mouthful: then, realizing my terrible
loss, I burst out afresh with grief, crying
as if my heart would break, and between
the sobs reproaching myself for my neg-
ligence. ‘James! are you ill or insane?”’
and my wife shook me with both hands.
“Do wake up! what is the matter with
you?” I remember looking at her
through my tears, and seeing her smile,
as the true state.of the case broke upon
her mind, and the next instant I was my-
self again. ‘‘What does all this mean?’’
I asked, asI sat bolt upright in bed.
Have they extinguished the fire?” You
have been dreaming, that is all; there is
no fire and no loss.”’

None can know, except by experience,
the true condition such a revulsion of
feeling causes. To me it was fearful,
and I sank back upon the bed, weak as
an infant, and unable to speak while my
wife explained to me that I had heard
the ringing of the 4 o’clock bell, and
just at that moment the baggage wagon
and omnibus drove furiously to the de-
pot, and the shouting and noise soon
after was caused by some farmers and
their boys who were starting out early
with a drove of cattle, while the room
was filled with light from the lamp,
when I had first sat up in bed wringing
my hands in terror. That brief conver-
sation with my friend, the insurance
agent, at the opening of this true history
had left a lasting impression on my mind
which had caused me all this sufferlng.
That evening, as soon as I was able to
sit at the telephone, Mr. Burns was sum-
moned to my house and before I slept
again the welcome policy on my stock
was written and locked in my fire-proof
safe, and the recollection of that fearful
mental suffering of a brief half hour is
also as safely and indelibly stamped
upon my memory, never to be effaced.
If the reader is a merchant let me beg
him not to rest another night without
some insurance and have this motto
printed or painted and given a conspicu-
ous plaee in your store: ‘‘Any business
which will not pay to keep insured, will
not pay to engage in.”’

A SUFFERER.

~~ <<
The Philadelphia patent flat-opening
back is controlled in Michigan by Barlow
Bros., of Grand Rapids. Don’t fail to
have your next ledger or journal bound
withit. It adds very little to the cost
and makes the strongest blank book ever
known. Send for prices.
—_ OO  -9- <
M. V. Selkirk, the South Haven carriage and
harness dealer, writes: ‘‘I have taken a great in-
terest in the Business Men’s Association all
over the State and hope to see the interest soon
revive. We havea first class set of officers in
our Association and, although we are quite, we
are not dead.”’

 

 

AVOID THE

Lurse of Credit

BY USING

Covpon Books

Manufactured by

“TRADESMAN”
oR
“SUPERIOR”

THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,

Grand Rapids.
See quotationsin Grocery Price Current.

 

mn tte

 

 

es

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN. | 9

 

Fortunate Children of Circumstance.
Written for Tot TRADESMAN

What is it that causes so many boys
who are naturally bright, intelligent and
well-educated and whose future seems
bright with promise, to become careless
and dull in after life, until compelled to
confess that life is a failure? I am as-
suming that these boys have no bad nor
vicious habits of any kind. Some per-
sons say itis a lack of proper counsel
and advice in their youth by those who
are older and who may be fully compe-
tent, having been wrecked on the same
quicksands long before. Others attribute
it to a fickle mind, a want of concentra-
tion of purpose—that they fly from one
business to another just at the point
where success might culminate. This is,
no doubt, sometimes the case, but taking
a thoughtful and unbiased view of the
subject, as regards merchants and men
of business more particularly, the writer
believes that more often than anything
else, the eatire after life of the boy of
brilliant promise has been shaped or
moulded, so to speak, by a combination
of circumstances which, in the first
years of his manhood, he has struggled
to release himself from, with indifferent
success. Chief among those circum-
stances will be found a want of means or
the assistance of friends to carry for-
ward his chosen work, which may be
good in itself, but is worthless without
capital. Add fo this the fact that he
may have been left fatherless and that
he is the only male protector of his
mother and several younger brothers and
sisters. Heis then called a success if
he is free from debt and has a home left.

We all give too much credit to the man
who wraps his silken lined overcoat
about him and pompously says, ‘‘Look
at me! a successful and self-made man!
a millionaire merchant or speculator!’’
Even though he was left fatherless when
a boy, $3,000 was, perhaps, invested for
him, to come into his possession at his
attaining manhood. Old men shook
their wise heads at the investment and
prophesied a total loss of the boy’s
money. Dame Fortune—that curious
combination of circumstances—was more
kind than usual; at any rate, the invest-
ment—almost through accident—turned
outa brilliant one and the man of 21
found himself in possession of $30,000,
although, perhaps, a boor in character
and appearance. Here was capital to
begin life with, and brains may often be
purchased to superintend business, pro-
vided one possesses the means. ‘‘Great
expectations,’’ as some one has written,
made him a careless, shiftless boy and a
shoddy aristocrat! There are compara-
tively few men of education and charac-
ter with great wealth who, in the broad
and best sense of the words, deserve
praise and honor for their success.
They are only the fortunate children of
circumstances, while the world is
pleased to attribute their success to
genius and talent.

A
Little Tricks in Trade.
From the Town Topics.
While I stood chatting with him in‘the
doorway a rather overdressed youth was
looking in at the window with a longing

gaze. It was the scrutiny of an uncer-
tain buyer. Presently he entered the
store. The suave proprietor, beaming

benignantly on him through his eye
glasses, approached.

‘I want to look at that Windsor tie in
the window,” said the customer, point-
ing through from the back of the window
to a blue scarfing in the front row,

 

‘‘Certainly,” said the clerk, ‘I will get
it for you;” and in reaching for it he
knocked down several boxes of collars
and some other goods awry.

‘‘Sorry to have troubled you,” said the
swell, as he beheld the havoc his curios-
ity had caused.

“No trouble at all. One of the clerks
will straighten things up in a moment.”

‘‘What is the price?”

‘One dollar.’’

This seemed to stagger the youth, al-
though the scarf was made of a hand-
some texture and well worth the money.

‘“‘Isn’t that a little high?” he queried,
politely.

“Not for that scarf; but I can show you
some at 25 and 50 cents.”

Accordingly, the assortment was
brought forward and looked over; but
the youth was true to his first love, and
although I have no doubt it cramped his
finances somewhat he selected the $1
Windsor.

‘There, you see,’”’ said the diplomatic
clerk, after the customer had departed,
“I knew just how to catch him! He
was one of those distrustful sort of fel-
lows; and if, instead of immediately go-
ing into the window after that scarf, I
had said I ‘had one in stock just like it’ it
would have been certain to look different
to him and I should nave failed to land
his money. I instruct my clerks that
when a window article is asked about
always to getit out. It is the surest
way, and really saves time in the long
run, for you frequently have to get it out
anyway to prove that it and the stock
article are of one and the same lot. Be-
sides, did you notice that I knocked over
a lot of stuff in reaching for it? Well, I
did that on purpose! That just settled
him! He made up his mind then, after
having given me all that trouble and my
being so polite about it, that he could

not go out of the store without buying

something. I tell you there are tricks in
every trade now-a-days, and you’ve got
to know them all—that is, the legitimate
ones—if you are going to keep up with
the procession!”

 

 

Fiester & Fox

MANUFACTURERS’ AGENTS FOR

  

Doige Want Split Pulleys,

We carry a large stock and are prepared
to quote factory prices. Send for sample
pulley and be convinced of their super-
iority.

44,46 & 48 So. Division St., Grand Rapids.

 

 

 

Spring & Company,
IMPORTERS AND WHOLESALE DEALERS IN

Dress Goods, Shawls, Cloaks,
Notions, Ribbons, Hosiery,
Gloves, Underwear, Woolens,
Flannels, Blankets, Ginghams,
Prints and Domestic Cottons

We invite the attention of the trade to our complete and well
assorted stock at lowest market prices.

Spring & Company.

 

BROWN & SHHLER,

Dealers in ENGINES, BOILERS and MILL MACHINERY, Farm Machinery,
Agricultural Implements, Wagons and Carriages.

feet

 

 

Corner West Bridge and North Front Sts., a GRAND RAPIDS, MICH

REDUCED PRICES
ARCTIC BAKING POWDER. ;
1-4 lb. Cans per Dozen, 60

 

1-2 * 6c 120
1 6c é rT > OO
5 66 66 sé 9 BO

Arctic Manufacturing Company, Grand Rapids.

RUBBERS

WALES GOODYEAR’*-,
First Quality.
WOONSOCKETS,
First {Quality.
CONNECTICUTS,
Second Quality.
RHODE ISLANDS,
Second Quality.
HOME RUBBER CO.,
Third Quality.
Write for Discounts.

G. R. MAYHEW, ay

 

 

 

"seg ‘sso18 tod ‘ja1ieg

Ayoyeg osdtpoq 10 ‘oz ‘ssois 19d ‘yolloy, qouei1g

 

 

JO SSO1Z YOVe YIIA UALS Any [NJIYNeeg STU,

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Drugs 2 Medicines.

State Board of Pharmagey.
Une Year—Geo. McDonald, Kalamazoo.
Two Years—Stanley E. Parkill, Owosso.
Three Years—Jacob Jesson, Muskegon.
Four Years—James Vernor, Detroit.
Five Years—Ottmar Eberbach, Ann Arbor
President—Jacob Jesson, Muskegon.
3ecretary—Jas. Vernor, Detroit.
Treasurer—Geo. McDonald, Kalamazoo.

Meetings for 1891—Saginaw, second Tuesday in Janu-
ary; Grand Rapids, first Tuesday in March; Ann
Arbor, first Tuesday in May; Detroit, first Tuesday in
July; Uvper Peninsula, first Tuesday in September;
Lansing, first Tuesday in November.

Michigan State Pharmaceutical Ass’n.
President—D. E. Prall, Saginaw.
First Vice-President—H. G. Coleman, Kalamazoo.
Second Vice-President—Prof. A. B. Prescott, Ann Arbor.
Third Vice-Presidernt—Jas. Vernor, Detroit.
Secretary—C. A. Bugbee, Cheboygan.
Treasurer— Wm Dupont, Detroit.
Next Meeting—At Ann Arbor, in October, 1891.

Grand Rapids Pharmaceutical Society.
President, W. R. Jewett, Secretary, Frank H. Escott

rand Rogtts Drug Clerks’ Seeitinn.
et Kipp; Secretary, W.C. 5

Detroit Pharmaceutical Society.
President, J. W. Allen; Secretary, W. F. Jackman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Muskegon Drug Clerks’ Association.
President, C.S. Koon; Secretary, A. T. Wheeler.
Next meeting—Nov. 14.

 

 

NEARLY FATAL.

 

Another Case of Substituting Morphine
for Quinine.
Written for Tok TRADESMAN.

