16 GOTHAM GOSSIP. News from the Metropolis---Index of the Markets. Special Correspondence. New York, Oct. 7—‘*Trade is as good as we want it to be under the cirecum- stances,’’ said a leading grocery jobber to your correspondent. The trouble is with the ‘‘circumstances,’’ and, until they are changed, nothing but a dull market will be presented. Wholesalers are chafing under the delay of the Sen- ate, taxes are due, and cold weather not far off. itis bound to be a hard winter and much suffering wiil prevail. Of course, people must eat, but they will not indulge much in luxuries or goods that pay big profits. The retail trade is satisfactory in some parts of the city, but not so in others. ‘The army of the unemployed is about as large as ever, and although 50,000 people could afford to pay from $3 to $5 each to see the yacht race, it signifies nothing, and charitable institutions are crowded. We yearn for the good old days ‘‘befo’ de wah,’’ when New York was the trading place of the continent and such great competitors as Chieago and St. Paul and Denver had hardly an existence. The yacht race actually made a dull market on the days appointed, and for the time everything else was forgotten. It was to New York what the circus is to smaller places, although compara- tively few could go. The rest crowded in front of the bulletin boards. The matter of deliveries of mains as annoying as it has been during the past month, and goodness knows when the demand will be supplied. The refineries are running unceasingly nights and Sundays, but they are still far be- hind. No advance has taken place in price. Coffee is very firmly held and sellers are confident of obtaining higher prices. Rio No. 7 is worth 1814e and is about 3¢ higher than a year ago. There are only about 70,000 bags held in this city, and the stock of the country to-day is about 320,000 bags, against 570,000 _ bags, a year ago—figures which show that the high value now placed upon. cof- fee is a legitimate value, and one bound to appreciate. Canned goods attract more and more attention and tomatoes are worth $1.10 for extra standards, New Jersey pack, and $1 tor Maryland; Delaware command $1.05. Peaches and other fruits, as well as corn—the latter in particular—are meeting with more and more inquiry, while salmon is dull, owing to the huge pack. Dried fruits are slow of sale and low in price. Still if apricots can be dried and put on the cars for 2c a pound, as it is claimed they can be, Californians ought to feel satisfied with prices rang- ing from 9@12c here. The provision market is firm, and while fluctuations are frequent they are smallin amount. Pork is worth $18.75 @$20 per barrel. 3eef, $12@14 for family mess. Dairy products are firm, although no very large transactions are reported, buyers being seemingly content to let matters drift. The best Western and State creamery are fetching 29@30c readily; imitation creamey, 24@26c: Western dairy, 17@21c. Full cream fancy State colored cheese is worth 11@ | 1i44e and is well held; white, 10% @10%,¢. Eggs — Northern Indiana, Northern Ohio, and Michigan, 23c; nearby fresh, 26c. Market firm, and supplies not very ample. Poultry is beginning to meet with ready sale, dressed turkeys being quoted at 12@16c, and 10@12c alive. Chickens, dressed, 12@18c; alive 10@12c. Beans are selling at $1.95 for new pea; and $2 for medium. Receipts not large and the market is rather quiet. Potatoes are in abundant supply, over 100 earloads being on the D. L., & W. tracks in Hoboken. They are worth about $2 per barrel, and in bulk, $1.75. Apples are in good demand, and re- ceipts are fair. Greenings, $2@2.50 per bbl.; king, $2.25@3.25. The market is hardening for foreign green fruits, and lemons, in particular, sugar re- | THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN. are in request. Oranges, bapanas and pineapples are all selling pretty well, and holders are not as anxious to part with their holdings as they were a fort- night ago. Dates, figs, prunes and nuts | are all meeting with better request. In| domestic nuts, hickorynuts are worth $2.50. Chestnuts are still out of reach, being quotable as high as $6 per bushel. White Clover honey is held at 14@15e for 1 th. boxes, and 6@7e for extracted. Another new sugar refinery is to be erected. This time it is said to be in Boston. The annual output of all refin- eries outside the Trust will amount to nearly 350,000 tons, and it is to be hoped the good work will continue, although, as yet, we have learned of no “‘independ- ent” refinery that has been ‘‘independ- ent’? enough to sell their product below the Trust’s price. Why should they, if they can get the same as the Trust? The latter is not at all troubled by the new enterprises, and claims to welcome them. Politics will attract a good deal of at- tention from now on, though luckily the campaign is to be short. If Tammany is victorious, as it invariably is, it will be called a ‘‘glorious victory,” just as if it wasn’t a regular thing. To nominate is to elect so far as Tammany is concerned. JAY. ——_— 2 <—>- Gripsack Brigade. Hub Baker has returned from his five weeks’ vacation and resumed his regular trips to his trade. Frank Stone, buyer for H. Leonard & | Sons, is confined to his house by illness |in the shape of fever. Wm. D. Weaver, city salesman for the I. M. Clark Grocery Co., is spending ten days in Chicago taking in the World’s Fair. Wm. Connor was in Grand Rapids last Thursday and Friday, and will make an- other stand here Thursday and Friday, Oct. 26 and 27. Dr. Josiah B. Evans, traveling sales- man for the Ball-Barnhart-Putman Co., is taking in the World’s Fair this week. He is accompanied by his wife, Jas. A. Morrison left Friday for his old home in Pennsylvania, where he will scenes and friends of his boyhood days. Ed. L. Forsyth, State agent for Col- burn, Birks & Co., of Peoria, Ill, was in town acouple of days last week in the | interest of the liquor department of that | house. Mr. Forsyth was formerly on the road for Williams, Davis, Brooks & Co. and the Hazeltine & Perkins Drug Co. He will continue to reside at Kalamazoo. Sam. B. Morrison, formerly on the road for the Olney & Judson Grocer Co., but more recently with the Wells-Stone | Mercantile Co., of Duluth, with head- | quarters at Grand Forks, North Dakota, has gone to Colorado Springs, Colo., | where he is employed by the Shields- | Morley Grocery Co. as traveling sales- | man. B. F. Emery, formerly of this city, but for the past two years at Colorado | Springs, Colo., is now at the Lincoln Park | Sanitarium, at Chicago, undergoing a | delicate surgical operation. In case the operation is successful, he will return to Grand Rapids with his family and re- enter the employ of the Chicago Pack- ing Co. Jas. G. Cloyes, city salesman for the I. M. Clark Grocery Co., broke his left col- lar bone in alighting from a Lyon street electric car Oct. 2. He will be confined to his house for a month or six weeks, and in the meantime his trade will be visited by Fred Morley, who formerly covered the Upper Peninsula trade for that house. spend a week or ten days among the! Louis Immegart, who covered the Michigan territory three years for the Catlin Tobacco Co., subsequently travel- ing a year forthe Olney & Judson Gro- cer Co,, after which he conducted a gro- cery business at Traverse City for a year and has been representing the Catlin people in Indiana for the past year, has had Michigan and Kentucky added to his territory, and will make quarterly visits to the trade of this territory here- after. He was in town last week, call- ing on old friends and acquaintances. ip