“The frequent reference to mistakes
made by pharmacists reminds me of a
serious mistake 1 once made,” remarked
a Monroe street druggist the other day.
‘*My services had been secured as an as-
sistant pharmacist with an old German
druggist, who had many curious ideas of
business, and on no account could they
be changed. His own laws were as arbi-
trary as those of the Medes and Persians.
One was, that many medicines in com-
mon use should not be dispensed from
the original bottles but emptied into
larger ones, and an extra good bark cork
should keep it from the air. No ground
glass stopper would answer for these.
The labels upon these bottles were writ-
ten ina fine plain hand in his own writ-
ing, and no other was allowed. Sub.
Nit. Bismuth, Carbonate of Zinc, Powd.
Alum, Nit. Potass, Quinine, and—worse
than all—Morphine, with half a dozen
other white powders, all were placed
promiscuously on one shelf back of his
dark prescription case, and all bearing
the finely written labels mentioned,
which one could not readily read with-
out a good light. I do not repeat this to
excuse myself, but to show that his pe-
culiar ideas were not American. I had
only been in his employ a short time,
but long enough to notice all the shelf-
ware and the peculiarities of my em-
ployer and I did not dare make any sug-
gestions as to changes. He had the
fullest confidence in me and I was soon
entrusted with nearly all prescriptions,
though he watched me closely as I put
them up and seemed to approve of what
he was pleased to call the ‘*Yankee
manipulations.”” I was in a large city
where resided many foreigners, but I
made many valuable acquaintances
among the Americans, one of whom was
a detective who resided only a few blocks
distant, and made the store a kind of
headquarters when he was in the city.
He was seldom or never ill, but often
took small quantities of quinine, as he
remarked, ‘just for instance.’ I think it
must have been for that, as I knew of
nothing else. I shall always have a sus-
picion, though, that he took it for the
sake of the menstruum, as he invariably
ordered it in half a tumbler of best whis-
ky, with a teaspoonful of glycerine to
sweeten it—no more nor less. I will
call him Williams as I do not care to re-
veal his real name. There was also a
Dr. Johnson, who had his office in the

 

building and who was numbered among
my best friends. One night about dusk
1 was left alone in the store and, as it
happened, was rushed with business. I
had also that afternoon received a letter
containing disheartening news and I
could hardly think of anything else»and
was in a poor mood for business. I had
not yet turned on the lights, except one
small burner at the prescription case.
Just then Mr. Williams dropped in and
said, ‘Give me five grains of quinine in
the usual menstruum.’ He was in the
habit of taking less, and, in my present
condition of mind, it somehow annoyed
me to think he should take such a quan-
tity. Feeling that I knew best, I made
the weight just a trifle short. He drank
the dose, and started home for his even-
ing meal. Not more than fifteen min-
utes after Williams left, his wife came
hurriedly into.the store and, seeing Dr.
Johnson, with whom she was well ac-
quainted, whispered a word to him, and
they both walked into his office and
closed the door. I shall never know how
it was that at that moment a voice close
to my ear uttered just one word,
phine.’ I was busy,

‘mor-
but dropped the
spatula | was using and turned to face
the intruder, when I found myself alone
with the full conviction in my mind
that I had given Williams a fatal dose.
Just then Mrs. Williams and the Doctor
eame from his office, walking toward the
street door, and I heard her say, ‘Qui-
nine has never agreed with him, but this
affects him worse than usual, as he is
acting very strangely. Come over as
soon as possible,’ and she passed out.
Mr. Johnson then turned to me and :aid
in a kindly tone, ‘It is possible you may
have given Williams something else and
I will run over at once and report to you.
From the symptoms I fear it is morphia.

“It is needless to say I was alarmed
and that I frankiy confessed a feeling of
having made a mistake, but begged him
to save the man, if possible, at my ex-
pense, and let the error rest between us,
as they thought it was quinine he had
taken. I saw Dr. Johnson at 10 o’élock
that night, long enough for him to tell
me he thought it doubtful about saving
the man’s life, as he was then spotted
from a peculiar petechia covering the

entire body and that he then had two men }.

walking him about constantly to keep
him awake. He was giving the man all
the strong hot coffee his stomach would
retain, but Williams was constantly beg-
ging to lie down and sleep. Dr. J. re-
mained with him all night and about day-
light the patient was pronounced out of
danger and allowed to lie down to rest.
The man was not able to leave the house
for several days. The most singular
part of the case was the after effects of
the drug. Williams has told me since
that when out riding alone in his buggy,
at different times from ten to fifteen days
afterward, he would apparently lose all
consciousness of what was occurring
around him and become interested in
something in other localities, as in a
dream, having no conveyance with him.
With returning consciousness he would
find himself driving along some miles
away from his intended route, but his
intelligent pony had apparently kept the
street and avoided collisions. At other
times, while sitting with the reins in
hand, he would be rudely shaken by a
stranger, who, seeing he was awake,
would enquire what was the matter and
if he was deaf, as he had just barely

escaped a collision with other vehicles.
I never see Mr. Williams that he does not
remind me of that overdose of quinine
and says he will never swallow another

grain of it. That nearly-fatal dose
cemented the friendship of myself and

Dr. Johnsen for life and its nearly tragic
termination will be known by us alone.”’

——- > -2

The Drug Market.
Opium is weak and lower.

has declined. Quinine is steady.
silver has declined.
advanced.

Morphine
Nitrate
Cocaine has again
Lidseed oil has declined.

 

THE MOST RELIABLE FOOD
For infants and Invalids.

Used everywhere, with unqualifi

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ist. It will mix with RAW or boiled-oil.

2 It will dry any paint without tack.

3d. It will dry with a good gloss, thus ADD-
ING a GLOSS to the paint, rather than making
it FLAT, as most Dryers do.

4th. It is free from Rosin, and is entirely
without pepo and will not thicken

5th. It is always reliable and is the STRONG-
EST LIQUID DRYER in the market.

Put up in one gallon square cans.
Write for special prices.

Hazeltine & Perkins Drug Co.,

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

 

PLUSH, METAL

FANCY

orders.

 

 

 

[ESTABLISHED 1874]

Offers to the trade of Western Michigan, at prices that will compare favorably with
any house in the trade,

A COMPLETE STOCK OF EVERY ARTICLE PERTAINING TO THE

DRUG BUSINESS

A LARGE AND WELL SELECTED LINE OF

Druggists’ and Stationers’ Sundries

AND A MAGNIFICENT ASSORTMENT OF

Holiday Goods,

COMPRISING THE LATEST NOVELTIES IN

AND LEATHER

GOODS,

European Pottery, Albvms, Dolls, Yoys and Games
IN ENDLESS VARIETY.

Many years of experience in purchasing goods especially adapted to the trade of
Western Michigan enable us to bring together a collection of

Salable and Popular Priced Articles

Not to be seen elsewhere, and with greatly increased facilities, we have outdone
all previous efforts for the present season.
new, will find it to their interest to look over our samples before placing their

Dealers who are looking for something

Orders by mail for any goods in our line will réceive prompt attentien.

FRED BRUNDAGE,

21, 23, 25 and 27 Terrace St.,. MUSKEGON, MICH

 

&

 

 

 

&

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

Wholesale Price Current.

 

 

Advanced—Cocaine. Declined—Opium, Opium po., Morphia, Nitrate silver, Linseed oil.

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

  
 
   
 
  

 

 

ACIDUM, —... a 12 00@12 - TINCTUR
Rootes 10 | Exec ee: 90@1
B i Ce 1 9@2 = Aconitum Napellis _..._.: 60
— si i Gaultherta 0.020... 2 00@2 10 vo 00
Carbolicum ........:.. eranium, ounce..... @ "5 apy eh ke ah
eter 305 58 Gossipil, Sem. gal..... 50@_ 75 a t and myrrh............ 60
Hydrochior ........... 3@ 5 Hedeoma . ---1 85@2 00 pe oe a ee 7
Witvochin 0.0.00... 10@ 12|Junipert.. - a oe
Oxaltoata 00000006. 11@ 13| Lavendula -, 9@2 00 _ se. cine A ee 60
29 | Limonis ‘1 50@2 20 Benzoin es 60
Mentha Piper 2 90@3 00} , . = be ee 50
Mentha Verid.. .. .2 50@2 60 soe Snes 50
Morrhuae, gal......... 80@1 00 se pneu ENA EEN EE Se 50
oe 42 Myrcia, ounce......... @ 50 i... 75
EN 90@2 75 | Capsicum ................... 50
AMMONIA, — Liquida, (gal..35) / os 12 ae uae eee =
‘eae 36 deg... Scan | RCA ee ee | SO _
qua, = oe ee Bia : tencaaa NATE 75@1 00 — ar eeerseg ranean 1 =
Carbeuas 1...) tam Hogae, ounee....._.... @6 00 Ghichana | ee
Chioridtim .... 00.0... 12@ 14] Succini................ 40@ 45 oS
Saba 90@1 00 60
ANILINE. Santal EE EO a 3 50@7 00 = “ 60
5 eres... 50@ oe :
Brgwiissccccrs ccc agp 0 | Sina, ees, ouds:..° "@ 8] Cubeds.. 20 | Se
ae 45
Won 2 50@3 oD = S
BACCAE. cca =
Cubeae (po. 1 50....... 1 60@1 7% POTASSIUM. gga tha ES la
Juniperus»... -... Bo | Boar... 15 18 “SUPE eet neeaNae :
anthoxylum......... Cone KN... Ee Mii
— 37@ 40 a ee ce, =
Copatba BALSANUM. 60@ 65 ee 12@ 15 % gar a a 7
“a RE ee Gee ee Boe be | Keri Chloridum:-.00200°2.. 35
Terabin, Canada .... 35@ 40] Todide...22222222.2221. [oe
MONRRE occ ce voces 45@ 50 Potassa, Bitar, pure. @ B aE RERRRR SRE et ore
otassa, Bitart, com.. @
CORTEX. har Nitras, ont Eg 8@ 10 Nee Vomues.... 00... =
ae. Camadign...........- 18 | Potass Nitras.......... ™]@ 9 t dua a
Cassia® ..................... ae asa we
Cinchona Flava .......:.... 18] Sulphate po...... .... 15@ 18
Euonymus atropurp.. . 2 Auranti Cortex.. 50
Myrica Cerifera, po. 20 RADIX. uassia . 50
Prunus Virgini...... $2) Aeonttom (20.6.0... 2@ 2 any 50
Quillata, — i Alteee.... 25@ 30 50
eS 12] Seema .............. 15@ 2 Cassia Acutifol Sees ee 50
Ulmus Po (Ground 12)...... 107 Aree, pe........ @ ‘0 50
ic ae «| Serpentarin ................. 50
EXTRACTUM. Gentiana, (po. 15)..... 10@ 12 acepaniene Bes ee coe eae 60
Glycyrrhiza Glabra... 4@ 2% cuyamerihon (oy is). teen Volta 60
po.. 3@ 35 a . Canaden, Pe 50
Haematox, . 1b. box... 11@ 12 —- be ee. @ 40] Veratrum Veride............ 50
12@ He Reece, Ala, po.... 6G BW
4@ — i 156@ = MISCELLANEOUS.
ee 40@2 !
Iris plox (po. 20632) .. 19@ 20 | “ther. Spts Nit, 3 B.. = =
BAe leben SOG Oi Alumen. 2%@ 3%
wearee, 38.....-.... @ 35 + ground, (po.
ae —-- ee 3@ 4
MEL... reese eee ce eee 7%5@1 00] annatto............... 55@ 60
, Cut... eee. @1 75 | antimoni, po.......... 4@ 5
ee eee ce eel eieics 75@1 35 “s '
Me et PotassT 55@ 60
spike 1M ......-- 050-0. 48@ 53] antipyrin............. 1 35@1 40
eae, (po = Sa @
— 40@ 45) Argenti Nitras,ounce @ 7
Seneg 50@ 55) arsenicum........... 5@ 7
23 Similax, Officinalis, H @ 40| Balm Gilead Bud..... 38@ 40
4 M @ | Bismuth §. N......... 10@2 20
25 Scillae, (po. %)........ 10@ 12 —— Chlor, 1s, (48
Sympicearpus, Feeti- — ee!
arosma ¢ h PO......--3 Caniharides Russian,
rn Acutifol, Tin- _ Valeriana, a oe -30) = Be ee @1 %
nivelly So Ss 25@ 28 ingiber a 10@ 15 Capsici aS @ 16
‘“ 35@ 50 Zin iber j we ee cece ccene 2@ = 2 20
— - smetneiie Ma ine 8 a , & ? Rs 15
Me eos s pene sees. ‘aryophyllus {Pe PO) 189 18
CS 8@ 10] Anisum, (po. 20). @ 15] Carmine, No. ee @3 75
UMM A “a (graveleons).. 15@ 18] Cera Alba, s. er oe 50@ 55
ce Bird, 1 6| Cera Flava 38@ 40
Acacia, ep... =< Carui, aia je non... @ 40
“ oo. @ 80 Cardamon.- eee 1 te @ ae Longe eS =
~ ftedsorts... @ | CannabisSativa.......34@ 4|Cetaceum...00000.  @ 45
sretee acees 5@1 00! Gydonium.... ........ %@1 00} Chloroform .......-... 60@ 63
Aloe, Barb, (po. _ 50@ 60/ Chenopodium |....... 10@ 12 squibbs.. @1 10
. oS ape, ro @ 12) Dipterix Odorate...... 2 00@2 25 | Chloral Hyd Crst...... 1 85@2 00
Socotri, (po. 60). @ 50|Foeniculum..... ..... @ 15|Chondrus............. W@ 2
Catechu, 18, (348, 14 48, Foenugreek, po.. 6@ 8|Cinchonidine, P. & W 15@ 2
16) Peewee eee r ere nee @ 1 Lin ; 4 @ 4% German 5@ 12
e—e———_ 25@ 30 4 @4% Corks, list, dis. per
Assafoetida, (po. 30) @ i 35@ 40 cent Inte @ 60
i 0@ 55 : 3%@ 4% | Creasotum ............ @ 50
= 6@ 7 @ 2
19 8 5@ 5
00 8@
95 11@ 12 7% =
35
20 | Frumenti, W. D. Co..2 00@2 50 = =
80 D. F. R.....1 75@2 00 '
40 ty 1 10@1 50 we n
Juniperis Co. 0. T....1 75@1 75 70
oe 75@3 50
35 | Saacharum N. E...... 1 75@2 00 3
Sot. You’ Galli........ 1 75@6 50 55
Wim Goerte ........... 1 25@2 00 Flak 15
int Albe...:........- 1 %@2 00 23
SPONGES. Coo... 5... 8 @9
vost sheeps’ we =
Cueriage. 0.) 2 2@2
Nassau sheeps’ wool pb Glaseware Aint, 70 per cent.
ieee ee.
Velvet extra sheeps’ Glue, Fay Ce oes a =
wool carriage....... 110 Gana 18 @ B
Extra yalow® sheeps’ pe vy outlet @ 2
MAGNESIA, Carriage ............. 85 a 25@ 55
Caicined, Pat.......... 55@ 60 = sheep wool car- 65 | Hydraag Chior, Mite.. @1 05
Carbonate, a cg, MMe lta: <> kllte sgegahty @ %
Carbonate, K.ak.... BO BD Hard’ tor as rege ie % se Ox As deme @1 15
Carbonate, Jenning5.. 35@ 36 —— Reef, for sla 10 “  Ammoniati.. —@1 25
aie MO ee i: Uneaten. Wb ©
Abaintatom. ......... 00@5 50 SYRUPS. " — id... @ 8
Amygdalae, Duiec... .. mm a) Rees... t,t se. 50 lia, Am i 25@1 50
Amydalae, Amarae....8 00@8 25 ee EE 50 Indie ee ae 75@1 00
OME oboe on eee 20 eeee. ..,.-.............:-- 60 iodine, Bowabt........ 3 75@3 85
Auranti Cortex....... ie oe ers toe... Cn. oe ee @4 70
Ber; Rods eae 3 25@4 00 marge Se. a 60@ 65
OE coe oc. ee 50 | Lycopodium .......... 55@ 60
Ciryoobyli........... 1 2@1 30 Similax ‘Ofticinalis A ae 60 ~~ 80@ 8
pehenwss a as. lm UU COS........ = Liguor A Arsen et Hy- pa
Chenopodii ........... OG Genees | .............1-5.:.... St. Graee foe....-........

ME sep ees a 1 Si 25 oa dem kewle secede ae 50 sarees eens hentia 10@ 12
Citronella ............. : 45 ee eee to cues = — Sulph (bbl 3
Conium Mac.......... ER es in occ cens OD Seep adeno eens core cere

eoverersececeed 30 us jedasee: OO) ee, 6 ......... 308 @

 

|

 

 

 

Morphia, S. P. & W...2 45@2 70/| Seidlitz Mixture...... @ 2% /| Lindseed, boiled .... 56 59
SN. Y. © & Sina ie: .... eee ees. @ 18} Neat’s Foot, winter
C.Ccea........:..._...2 eee on peor cee @ 2 strained -:........ 69
Moschus Canton...... @ 40 = accaboy, De SpiritsTurpentine.... 46% 50
Myristica, No.1....... ew) ee. @ % nn a
Nux Vomica, (po 20).. @ 10 Snuff, ‘Seoteh, De. Voes @ 35 : | io
Oh, WHINE... osccgsce os 38 | Soda Boras, (po. 13). . 12@ 13} Red Venetian. 1% 2@3
Pe ain Saac, H. & P. D. Soda et } et Potass Tart... 30@ 33| Ochre, yellow Mars. 7 204
ae 00 aie. a Sf «ore 4
Peis Liq, N. C., % gal Soda, Bi. ack i @ 5/| Putty, comenaet 214 24@3
ee 200|Soda, Ash.............3K@ 4 ae pure... .2% 24@3
Picls Liq., quarts a @1 00| Soda, Suiphas......... @ 2| Vermilion Prime Amer-
pints . _ @ | Spite Biherco..__. 50@ 55} ican ..... 13@16
Pil Hydrarg, (po. 80).. @ 50| “ Myrcia Dom..... @225| Vermilion, English -- 85@88
Piper Nigra, (po. =). @ 18 & : Myreia Imp.. @3 00 | Green, Peninsular... i 70@™
Piper Alba, | (po g5) .. @ 3 Vini Rect. bbl. | Lead, red.............. Qi%
Pix: Bargun, 0... .3.. @ 7% 2 a a @2 33 | white ........... @i%
Plumbi cet oe 14@ 15| Less 5c gal., cut tendays. | Whiting, white Span... @i0
Pulvis Ipecac et opii..1 10@1 20| Strychnia Crystal..... @1 10} Whiting, Gilders’...... @x
Pyrethrum, boxes H Sulphur, aa 24@ 3% White, Paris American 1 00
&P.D. Cc a Ren an Whiting, Paris Eng. -
ethrum, pv Towards... 10,  CAlmt .....-------.----
ee ins a Terebenth Venice..... ae 30 Pioneer Prepared Paint1 20@1 4
uinia, S. Theobromae a 55@ Swiss Villa i
‘ Co Van "9 Ones 00 Paints ........_.... 7 a
Rubia ‘Sachorans —_ 12@ 14| Zinci Ee ea 7@ 8 VARNISHES.
Saccharum Lactis pv.. @ 40 No. 1 Turp Coach.. ot 10@1 20
eee 2 40@2 50 Orns. Rite Tire. 160@1 70
Sanguis a. bees 40@ 50 Bbl. Gal | Coach Body....... . 2 75@3 00
— bie eee cee @A 50| Whale, winter........ 7 70 | No.1 Turp Furn......1 00@1 10
ag es 12@ 14] Lard, extra.... . oo 60 | Eutra Turk Damar ...1 55@1 69
oo... ee «i Lard, No. 1....... 45 50 | Japan _— Noa. 1
© me oe @ 15 urn. ! 70@ .75

 

 

Linseed, pure raw a. 56

HAZELTINE
& PERKINS
DRUG CO.

Importers and Jobbers of

~-DRUGS—

Chemicals and Druggists’ Sundrie:

 

Dealers in

Patent Medicines, Paints, Oils, Varnishes,

Sole Agents forithe Oelebrated Pioneer Prepared Paints,

We are Sole Proprietors of

WEATHERLY’S MICHIGAN CATARRH REMEDY

We have in stock and offer a full line of

Whiskies, Brandies,
Gins, Wines, Rums.

Weare Sole Agents in Michigan for W. D. & Oc,
Henderson County, Hand Made Sour Mash
Whisky and Druggists’ Favorite
Rye Whisky.

We sell Liquors for Medicinal Purposes only.

We give our Personal Attention to Mail Orders and Guar=
antee Satisfaction.

All orders are Shipped and Invoiced the same day we re=
ceive them. Send in a trial order.

Harelting & Perkins Drvg Go,

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

 

pee aU Eh ee eae ete

sh a ain. ow ch sh ns cng hp west

Nake neg tora aveges racer Pari

sf
a
Ft
:

 

 

12

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

GRUCERIES.

The Condition of Trade.
From the New York Shipping List.
The Thanksgiving holiday has inter-
rupted the progress of business affairs

 

 

| fair values.

Tallow is weak and in ample supply
and light demand.

Furs are low in price and only the
| choice skins are wanted, which bring
It remains for a cold win-

and curtailed the volume of trade during | tet to help out by running off the two
the latter half of the current week, and past years’ collections which were car-

accordingly quietude has characterized |
the principal markets and there has been
an absence of any new or prominent fea-
tures. The monetary situation although
still abnormal in many respects is gradu-
ally undergoing satisiactory adjustment
and the outlook is improving, but there
are still evidence of uneasiness abroad;
the advance in the gold premium in
Buenos Ayres showing that the situation
there is unsettled, and the comparative
high rates prevailing in London for loan-
able funds showing that the strain in
that centre has not been entirely re-
lieved. Two small failures in the Stock
Exchange and one in the cotton trade
have occurred this week as the result of
the recent shrinkage in values, but they
have been without significance and only
reflect the further development of weak
spots from causes that in other respects
have been discounted and are not due to
any new financial complications. The
new combination of Western railroads
under the control of Jay Gould is favor-
ably considered, and the outcome is
likely to prove beneficial to interests that
heretofore have been out of harmony and
have created more or less friction. The
speculation in produce has been of
moderate proportions, fluctuations ir-
regular and the situation devoid of spec-
ial feature. The tendency of prices for
wheat, flour, corn and provisions has
been firmer, but cotton has shown an
easier tendency. In the principal mer-
chandise markets trade has continued
fairly active. The demand for dry goods
has been of seasonable proportions,
staple groceries quiet, and iron, steel
and metals have developed an easier ten-
dency. The dullness of the sugar market
is due to the marketing of the Louisiana
crop, which planters are sending for-
ward rapidly and which therefore cur-
tails the demand for foreign refined.
The coffee trade is awaiting the settle-
ment of the December deal in options
and the tea market is influenced by the
fluctuations in the price of silver. The
easier feeling in the iron market is
the result of a falling off in the de-
mand and increased offerings, while
speculative influences have caused a
sharp decline in tin. Continued mild
weather has imparted a weak feeling in
the coal trade, the absorption of supplies
having been disappointing and stocks at
the tide water points showing a con-
siderable increase. The firmer tendency
of sterling exchange has caused some
discussion as to the probability of gold
exports, but no actual shipments have
been reported.

> +
Wools Firm---Hides Unchanged---Tal-
low Low.

Wools remain firm in price, with good
average sales, but quietness prevails.
Buyers have been looking for concessions
in price, based on the stringent money
market and found a few ready to sell
where lower prices have been accepted.
Holders consider the outlook favorable,
although present prices are comparative-
ly low, with a short supply to fill from
before any new wool comes. Again,
holders claim that present prices make
them no profits on their purchases,
which is a fact and they will not sell un-
til they have exhausted every resource to
obtain a profit on their investment. On
the other hand, if prices on goods ad-
vance much, it lets in foreign manufac-
turers, which, with what stock is now on
our market, tend to keep prices down.

Hides show more firmness at the de-
cline, but leather is at its lowest and
tanners will not pay an advance for
hides. Accumulations are large and at
every point, but are bought at prices

which show a loss on to-day’s market.
Holders do not let go easily.

 

ried over.
—_—_—_
Dedicated Cocoanut.
From the Texas Siftings.

Joe Green and Tom Luster are the new
proprietors of our Bobbletown grocery
store. The other day they were taking
account of a new stock of goods just re-
ceived to be sold on commission. ‘‘Say,
Tom, what is this stuff?’ asked Joe, tak-
ing a package of cocoanut from a box,
and laboriously spelling the word D-e-s-
i-c-c-a-t-e-d.’””, How do you pronounce
that four-horse word, and what does it
mean, anyhow?

“Why, that spells desiccated, and it
means—why, it means—yes, of course,
it must mean the same as dedicated.”

‘Well, what in thunder does dedicated
mean?’’

‘‘Why, dedicated means given away.’’

“Oh! yes,” said Joe, slowly, ‘‘I under-
stand it now,” these must be a sort of
‘sample copies’ for us to give to custo—
mers.”’

‘‘That’s just it,’? said Tom, glad to be
understood.

So, in the course of the day, some hun-
dred and forty-four of the housewives of
Bobbletown were made happy by the
gift of a pound package of the best des-
iccated cocoanut; and many a word of
praise was spoken of the enterprise of
the young storekeepers who could afford
to. give away such an amount of delica-
cies in ‘‘sample copies”

———_-—~— +4
A Slight Misunderstanding.

“Dennis, are you still feeding that
Christmas turkey by artificial means, as
I told you?”

‘Yes, sor, l was. I fed him that way
the first three days, sor, but Marg’ret had
to hould his head while I pushed ’em
down wid a stick.”

‘‘Pushed them down! What in the
world were you feeding him?’’

‘‘Nothin’ but the artifishal banes, sor,
an’ they wor castor oil banes at that.’’

‘‘Beans! Who told you to feed him
any beans?’’

“Yer honor, sor, I undtherstood yes
to say wid ‘artificial banes,’ an’, savin’
yer prisence, he wor doin’ well on ’em,
only that sa tuk sick an’ died | yesterday. i

i = —_—
Only a Small Drink.

“Say, Marier, did ye see that (hic)
worm crawl into my (hic) shoe on the
floor?”

“No, nor you didn’t, either. You’ve
been outa little too long and have ‘snakes
in the boots.’ ”’

‘No, Marier, ’t couldn’t (hic) be a
snake! Too small a drink (hic) fer that!
Two glass’s beer ’tween four of us! Take
?im out! ’Snothin’ (hic) but ’n angle
worm, (hic) ’twon’t hurt ye.’’

> + >
The Grocery Market.

The sugar market is apparently a lit-
tle stiffer, Spreckles having raised his
quotations on hard sugars to within a
sixpence of the trust prices. While
there are some indications of a slight ad-
vance in price, conservative dealers
claim that it will be more apt to decline
than go higher. Raisins are higher and
the market is firm. Corn syrup is still
unsettled and the market is open, prices

depending largely upon circumstances.
o-oo

For the finest coffees in the world, high
grade teas, spices, etc., see J. P. Visner,
17 Hermitage block, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Agent for E. J. Gillies & Co., New York
City. 352tf

 

PRODUCE MARKET.

Apples—Green, $3.50 for choice eating and
$3 for cooking stock. Evaporated are firm at 13c,
with every indication of an advance to J4c in
the near future.

Beans—The market is hardly as strong as it has
been. Handlers pay $1.65@1.80 for country picked
and find no aifie culty in making sales at $2.10
@2.15 for city picked.

Beets—50c per bu.

Butter—Dairy is firm andin good demand at
= per lb. Creamery finds moderate sale at

_ per doz. or $4 per 100.
Carrots—20@25e per bu.
Celery—20@<5c per doz

x Cooperage—Pork barrels, 62. 25; produce barrels

Cranberries—Michigan berries are in fuir de-
mand at $2.75 per bu. Cape Cod commands $10
per bbl and Belland Cherry areheld at $9. The
market is firm.

Eggs—Fresh stock is so scarce as to be hardly
quotabie, but ali lots which find their way to
market are grabbed up at 23c. Cold storage and
pickled stock are in good demand at 20c.

Field Seeds—Clover, mammoth, $4.60 per bu.;
medium, $4.30@4.4). es 31.5) per bu.

Game--Venison, 13e per lb.: Rabbits, 15¢ per
doz.; Partridges, z5c pe Jy

Grapes—Catawbas an Concords, 35@40c per
9-1b basket.

Maple Sugar —8@10c per lb., according to

ee
e Syrup—75@85c per gal.

Onione-The market is weaker. dealers paying
80c and holding at 90c.

Potatoee—The market hardly as firm as a week
ago, the Chicago and Pittsburg markets having
nn materially, on account of large re-
ceipts. ——- still paying 75@80c., but the cold
weather is likely to a ha So with ‘shipping op-
erations very soon.

Squash—1'c per lb.

Sweet Potatoes—Baltimores, 82.75 per bbl; Jer-
seys, 83.25 per bbl.

Turnips—30@35c per bu.

PROVISIONS.

The Grand Rapids Packing and Provision Co.
quotes as follows:

PORK IN BARRELS,
oe ew. ... .. ee
ss oe ee 12 00
xtra Clear pip, short con... -.. 13 75
Peres Gee weery.................-......,. 13 00
ee eee 12%
Boston ener, Suet ent.............0....... 13 00
Cicer back abobtoee 13 25
Standard clear, short cut. best.............. 13 25
sausacE—Fresh and Smoked.
aa... 6%
ee 9
Ce Ee eel es 9
ee, 8
I i oie eee ee 5
Debarek, Wee. 5
ees eee 5
a 5
Larp—Kettle Rendered.
i a keene ee el ee
i a ix
90 a ree Th!
LaRD—Family
eee 6
30 and 50 Ib. Tee... ....... 6 eee oe
31D, ee ee ee 7
5 lb. Pails, re ee 6%
10 1b. Pails, Bee Oe 6%
20 Ib. Pails, ee 6%
wip Cees. 6%
BEEF IN BARRELS.
Extra Mess, warranted 200 Ibs............... 7 00
Extra Mess, Chicago packing................ 7 00
Cee ees ee 9 50
SMOKED cae Semenaad or Plain.
Hams, average ON ee eee s,s 9%
ee 10
' an mw ee........ 2 10%
. ee 9%
. ee ec 9
eee i 6%
Broskfest Bacon, bonelems.:...... ..........-. 8
Pete Weer, ee ees... ... 2... 9
Die es ee... 6%
Briskets, Tee 6%
. eee ee 6%

FISH and OYSTERS,
F. J. Dettenthaler quotes as follows:

 
  

FRESH FISH.
ee. i i, @i%
- Meeeee........1... @8
Trout @ i
Halibut @15
Ciscoes @4
Flounders @9
Bluefish @10
Mackerel
luce oe @10
California salmon...............+.+ ...- @22
OYSTERS—Cans,
—— A
eee @28
Belocts’ ee ee eee ek ee a @25
if...) @23
a eee eee @21
NN i, fe ee @19
SHELL GOODS.
eq sters, per WO 1 2@1 50
ieee ae il ke i a 75@1 50

 

BULK GOODS.

Standards, per oi ices ae ees ak @1 30
eee yaw tae eee @i 75
Scrimps, ed le ee 1 50
Clams, “ Ls (ee sages) Gee ees 1 50
Scallops, Ms gah doce cepeesc ceed A. 1 50

 

FRESH MEATS.
Swift and Company quote as follows:

   

Beef, ee 38%@ 6%
hind quarters eye 5 @5%
ge i ee § @ 3%
aoe —.. 8 @os
ee @7
” ee 5 @6
Oe ee a, @
OE 44Q 4%
@5
@ 6%
@5
@5
@5
@™
5@ 7
@ 7

CANDIES, FRUITS and NUTS.

The Putnam Candy Co. quotes as follows:
STICK CANDY.

Standard, _— We

_ Tviet a el be ee
- ae or em. net weight. .

“

Boston Gem SUS A aaeae sei Ae Vee
ee TO ee ee i
Meee Oe
MIXED CANDY.
Bbls Boxes
Standard, per lb.. ccicen oe oe 8%
ek reset eee oc 2.7% 8%
Special Bee uae ceed ee toot oe 8 9
ee &
ee mecca ea 9%
eee... eee ee es 9%
Wie i, 10
eee ee ee, 10
ee a ee 10
Se ee 10
a es ake) 10
eee ee ee 10
GRE QORPOR. ices. veto sete 10%
ee - of
Reger 11
—————————————— 12
Wares Cree ee ee 13
Fancy—In 5 lb. boxes. Per Box.
Pe 8 ee 65
i ee 65
Dees ec... ek %
ene =
Chie ree reee........--- .-..4......_
Ciel Mee soso
[irae eee. .:.......,........., ees 1 00
A eee ee. 80
Lozenges, ee Ww
eee es 75

   
 

Hand Made Creams.
Pisin Crom... .....
Decorated Creams.
String Rock.......
Burnt Almonds. .
Wintergreen Berries...

Francy—In bulk.

 

 

  
  
  
 
  
 

   

Lozenges, er eee. 12
eraeee, te eee. ic 13
Checoiate Droee, to pegis...................... 13
Ce 6
eee ee, ee 10
ome ce i ee i 11
Teaporials, In pails... .. 2... 260. wee cree ceence 12
ORANGES.
Meee Co 4 00@ 4 50
LEMONS.
Messina, cuotee O....-........ heer @ 5 00
fancy, 300. @5 50
° 360 @ 4 50
OTHER FOREIGN FRUITS.
Figs, Smyrna, new, _—_ layers...... 18@19
choi = ll @i6
“ee “ “ ay @15
. Fard, 10-1b. box.. @10
“ 50-Ib. @ 8
a Posten, 50-Ib. box. 6 @
NUTS.
Almonds, ON ooo oie ee se @17%
ieee |... a. @i7
> CR ce ete @1l7%
Dee @i7
Walnuts, eee. .......-- @17%
marees....... “ @13
- ae @i7z
. Ch @12
Table Nuts, No. 1 @i6
act...<, _ @15
Pecans, Texas, H. P....... on
Coconuts, full Gacks............. ..... @5 00
PEANUTS.
Fancy, H. P., Sune .... Peder ee @ 7%
‘ Roasted a @10
Fancy, B: P., : @ 6%
ard “Roasted we @ 9
Choice, B. P. Be reece ....... ne @ 6%
- eee... . @9
Fancy, H. P., Steamboats eo as @
Roasted....... @

 

 

Florida Oranges

We are agents for Hillyer’s celebrated
Stag brand, which is the finest fruit sold in

Michigan.

The Putnam Candy Co.

 

y

bt

 

—

ta Ripa ect Te oes

me
i in ae aaa

—"
ii agen ei eno

 

 

 

 

= aes cale ain
a i nh aa

sib cn oe ae en

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

    

18

 

Wholesale Price Current.

The quotations given below are such as are ordinarily offered cash buyers who
pay promptly and buy in full packages.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 
 

 

 

  

Tapioca, fl’kor p’ri...5 @6
Chicago goods.........-.... ce oe 6%, | Wheat, cracked... @ 50
AXLE GREASE. Red... UUIELIE! 27" | Vermicelli, import. : @it
EE 82 40 s ee CHEESE, a 7 domestic... @55
BUTOTS 0.200. wenn none 17% {Fancy Full Cream .. 11 @1:%/} ,, PT :
ane. si is fonts 7 a oe Qi a bres a 54 534
ee 3 mmee os... é +: oo e
BAKING POWDER. Bae Gage... .. @2z " - 14@ 8
Thepure, 10¢ packages. eS @1 00 Herring, *gibbed, bol. 5 25
% Ib. 56 | Swiss, imported ...... 24@ 25 ai % b 3 00

7 Som domestic .... 15@ 16 ‘ Holland, bbls. 12 00

Set ‘ neue GUM. as in my * ekees se =

“a © “ce

- i: Bee gy er Lad | Mackerel, No, 1, 3 Dbi.: 12 00

- 5 lb. ra 26 Spruce, 200 pieces...........40 t. 10

Less 20 per cent. to retailers. snia ' caeeae. c< Trout, i2 _ ea @4 %5

n ler’s, Me. ol Sone I. Ge
a is ee 90 on NT 2 30 White, No. 1, 4 wale. @5 50

. ' 1b, leg a ‘ a. ae Lo) a Oe j. MEGS. ....

Acme, 4 > cans, — . = CLOTHES PINS. Family, i bbis.... 30
-..' S36 Geren poxrcs .......... 2... 65 ' Ca Ge

” ib: . 1 we eo COCOA SHELLS. FLAVORING So ae

ee 11 Ba 4 @4% Y
Telfer’ 8, 7: > cans, a 45 | Pound packages........ @i Lemon. Vanilla

% Ib 85 COFFEE EXTRACT. : - folding me Ki, 13

“ 1 ae Valley Ce 5 ‘1.00 1 50
Arctic, \% » aan. Ls Cee. is 4 o i ie a 50 2 00

“ > Soccer ce 65 | 6 oz ...2 0 3 00

. 1. Clk... 2 00 na aon on 8 02 . ---6 0 4:0

. > ...... 9 60 meee. ek ws. ‘ GUN POWDER.

Red Star, is : cans........ aot * geee........ .-. — Ge taoxw.... 5 50
eg i: poame..... .. @23 Halt kegs... 1.2... Oe

. 43 FS coee mi” ancy, washed.. Z @24 . HERBS ‘i

ae 23 @24 ae. 8. 5

BATH BRICK. 5 ie

English, 2 doz. in case ae 80 — ee oe @23 ae. a

Brae 204 75 | Mexican & Guatemala23 @24 ona a ‘
Ameriéan. #doe. incase... 70/727 Mandheling 21 go | war wicks. :
BLUING. ‘Gross Poabery 00 ic... 22 @24 | No. So
Arctic, + = ovals.......--- 4 00| Mocha, genuine..... ae 40
ooo ere. 700} To ascertain cost of roasted | No. 2........ oe

. et round ........ os = coffee, add ce. per lb. for roast- “LICORICE.

7 2, sifting box... 2 75| ing and 15 per cent. for shrink-| Pure...... 30

im 3, Lu : 4.00 age. Colabeia.. Lt a

Q No.8 Ss vo -++ 8 00 a | CO7TEEe—Package. is ee waneesest ones 18

Seton maeM 8. i. .
BROOMS. < “(9 eabinetes.. 1.0... 254 | Condensed, 2 doz........... 1 25
0 7. i McLaughlin’s XXXX....2544 ae ae. oa

No. . “ Eee 25 io: 9 pulneor.. |... .... ;

_ Bcagpéi . -: : = “ in cabinets ..... ae Sick pevter........... — =
<r Oe ec ’ No. 2 i

Parlor Gem. ........--..-+-- 2 = — sila aula ie Export parior eee ea 4 00

—— ee 1 29 | Cotton, 40ft....... per doz. 1 35 Sy ee aRaReR i

7 eee 25 ‘s na... “ 1 50 iack Sitap......:--.__.-- 17

ag ess ; oe So: See ee

BUCKWHEAT FLOUR. oa i = = at oe Orleans, a... 35

ee Se « 100 “| gholee..... 40
Self Rising Sa lg ie ls 4 50 wate... 115 One-half barrels. 3¢ extra

CANDLES CONDENSED MILK. OATMEAL.
Hotel, 40 Ib. ee ee gl G50) Berreie 00 UN 67
A carta % Anglo. Swiss.......... 6 00@ 7 70) Half barrels................. 3 50
ee oat ate eet NEN UA = -Stperion . eo a
eee wali ee Superior. ee eS 5
ee $ 1. per hundred... 2 00 Hae bhi 1. @350
6 “

cininseeee. ine. - Tole. 0%

Clam Chowder, 3 Ib......... or 6 ee 5 00| Water White........ 0.0.0... 10
Cape Gras. 2 Beet .---2 = g0, ke deen 6 00 - a1 pa os
: ‘Tradesman.”’ OM ck €
Lobsters, = picnic........ 1 9 | 8 1, per hundred........... 2 00 mf, ae
ib Star... 00R SOLER ee 3 oa...

_ 2 Gee......... 3D 810. “ ‘“ _40 .

Mackerel, in Tomato Sauce .3 50 ee “ Sido) Clay, No. S160 1%

: > . Stand ....... 1 20} “Subject to the following dis- wae T. D.

: 3 Ib. ‘in Mustard...3 5 0 | “Sno oF: over ._5 per cent, wales

c 3 Ib. soused....... 3 50 eG 10 Carolina ae ee
Salmon, 1 1b. Columbia 1 75@1 90 1000 «* 2 a 20 “ No.

1lb, Alaska.. @t1 60 CRACKERS. ee 6
Sardines, domestic ~ ceesee @8 ete Butter ee tke e 7% Japan, a 2 pee eee, :
© Mustard 48.002. QNO| emOwe ween Aus.

: <a = : fami a 34 Beazele.--.- eee : -
Trout, Ib, brook ==... UCU eD”D”™lU—Ee
‘coated oa... Cesena ™% ces, aden. in box..... ane

ee co: ee an a
Apricots ...-.---------++00-- 250) ¢. eee 5% SOUPS.
Blackberries... ae 7 = City Ovater, See... 5% | Snider’s Tomato... .......
mae oe aera tS lees CREAM TARTAR. eehameil sPices—Whole. i

Sct trict: MG —.
tn ec ercocceewrceceee 159 neacee nia 25 Cassia, — — a 7
ae ah se eae
Green. Gages Coeds doen ceweme : 10 DRI canteen iggagey “ Saigon in polls ..... 35

TECN GAeB......02.0- oees . inna 22
Peaches, pie .....-cscsc-se-- 1 85 | Apples, sun-dried... 8 @9 | MAYS Zann sve oo: 6

i = aye a ues ae 4 a as = xt Mace Batavia. ae

“  Galifornia. ........ 285|Blackberries‘* Nutmegs, famey oe... 80

PS 1 50} Peaches . Se ex “ ba 0 ee
Pineapples, en oe ee : = Turkey PRUNES. on Pepper, Singapore, , black. | 6
“ grated. 0c | Soe PRoeniee @9 ~ ae a ae
meeees ....:-....-..-..- 1 10 PEEL. ‘ ress ‘In Buik.
ee | —— ee lo Lee... 8 Apes 4d
eiiiiiaae cues dsleeeuaes ; = me el cs 18 Cassia, ST a Sa a 20
gtrawbersien 2 401 In a ee i @18 ae aii an —
MEATS. me Dee. 3 Cloves ie na. 26
Moe eer Sf... 2 00 cian ee "30
Roast...... 1% arrels..... yy | Ginger, African............. 12
VEGETABLES. Zante, in barrels...... @ 5% oo kgm as 5
Beans, soaked Lima........ 2 ee $ on << see 18

a Green Lima........ @1 60 oo Maco Batavia. 00000000. 90

i one Peet @ = iis RaIsIns —California. Mustard, English... 2

« Lewis’ Boston Baked. .1 40 London Layers, 2 cr’n “ Wests... i sah ‘OF
—- —, brands. .1 00@1 = i . im -— Mutmeens Wo 2 ....:........ 80

O_O 7 “ ancy. 27 Pepper, Singapore, black....18

© Qeeereees ...... ...... @1 30} Muscatels,2crown ... 200 white... 30

i — seas Calne é1 = . Seats 25 “ Cawenne. 0.00... 25

OP eas ; SUGARS.

“@ @ne Freneh......... <= &) Valoncies........ ..... 8 |Gut Leaf... ” es @™%
Sarees... +o Oaeeeee............... Seo fuk @ 6%
— ce cee emo teat @1 00 | Sultanas............... 13 @17 | Powdered........... @ 6%

OO 110 FARINACEOUS GOODS. Standard Granulated. 6. 31@ 6%
Succotash, Sn 1 $0 | Zaina, 100 tb, Kegs......... oa contseta es 8

ne Sn St ominy, ee eae onfectioners’ a. 1
Tomatoes,stand br'ds = @1 00 Macaroit, dom 1 12lb box.... 55| White Extra c.. Co 5%@ 6
ee ee nee *. importe @11 — C............... 546@ 556
Gms Gadet..........: Gr Pee Bariey.......... 0 @ SiC 28. ce wr cecs ne. nee @ 5%
Premium.... .. Feilow ene @ 5%
Bec vars ass Dark Molasses........ @5
Breakf Less than Dbl. 4c advance,

 

 

‘The Fine

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

scaLEs—Perfection. TEAS.
Tea, 2-bb, — —— cseee 6 OO Japan—Regular.
acu e. 2... @20

“ oy, an scoop sees 8 = CoG... @22

7 ©¢ tea 58... © marcos... .. 2 @2
Grocers’, i- ‘bb, tin — = = Cases. .....-... .... 32

brass “ . ——. |. |. 10 @l4
. 2-0, = oo B 3 SUN OURED.
. brass ‘“ 14 75
STARCH — Combination Prices.
Lump in Bulk.
Large boxes and barrels.... 4%
Tere neeen +... 5%
oss, BASKET FIRED.
1-Ib packages Bee cee ae. CSL Paie ..................- @0
oe CT 64 Chotee... ..... 21... .... @25
6 lb ee 2 (eho. ............., @35
Corn. Extra choice, wire leaf @4Ve
20- > boxes ee ce dee ct ceee. 7 GUNPOWDER.
ee a % | Common to fair....... 2 @35

oe of 200 Ibs., freight paid. Extra fine to finest....50 @65
Lots of 500 Ibs., freight paid and | Choicest fancy........ 75 @ss
5 per cent. discount. OOLONG.

Goods made by manufacturers | Common to fair... ... 25 @30
notin the trust are sold from | Superior to fine....... 30 @50
4%@ec lower. Fine to choicest....... 55 @65

SNUFF. IMPERIAL.
Scotch, in biadders......... 37 Common to fair....... 20 @35
Maccaboy, in jara..........- 35 Superior tofine........ 40 @50
French Rappee, in Jars..... 8 YOUNG HYSON.

SOAP. Common to fair....... 18 @2

Detroit Suap Co,’s Brands. Superior to fine....... 30 @40
Sperm... 3 3 ENGLISH a
Guces Aune................ 3 8
German Wamily.. .,........

Mottled German...... 2 On

Old German....,.. 2 8

U.S. Big Bargain. -.-2 00 TOBACCOS— “Fine ‘Cut.
Mrost, Piegiee........... ... 3% D. Seotten & Co.’s Brands.
Cocos Casiie .....-........ 3 Teena ............ 2
Cocoa Castile, Pancy........3 36} Sweet Cuba........... 36

Allen B. Wrisley’s Brands. TOBACcOs—Plug.

Old Country, S6.............. 3 20} Jas. G. Butler & Co.’s Brands.
Une te... 3 50 | Something Good.............. 37
Bouncer, 0... S Gi Pesach Pie ....................28
soDa. VTONGCCOT..-..........-...... 35
tospaccos—Smoking.
ON ee ee a 17
Bees, Erglieh ......-........ 4% Plow Boy, 2 oo 32
SAL SODA. 1 i ao. oe oe. 31
Kegs. Se ceserccescoeces ase % se
Granulated, — oe ewe ca 2 i oe oe -
sicuah aden EEDS. +@ 6 eee 8
xe rec...
Caraweg......-. 9 eran ceir hee ssse ts 7
EE 3% | PAPER & WOODE ARE
as. % PER.
eee 13 Curtiss s a quote as fol-
Mae 6 ows:
EE Ait 165
SALT c
onsen iat eeehes. Qui) eee 1
Solar Rock, 56 lb. sacks..... 27 Bakers «5.0. .2- es cs-s00 5-3 26
28 pocket ae 1 75 Die Goode. 54@S
a netics eel asinia sansa 2 00 | Jute Manilla........... 644@8
100 weet cee eee sees cees 15 Red Express No. 1 Pee) 5
penton bu bees ............ ® Nae. 4
Higgins ‘‘ gaa % TWINES.
ee CO 3S | 48 Cotton...................
Diamond "Crystal, —. = J = Cotjen, No. ra
i i -1b sacks Sea ead, tisoried.
56-Ib 50 No.5 Hemp
_ . 60 pocket.2 25) No 5 « a
a a ee aoe ae
- . barrels .. .1 75  WOODENWARE.
SALERATUS. Tubs, No. Vee ee eee eeeeeeeee 8 00
Church’s, Arm & Hammer.. By s................ 7 00
DrwienesCom........ -......- 5% *“ Ne. 3 ee 6 00
Tacvtere... -...... Pails, No. ys two-hoop.. 1 50
DeLand’s —_ Sheaf.. No. 1, three-hoop.... 1 7%
_ .. Clothespins, a tozes.... ©
Our besger..... 40... ...... 5 Bowls, li ine h p
SYRUPS. 13 ‘
Conn, Darrem...........-.. es  * 00

« one-half ——— - 2%

Pure Sugar, ma... ‘* assorted, 17s and 19s 2 50
half barrel.. “Bopae - . 15s, 7” and 19s 2 75

SWEET GOODS. Baskets, market. . ——. oo

Ginger Snaps.......... 8 bushel ... 1 0
Sugar Creams......... 8% ' willow ce ths, No.1 5 %5
Frosted Creams....... 8 . No.2 6 2%
Graham Crackers..... 8 . - “« Nos? Ss
Oatmeal Crackers.... 8 . splint =“ Noles
SHOE POLISH. e . « Nols

Jettine, 1 doz. in box...... -% 6s = “ Nessa

 

 

GRAINS and FEEDSTUFES
WHEAT.
Wee... ........._... 99

Mee... 8 90
All wheat bought on 60 Ib. test.
MEAL.

Moted... 2. 1 20
Granulated.. Laas 1%
FLOUR.

Straight, in sdeks ........ GM

 Darre........ Soe

Patent ‘ sacks. . Ome
" “ barrels......-. 6 30
Graham “ eachs.... ... 4

Rye i a See 3 70
MILLSTUFFS.

    

ee
Screenings “3
Middlings....

Mixed Peed...............
Comrade meal... 2.5.0.2... 23 10
RYE.
Net. @60
BARLEY.
meet... 1 20
Ne @.................... 1 16
CORN.

Sell lots. 61
Car — ee 58
OATS.

Seeetl tees... 4s, 53
Car Wes dece ese. oe
HAY.

No. 1 ska ac ewe cous seen Sulueus 9 00
Ha ........ edd clea beeline 8 00
HIDES, PELTS and FURS,
Perkins & Hess pay as fol

lows, nominal:

HIDES.
eGR oi. eS 4@5
Part Cured...... ee @5
Pee @5
TW 6 @7
Eips, ereen ..... .....@ @ia

“" €or ........... 5 @5%
Calfskins, groen...... 5 @6
eured...... 6 @8
Deacon sking.......... 10 @30
No. 2 hides \ off.

PELTS,
Shearlings..... oo 10 @25
Estimated wool, per b 20 @28

WwooL,

i
Unwashed ........... 10@22
MISCELLANEOUS,
Toliew 3 @ 3%

Grease butter ... .... i @3
aeenos 1%@ 2
Ginseng 25%m3 0)

LUBRICATING OILS.
The Hogle Oil Co. quote as
follows:
ANIMAL OILS.

Extra Ws Lard | 53 @5s
Rai -45 @50
No, 1. haa ee @40
Pure Neatsfoo*....... 52 @é60
LUBRICATING —
W Ve Soe... .... 4@l12
“ Medium Winter. 8. @12
15 — Wes... ......, 9 @13
ce cae 10 @14
Old’ Reliable Cylinder @65
| 600 Mecca @50

| Anti-monopoly ‘“ ..35 @40

| Corliss Engine ....... @40
| Golden Machine...... 18 @25
| Mower and Reaper....25 @30
i Castor Machine....... 25 @30
CASTOR OIL.
i cee $1 2 1 30
Distilied .... ...... ..81 10@hi 26
Miieral .... ._.. .... 30@ 35
BURNING OILS.
Water Waiwe..........- @10
—— test .
Gasoline.. . 9%@14
AINT OILS.
Linseed Oil, — 65 @%5
~ 1an. -62 @z2
Naptha ....... a 74@10
(WUrpeneme...5. ...... 45 @50

 

RED Tre

STAR

most effective Cough Drop in

A. E. BROOKS & CO. CO U G

Grand Rapids, Mich,

P. B.

ine of Gandy in the State,
OYSTERS.

the market
quickest and pays the

Sells the

best.
them.

Trg

DROPS

P. B,

The packing and distributing of FRESH OYSTERS among the trade in
Michigan is one of the features of our business, and from September first to the
May following, we are headquarters for these goods, and shall appreciate and
promptly attend to all orders sent us, as heretofore, guaranteeing quality, measure

and satisfaction.

: THE PUTNAM CANDY CO

How to Keep a Store.

A book of 400 pages

By Samuel H. Terry.

written from the experience and observation of

an old merchant.
ness, Location,

great

It treats of Selection of Busi
Buying, Selling, Credit, Adver-
tising, Account Keeping, Partnerships, etc. Of
interest to every one in trade.

THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,
Grand Rapids.

$1.50.

CUTS for BOOM EDITIONS

—OR—

PAMPHLETS

For the best work, at reasonableoprices, address
THE TRADESMAN COMPANY,
Grand Rapids, Mich,

ere eater a tee sere aerate

————

area eres

SOLE CoAT ARNE RAIN

Dae estore Poh R AMSG Te I ee

isto as tse tae bos

pe

ae Pease S

eae ay

ytd 97 ee ie

 

 

 

14-

Seasonable Suggestions for the Holiday
Trade.
Written for THE TRADESMAN.

Within the coming fifteen days, the |
thoughtful merchant will endeavor to add |
many desirable goods to his stock. He|
remembers that something a little better |
is wanted in all lines of goods at this sea-
son of the year.

pay?
the selection to others. He is personally |
acquainted with his customers, with their |
wants, to some extent their financial |
matters, and what amount of money they
can naturally afford to expend for extra
necessities or luxuries.
ing about for his fancy holiday stock.
To the dry goods dealer, that means new
styles and extra qualities; to the grocer,
goods superior in both quality and appear- |
ance, with less regard to price than at |
other seasons of the year; indeed, if the |
quality is exactly what the customer
desires, he will not wrangle over the
price a moment. His only thought is, |
‘‘This is the best, — once a year | can}
afford to have it.’

All the spare time for the next fort-

night should be expended in renovating |

and cleaning the store. Every piece of
goods should be handled, brushed and
changed in appearance, even if only in
position on the shelves or elsewhere.
The windows should be well cleaned be-
fore being redressed in holiday attire,
and it will pay richly to put extra work
on them, as daylight will be short and
darkness long for the coming month.
An extra lamp or two ina store, if only
during the holidays, will give it an en-
tirely new appearance, add to its attrac-
tiveness and draw new customers.

There are other schemes for making a
store attractive which were adopted by
two merchants in a neighboring town
and carried into effect during the holi-
days. When I asked them if it paid, the
first one tersely answered, ‘‘You bet,’’
and the other replied slowly, ‘‘You may
be sure it did.”’ The first one had two
large baskets filled with good eating ap-
ples and placed conspicuously on each of
his two counters, with a large card sus-
pended over them reading, ‘‘Every cus-
tomer please take an apple.”

The other one placed a long table in a
small room back of and adjoining his
store, upon which was hot coffee with
cream and sugar and a bountiful supply
of doughnuts. The room was kept warm
and comfortable and a young woman was
in constant attendance. Over the en-
trance to this room was the simple invi-
tation, ‘‘Welcome,’’ and all who came the
last two days before Christmas and New
Year’s were invited, before looking at
goods, to walk into the next room and be
served with coffee and doughnuts. I
never knew what all the apples cost the
first man, but the coffee and cakes dis-
bursed during the four days were as fol-
lows:

 

Coffee, 17 pounds at 25 cents.. es
Cream, =e eee ae eceet ee a Ce
Doughnuts. a 2.40

ee $8.25

Should any of Toe TRADESMAN’S read-
ers decide to adopt either plan, I trust he
will acquaint his brother merchants with
the result through the medium in which
lam now speaking. CADILLAC.
7:

The Cultivation of Rice.

Since it is said that rice furnishes to
three-quarters of our race their chief art-
icle of food, the history of its cultivation

 

 

Who can judge so well |
as he about the kind and the quality, and |
the price his customers will be willing to
It will not do for him to entrust |

He is now look-

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

| must be of general interest. The plant
| is a native of the East Indies, and it is in
| India and China that it is most largely

| cultivated and consumed. In those coun-
tries its use is well nigh universal. So

| closely does the consumption of it keep

pace with the production that other coun-
| tries have to cultivate it in order to have
ja supply. It is now grown in every
quarter of the globe where the conditions
of heat and moisture are favorable.

In this country, rice is said to have
been first planted in Virginia by Sir
William Berkeley, as early as 1647.
Other authorities say that it was first
brought to Charleston, South Carolina,
from Madagascar, about the end of the
| seventeenth century. Whichever of these
| two accounts may be correct, it is certain
|that the attention of the English who
| were interested in the settlement of the
New World was directed to the lowlands
| of South Carolina as suited to the growth
|of rice. Inthe report of the agents for
| 1666, it is stated that ‘‘The meadows are
| very proper for rice, rapeseed, linseed,

| and many of them be made to overflow at
| pleasure with a small charge.”

Since the introduction of rice into this
|country its cultivation has extended
| through most of the South. Its habits
i growth have been so far modified by

eultivation that a variety is now grown
/on uplands and without irrigation. The
; upland variety yields from twenty-five to
| forty bushels to the acre, and the low-
land, where irrigation is practiced, yields
| from fifty to seventy-five bnshels. The
lowland cultivation has this in its favor,
that where the rice is grown no other
crop could be raised. The upland can
be devoted to other crops.

The Carolina rice fields are subjected
to extreme irrigation. Swamp land used
to be considered the best for rice, but
lands that are subject to tidal overflow
of fresh water have been found to give
better results. In Louisiana the rice
planter occupies ground that has a slope
from the river. The water is let on by
flumes cutin the levee, and closed by
gates. The fields are divided into sec-
tiens by ditches and laterals. Some of
the ditches are made deep and broad
enough to form canals for the transpor-
tation of crops to the barns.

The rice is flooded at different stages
of its growth. First, it is kept under
water from four to six days when it is
sprouting. Ten days later, what is called
the “‘long water’ is let on for about two
weeks. Thatis kept at a considerable
depth four days, and then is made to di-
minish slowly. When a joint appears on
the plant, what is called the ‘‘joint wa-
ter’? isputon. This remains until the
grain ripens, about two months. The
water has to be renewed frequently. Salt
or even brackish water is fatal to the
crop. In places where the water used in
irrigation is likely to be mixed with salt
water by the incoming tides from the
ocean, men are stationed at the flumes to
taste the water as it comes through, and
to shut the gates as soon as salt is de-
tected.

—_— —~_ -6
The Hungry Man from Fremont.

NewayGo, Nov. 28.—I witnessed a
scene to-day which pleased me so much
that I am constrained to describe it-for the
amusement of THE TRADESMAN’S read-
ers. Forrest Tibbits, Prosecuting Attor-
ney-elect of Newaygo county, took din-
ner at the Courtright to-day, prefacing
the repast with the statement that he
was not hungry. Then he ordered roast
beef, roast turkey, stewed rabbit, three
soft boiled eggs, two pieces of toast, cup
of coffee, glass of milk and a liberal as-
sortment of pastry and dessert. He did
ample justice to everything set before
him, after which he again remarked that
he was not feeling well and asked the
elerk if he could be given a room with a
sofa on which to rest until train time.
lf any of THe TRADESMAN’S readers are
inclined to doubt these statements, I re-
fer them to a prominent grocery salesman
who sat at the same table and nearly ex-
ploded with hilarity. OccASIONAL.

Robert Collins, who formerly clerked
in the retail department of Foster,
Stevens & Co., died at Mendon on Satur-

day. The interment will be made at
Plainwell.

 

 

Grand Rapids & Indiana.

In effect October 5, 1890.
TRAINS GOING NORTH.
Arrive from Leave going
South. North.

For Saginaw, solid train ....... + 7:30am
For Traverse City. b:lbam +7: am
For Traverse City & Mackinaw 9:20am  *+11:30am
For Saginaw, solid train........ + 4:30 pm
ee Coco n cee sees bedences + 2:15pm + 5:00 pm
I oii ioc eco + 8:50pm 10:30 pm
From Kalamasoo..............-- + 3:55 pm

TRAINS GOING SOUTH.
Arrive from a egoing

—

ee CI oan ooo cn cane | 6:00am +6 $200 z ‘m
For ge and Chicago.. — lbam  t10:30 am
PPOMR BARTROT. 6 onc concsecccccsse 1:45am
For Fort wanes and the East.. + 2:00 pm
ee oon ccc sess + 5:30pm 6:00 pm
For oe and Chicago.. oo = P = 11:30 pm
I, oo cn occ esoueces d +10

Trains Samed (q) run daily; (t) daily except Sunday.

Sleeping and parlor car service: ort h—I1: 30 a m
train. parlor chair car for Mackinaw City; 10:30pm

train, Wagner sleeping car for Mack: naw City.
South—6:30 a m train, parlor chair car for Cincinnati;

10:30 a m train, through parlor coach to Chicago; 6 pm
train, Wagner ‘sleeping ear for Cincinnati; 11:30 p m
train, Wagner sleeping car for Chicago.

 

Muskegon, Grand Rapids & Indiana,
For Muskegon—Leave. From Muskegon—Arrive.
7:00 am 10:10am

= 15 —

5:40 p
‘neoueh tickets and full information can be had by
calling upon A. Almquist, ticket agent at Union Sta-
tien, or George W. Munson, Union Ticket Agent, 67
Monroe street, Grand Rapids, —
Co. L. LOCKWOOD,
General Passenger and Ticket Agent.

 

Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee.

  

 
 
 

Leaves.
+tMo a 1:00 pm
+Through Mail J 5:10pm
+Grand Rapids Express. 25 pm
*Night Express........ ccccccseess 6:40am 7:05 am

cere cesta etse nine 7:30am
GOING BAST.
Detroit Express......cccccccccccoe 6:50am
+Through Mail...... .10:l0am 10:20 am
tEveni ene tag . $:335 pm 3:45pm
*Night Express............ atone SUD 10:55 p m
tDaily, aes excepted. *Daily.

Detroit Express leaving 6:50 a m has Wagner parlor
and buffet car attached, and Se ee leaving
3:45 p m has parlor car ‘attac ns make
direct connection in Detroit for = ir East

Express leaving at 10:55 Bett as Wagner sleeping
ear to,Detroit, arriving in creat at 7:20 a m.

Tickets and sleeping berths secured at
D.,G. H. & M.R’y offices, $3 Monroe St., and at the depot.

a8. CAMPBELL, City Passenger Agen’ nt.

Jxo. W. Loup, Traffic Manager, Detroit.

Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern.

For Toledo and all points South and East, take
the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Rail-
way from Owosso Junction. Sure connections
at above point with trains of D., G. H. & M., and
connections at Toledo with evening trains for
Cleveland, Buffalo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincin-
nati, Pittsburg, Creston, Orville and ail promi
nent points on connecting lines.

A. J. Parstey, Gen’! Pass. Agent

 

— & WEST MICHIGAN RAILWAY.
Fruit ec Line.
DEPA
Mail and Express for Big maniés, Lud-
ington, Manistee & Traverse City..
Express for Chicago and ee:
Fast Mail for Chicago ... coos
Express for Muskegon and Hart .....
Night Express for Chicago .........
Night Express for Indianapolis .... 4
Mail for Big Rapids, Tontetee and
Traverse City .
Ex. for Grand | Haven & Muskegon..
ARRIVE.
Night Express from Chicago .........
Night — from Indianapolis .... 36:
Ex. from Muskegon, Hart & Pentwatert10:
Express from Big Rapids, Baldwin
and Traverse City .
Mail from Chicago and Muskegon . ra
Express from Grand Haven..... .....
Fast Express from Chicago ......... Py
Ex. from Muskegon and Pentwater..t
Ex. from Baldwin and Traverse City.
Ex ress from Traverse City...........
aily. a except Sunday. sDail
seumetae. tDaily except Monday.
Through chair ear for Chicago on 9:00 a m
train; no extra charge for seats. Trains leaving
Grand Rapids at 1:00 p m and 11:35 p m run
through to Chicago solid. Through sleeping
cars between Grand Rapids and Chicago on
night express trains. hrough combination
sleeping and chair car between Grand Rapids
and Indianapolis on night express trains.
Wagner drawing room buffet cars on trains
leaving Grand Rapids 1 p m and Chicago 4:40
pm. 4:40pm train leaving a. connects
with sleeper leaving Grand Rapids 11:30 hee for
:

+4
Bee BR RRSSESR

et et OT OD
soudUuUD PES VU TUTURS

+
& tHe Rests
Do

A East oo
eSSBRRR5
BBEBBRE BEB BB BEBBEBB

S
o

e€

Traverse City. The5:€5pm train has —
free parlor car to Manistee via M. & N Ry.
For tickets and information, apply = Salon

Ticket Office, 67 Monroe street, and Union Depot.
Gxo DeHaven
Gen Pass. & Ticket Agt., Geant Rapids.

ETROIT, LANSING & NORTHERN R. R.
Lansing Route.
DEPART. ¢
ress for Saginaw and Bay City..
rail for Lansing, Detroit and East...
ress for Lansing, Detroit and East
a 1 for Alma, St. Louis and Saginaw
Fast Ex. for Detroit, New York,
ARRIVE.
Mail from Saginaw and Bay City. ...t11:
Mail from Lansing, Detroit nail East. +12:
Fast Express from Lansing and East. *5:
Express from Lansing and Detroit... +9:
Ex. from ae, St. Louis and Almati0:30 pm
*Daily. except Sunday.
The shortest line to Detroit md the East.

+ tet
wart apa?

BEete BERS
cvsSeSe wuvrep
BEBE BBBBS

oston*6:

eget
parlor cars between Detroit and Grand ——

Solid trains between Grand Rapids an Sa
Two solid trains between Grand Rapids and Detroit,
leaving Grand Rapids 7 = m and 6:25 p m, leaving
Detroit 1:15 p m and 5:00

 

For — and ene ae on aS Union Ticket
Office. onroe stree
Guo. DeHavan, Gon. Pass. & Ticket Agt., Po Grand Rapids.

ia

MIGHIGAN CENTRAL

“The Niagara Falis Route.’’

DEPART. ARRIVE

Detroit Bxpress......ccccccccecscvecs 7:20am 10:00pm
ES ERT RT 6:30am 5:00pm
Day Express........ccccccccceccccecs 12:00am 10:00am
watlantic. = Pacific EPP ORE. 0.50000 ll:15pm 6:00am
= RE, cic c ccc secede 5:40pm 1:15pm

All other daily except Sunday.

Sleeping cars run on Atlantic and Pacific Express
trains to and from Detroit.

Parlor cars run on Day Express and Grand Rapid
Express to and from Detroit.

ED M. BrieGs, Gen’l Agent, 85 menees St.

G. 8S. HAWKINS, Ticket Agent, Union Depot.

Gro. W. Munson, Union Ticket Office, ot Monroe St.

O. W. RUGGLES, G.P. & T. Agent., Chicago.

 

EDMUND B. DIKEMAN

THE GREAT

Watch Maker

Jeweler,
hh GANAL 8Y.,

Mich.

Grand Rapids

 

   

MANIFOLD

SHIPPING
BLANKS. aad
SAMPLE SHEETS PRICES
BARLOW BROS.GRAND RAPIDS, MICH

FIT FOR
A Gentlewan’s
Table:

All goods bearing the
name of

THURBER, WHYLAND & CO.,
OR
ALEXIS GODILLOT, JR.

 
     

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grocers visiting New York are cordially invited
to calland see us,and if they wish, have their
correspondence addressed in our care. We shall
be glad to be of use to themin any way. Write
us about anything you wish to know.

THURBER, WHYLAND & 00.,
West Broadway, Reade & Hudson Streets.
New York Oity

 

BEFORE UYING G GRATES

zet Circular and Testimon Free.
Economical, Sanitary, Clean ae “att stic. -
ALDINE FIRE PLACE GRAND RAPID’, MICH.

AROS t
LECTROTYPERS,

Bec pd aes
cara acd

a3 FADS o> BRASS RUL
Woods MErAL FURNITURE

GRAND RAPIDS MICH.

 

 

 
 
  

  
    
       
      

 

es a

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

ee ee ae > -— &

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

    

15

 

 

Curious Incidents in California.
Written for THE TRADESMAN.

From the year 1836 the writer has
known much about California, having
listened with much interest when a mere
boy to the conversation of those who, as
sailors, visited the country in the vicini-
ty of Los Angeles and other points along
the coast where the old Boston merchants
dropped anchor off shore—there were no
harbors then except such as nature had
furnished—to load their vessels with
hides and tallow and occasionally salt
fish (probably salmon and_ halibut).
Since grown to manhood he has visited
almost every county in that now great
commonwealth, and has verified nearly
all he had ever heard concerning it, even
to visiting the old Catholic missions,
many of which were in ruins, and walk-
ing in the underground vaults, where
the melted tallow was poured in by the
barrel until the room was filled and it
cooled in one solid mass, the dimensions
of a small room, say 6x8 feet. This
method of preserving the tallow was
necessary on account of the steady heat
of the climate during the summer and
the uncertainty of selling it within the
year, as, at that time, few foreign ves-
sels appeared on the coast. Early in the
present century, gold and silver was
paid for the tallow and hides, which, in
fact, was about the extent of the pro-
ducts exported; later, sugar and flour
were wanted in exchange, as neither was
produced in that country. One Boston
merchant and ship owner, whose name I
have forgotten, for along period bought
two-thirds of all that the Catholic
Fathers held for sale at the missions.
From that day to the present, the entire
coast from the boundaries of Old Mexico
on the south to Puget Sound on the north
has been the weird and wonderful land
of America, replete with romance and
mystery, and the acknowledged home of
the earliest races of the New World.
Can we, then, wonder that it possesses
an interest to the present generation sur-
passing that of any other portion of the
continent? Itis the coveted Mecca for
all, which to visit is the event of a life-
time. Itisaland rich in all that per-
tains to tropical wealth, whose future is
brilliant with promise. Its curious inci-
dents of the past would fill a large vol-
ume, only a few of which I will produce
here.

At one time during the gold excite-
ment in California, certain kinds of mer-
chandise were shipped to San Francisco
in such quantities that they could not be
sold for the first cost with freight added.
That was somewhere between 52 and 754.
A man who was about to erect at this
time, a three-story wooden block of two
stores in San Francisco discovered that
the rock for his foundation would cost
many thousands of dollars, as labor of
that kind was enormously high, and, see-
ing the large piles of nearly square pack-
ages of plug tobacco being landed, he
conceived the idea of using them instead
of stone. Upon consulting his architect
it was done. That building was stand-
ing ina fair state of preservation and
still occupied in ’74, and it had not set-
tled more than one or two inches, neither
was itoutof plumb. The entire foun-
dation wall was built with those pack-
ages of plug tobacco, which any grocer
knows are nearly as solid as stone.
They were laid in cement. The cost was
fully one-half less than rock could have
been obtained for at that time. A man

dy the name of Swift, who had a stock

   

 

farm in the Sacramento Valley in ’48 and
was raising cattle for hides and tallow
ouly, had twelve or fourteen Mexican
Indians hired by the month to perform
the labor required. Swift was poor but
ambitious, and his Indians were, in
Darwin’s gradation, only one or two re-
moves above the brute creation and
quite satisfied with just enough to feed
and shelter them, for little clothing was
required. As soon as gold was discov-
ered, he left one or two of his—nomin-
ally—slaves upon the place to care for
the cattle, and, loading half a dozen
mules with provisions, he took the bal-
ance of the Indians and set out for the
mines. Arriving at a favorable point
on a small stream, he set his Indians at
work turning the water into another

channel, being his own foreman and
overseer. In less than six months,
Swift had taken from the bed of the

river, by the aid of his Indians, gold to
the value of over $600,000, Loading
this upon his mules, he set out for the
old village of Sonomia, at the north end
of the bay of San Francisco. Almost
or quite in sight of this village, in one of
the loveliest valleys the sun ever shone
upon, and sheltered from the ocean by
the coast range, he purchased 400 acres
of land for a.small sum of money and
proceeded to build himself a mansion,
which, in point of size and architecture,
should far exceed any residence then in
San Francisco. It was built of cut
stone, brought from along distance. The
eost of this building was over $250,000.
He engaged one white man as overseer
upon his farm, and forever abandoned
his former home. He had had ‘the _ bal-
ance of his gold dust coined, by private
parties in San Francisco, into octagonal-
shaped $50 gold pieces, which were
without a particle of alloy and were
known as slugs. Twelve years ago,
such pieces were readily sold at from
12 to 20 per cent. premium. They were
found to be too soft for ordinary use as
money, and were afterward all re-coined
into smaller denominations. Thousands
of dollars of this money in different
amounts he put into stout canvas bags
and buried in different places along the
banks of a small creek upon his new
farm. He did this for fear of being
robbed, but gave his wife a rude diagram
of the creek and the points where the
bags could be found, in case of his death.
Through some family quarrel he soon
became intemperate and profligate, and
his wealth dwindled rapidly away. Soon
after he had buried his money,‘a great
freshet swelled the stream through his
farm almost into a river and so changed
its course and appearance that it
was impossible to find his buried
treasure. His overseer left him
soon after this occurred. He
always believed that this overseer
had watched him and had afterward se-
eretly dug up some of the bags, particu-
larly as, in a few years, ostensibly in the
liquor business, the man was found to
have acquired great wealth. A long
time after this freshet occurred, his ser-
vant girl was wandering along the bank
of the stream when the water was at its
lowest and saw something glistening at
the bottom in the sunlight. She thought
it had the appearance of gold and, upon
examination, she picked out four or five

$50 gold slugs from the sand. On her
return to the house and exhibiting the
coin, Swift at once proceeded to investi-
gate the banks of the stream and soon
unearthed one of his canvas bags which

ee

contained about $25,000. The neighbors
say that he was so elated that he pre-
sented the girl with $3,000 for her
honesty.

Most of the family are dead.
was killed, when intoxicated, by being
thrown from his horse. Many have
since searched for gold coin along the
banks of that stream; none may ever
know with what success, or whether
thousands yet lie hidden beneath the
soil of that fruitful valley.

Swift

ADDISON.
> 4+ <>
Judgment as a Business Factor.
From the American Merchant.

It is always well for a man in business,
no matter what its kind and character
may be, to cultivate a capacity, to look
at every day events from a practical and
thoroughly sound standpoint. A lack of
good judgment isin all cases bound to
bring about disaster and failure. There
are many men to-day who would have
been examples of successful business
men if they had possessed to any degree
a capacity to look matters squarely in the
face, and consequently been endowed
with an ordinary share of sound judg-
ment.

One mistake in a business has many
times caused its wreck. Yet there are
many men to-day who pay very little at-
tention to trivial things, and are conse-
quently being the victims of errors of
judgment. Sound judgment is not alone
required in dealing with the customer
across the counter, but it is also a con-
siderable factor in buying and in selling.
It is an old story that a thing well
bought is half sold, and in the matter of

buying, the man who is intluenced solely
by sound judgment very rarely commits
an error, whereas the man who has ro
reliance upon himself and who is not
possessed of that happy faculty of clearly
examining all the conditions which bear
upon the situation, is apt to fall into er-
rors which might result in loss, if not in
bankruptey. Carelessness is responsible
for as many failures in business as al-
most anything else, and if we look around
and see what is the cause of many fail-
ures, we will find that they have been al-
most entirely the result of errors and
judgment.

| To judge correctly the merchant must
| be well informed. He must have a ¢a-
| pacity to take in at a glance al! the
bearings of the situation; and he can
only do this by commencing early in life
and thoroughly weighing over the va-
rious causes and effects which are daily
brought to his attention. The merchant
who cultivates good judgment will al-
ways have a better chance of success
than one who neglects to.

 

- ——_ 2 <>
He Had Been Treated.

‘Well, Jim, what’s happened? - To
look at your coat and that stove pipe of
yours, a stranger would naturally sup
pose you had taken acouple of horns
this morning.”’

‘*You guessed it the first time, Martin,
but they cost me nothing. As I came
down the road, I was interviewed by
Smith’s bull.’’

Ll ene
A Genuine Difference.
From Harper’s Bazar.

‘“‘Has your wife gone shopping?”

“Fm airaid not. Fm afraid
gone buying.”’

she’s

 

 

Has a Strong Hinged Cover over entire Top, and
may be carried in the Rain without getting Water in the Can.
No Dirt in the Top to be washed into the Can
with the Oil, and no Screw Top to get Lost or Damaged.

Foster, STEVENS & Co., Grand Rapids.

Curtiss & Co., .
OLNEY & JUDSON GROCER Co., ‘
GUNN HARDWARE Co., .
tGro. C. WETHERBEE & Co., Detroit.
FLETCHER, JENKS & Co.,

E. F. Percivat, Port Huron.

D. RoBESON, -

 

Rosson Bros., Lansing.

The “HOME! RULE” Family

Ol: AND GASOLINE CAN.

a oa & og en Wt
ee a

tg A
be

¥ cr ae i ie
Or Oa eer con Se
Se ‘i Ptiertneri aA ae

 

‘suredoeid oj 10 MOTJONAISQO JO EsBd

4q31J, wonsiodeagq pus ywIq ‘urey Ajojnjosqy

Ul UBO OY} WOU oTQvAOMIOY sr Yorum ‘dung urvoljg
$yoxIVI 04} UO uBO ATIMBA TeoTOVIg ISOM Oo,

‘yoojdog poojuBisny uep AJoA

Apeoig sey

——MANUFACTURED BY ——

THE WINFIELD MANUFACTURING (0, = -

AT WHOLESALE BY

WARREN, OHIO.

Danpt, Watson & Co., Saginaw.
WELLS-STONE MERCT. Co., bi
Wauz & KELLER, -

G. W. BRUSKE, a”
JENNISON & Co., Bay City.

Wash & EpinporovueH, W. Bay City.
H. D. Woop & Co., Toledo.

DuNSCOMB & Co., "

STALLBERG & CLAPP, ‘‘

  

Face re a
Ie my AOR ig anim ok rh nbc ab lg CAR a Lb soa nye “
3 t *

 

THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN.

 

 

PF DETTENTHALER,

JOBBER OF

Uysters

—AND——

Salt Fish

Mail Orders Receive Prompt Attention. See Quotations in Another Column.
CONSIGNMENTS OF ALL KINDS OF WILD GAME SOLICITED.

CURTISS & CO.,

WHOLESALE

Paper Warehouse.

FLOUR SACKS, GROCERY BAGS, TWINE AND WOODEN WARE.

Houseman Block, - Grand Rapids, Mich.

 

 

lo: oe HEERINCA,
GENERAL MERCHANT,

 

 

find dealer in Butter, Eos. Seeds & Grain,

EAST SAUCATUCK, - MICHICAN.

 

 

We quote the following prices on No. 4
tags, delivered to any express officeor jobbing
house in this city:

1,000 - $1.80
2,000 - 2.80
8,000 “ 4 BO

We carry all other sizes of tags and can fill
orders on short notice.

The Tradesman Company,
GRAND RAPIDS,

 

Pennsylvania Lumbermar’s,

The best fitting Stocking Rub-
bers in the market. A full line of
Lycoming Rubbers on hand. Try
them.

m GEO. H REEDER & CO.,

State Agents for
LYCOMING RUBBER CO.

158 and 160 East Fulton Street.

WM.SEARS & CO.
Cracker Manufacturers,

37,39 and 41 Kent St., Grand Rapids.

Wall Paper and Window Shades,

iHouse and Store Shades Made tofOrder.

NELSON BROS. & CO.,

68 MONROE STREET.

Muskegon Cracker Co

CRACKERS, BISCUITS AND SWEET GOODS.

LARGEST VARIETY IN THE STATE

SPECIAL ATTENTIONOPAID TO MAIL ORDERS.
457, 459, 461, 463 W. WESTERN AVENUE, MUSKEGON, MICH.

No Connection with Any Cracker ‘Trust

S. K. BOLLES. E. B. DIKEMAN.

S. ix. Bolles & Co.,

CANAL ST., GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

 

 

 

 

WW iwitcais Cigar Dealers.

"st O35 UF

The “TOSS UP” Cigar is not a competitor
against any other 5c brands, but all 10c brands,

because it is equal to any 10c cigar on the
market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DON'T SCATTER YOUR FIRE, OR WASTE

 

UNNECGESSARILY--DEGIDE UPON WHAT YOU WANT, THEN REACH FOR IT.

COSTLY AMMUNITION

 

worthless boxe:.
}

guarantee the Coffee to give perfect satisfaction.

 

 

THIS CABINET HOLDS 50 ibs

HERE IT IS! AND WE GIVE THEM AWAY FREE! They are dollars
and cents to you, Boxes and Barrels are good in their place, but these Cabinets dress up your store,
and cost you nothing. They are made by regular Cabinet Makers at a slight expense over the cost
of making Boxes, consequently we can use them instead of the old-tumbled-down-Barrels and
These Cabinets are beautifully Panelled, Painted and Varnished. Their use in
the store is apparent. The 50 Ib. Cabinet is made particularly for the Counter
Shelf; the 100 Ib. Cabinets to take the place of the unsightly Barrels so
often seen on the floor. To secure these Cabinets you have only to buy your Bulk Roast-
ed Coffee of the Woolson Spice Co., or order through your Jobber. You assume no risk for we fully
Tt will cost you only one cent for a Postal Card
addressed to the Woolson Spice Company, Toledo, Ohio, for Price-list of Roasted Coffee in Cabinets.

KeEFLION COFFEE NOT SOLD IN THESE CABINETS.“@a

 

 

THIS CABINET HOLDS 100 Ibs.