FOOLING THE PUBLIC TRICKS OF THE TRAVELING RE TAIL GROCERY AGENTS. GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR The Price May Be Small, But the Goods Are Expensive Even at That and Net Big Profits. You may know something about the modus operandi of the traveling gro cer, and how the house after paying him 25 per cent, commission still makes a princely profit. There may be some things, inside affairs that it is well that the people in general may know. It will be found on close inves tigation that the average Merca. *'e Supply company, Buyers' association or whatever name is used to gull the unsuspecting farmer, consists of one or two schemers, who hrve a small office room iu (;;u■ i; and a back room in tliu iu. > jiguborhood where the "storeb" are stored and the re-packing and the mixing done. The re-packing and the mixing are two important parts of the work o? the "company." When the "repre .tenta tive" sells John Jones 100 pounds of sugar for S4.CO; five cases of canned goods at $2.40 a case; three boxes of dried fruits at ten cents a pound, a few gallons of extract at a bargain and ten or 15 pounds of spices at a profit of 200 per cent., the order is sent to the "home office." There it is recorded. The boy is sent down to the wholesale grocery house which gen erally stands in with the concern, -brings back a lot of ordinary bulk dried fruits, the cases of seconds or thirds, in canned goods, and the ave rage run of poor spices. In the pack ing room the dried fruits are over hauled, washed up If possible as in the case of prunes, and packed in boxes, supposed to contain full 25 pounds, but only run from 18 to 22; branded with some fictitious mark and shipped out with the other sup plies. The spices are dumped out, uud again run through a mill with a Jot of ground nut-shells, bark or other matter, and perhaps some bran or other cheap material is added. The extracts are of the cheapest class, synthetic, and the pure fruit flavors are products of coal-tar, doctored up with coloring matter to look good. The label is the only pure thing about it aside from the glass in the bottle containing it. In fact, the tricks of the box-car outfits are legion. The teas sold are never up to the samples shown. In one case a schemer traveled over the country carrying with him samples of Ceylon teas that were worth 45 cents a pound wholesale. He agreed to sup ply this tea at 50 cents. He received large orders. Every order was filled with teas that cost only 20 cents a pound, and the funny thing about it : was that there was no kicking, be- , cause the farmers knew nothing 1 about teas, and were satisfied as long as they thought that they had a fine Ceylon article. The same way with coffees. If there is anything that even coffee experts know' little about it is coffee. It is a wine merchant who knows the classes of coffees he is handling. The box-car man generally shows up a cheap big-berry, tells all about it being a great mountain Mocha and sells three poands for a dollar, and buys it at 1C or 17 cents a pound. Should the local grocer try to sell the same grade to his customers at such a price, there would go up a roar that would raise the roof of the store. Still the farmer continues to bite at such baits, and doesn't squeal. Where the Money Is. More than 40 per cent, of the popu lation of the United States proper lies in less than a dozen eastern states. These states are known as manufac turing states. In the banks of one, New York state, is contained nearly 40 per cent, of the money of the coun try. New York city alone has in its banks 25 per cent, of the money in cir culation. This has been made possi ble by the conditions that enable the large cities to draw trade from all sec tions of the country. In fact, great cities must have support of a large territory. Cut one of the great evils and which injures the masses who are residents of agricultural district is the system of drawing support from local towns and communities to the cities. This system takes from the rural dis tricts the surplus wealth that should be retained to build them up. The Drinking Orchid. One of the most remarkable plants known to horticulturists is the drink ing orchid, which is found in South America. This orchid takes a drink whenever it feels thirsty, by means of a tube which It lets down into th* water. The tube when not in use is coiled upon the top of the plant. The formation of the orchid is dif ferent from others of its species, hav ing sharp leaves, lancehead-shaped, growing round the root and radiating from it. From the center of the plant hangs the tube, about one-eighth of an inch thick and one-fourth of an inch wide. When touched It gradually contracts and rolls itself up in a spiral-like coil. As a rule these or chids are to be found growing directly over the water, or where water has been, and in the latter case it is al most pathetic to see how the tube will work its way over the ground to a pool or river. Where tha Fool Irritates. The most irritating tiling about a fool is that he seems to be enjoying himself so. NOT A GOOD SYSTEM. How th; Mail Order Business Injures the Agricultural Sections. We must admit that mail order system is a legitimate business if it. is carried on legitimately. It is a great American privilege to carry on trade in this way. Yet the principle from an American standpoint or any other standpoint that is consistent with equal rights for all is entirely wrong. Through the mail order system the merchants suffer a direct loss. To them it is an unfair competition. It diverts trade from established chan nels. The loss of the merchants in the ' local town means a loss to the town itself, to every resident of the town and the surrounding community. It ia the business of the city or town that makes it a live place or a dead one. Dependent upon the activity of a town is to a great extent the value of all farm lands in its trade territory. Thus is the farmer affected by any system that causes a deterioration in his home town. Yet the farmers are the main supporters .of the catalogue houses. They assist in feeding the snake that is stealing their eggs and they little realize it. Tliey are as vi tally interested in the upbuilding of i their home town as the merchant. It is for their benefit as well as for all in the community that the town is there. There is a more vital phase of the question that few farmers realize. That s the evils resulting from the vast capital that is concentrated in the large financial centers. It is this surplus of money that makes it easy to build up trusts and combinations. These trusts aiTect the affairs and the prosperity of the farmer. He does not stop to think that when he sends his money to the distant concern that he is doing just so much to help along the trusts. HELPS FOR TOWN BUILDERS. Some years ago on bill boards and street cars and in the pages of the magazines were run a series of adver tising cards the prominent feature of which was "Spotless Town." There can be little doubt as to the whole some lessons taught by this unique advertisement. The town that is not kept in good condition, its walks in good repair, its streets well graded, and all neat and clean, is a reflection upon the residents of the place, and is evidence that the town is already dead or fast dying. Should you make a good impression upon strangers, keep streets clean, business places at tractive, and don't forget that the front yards and the general conditions of the residences indicate the charac ter of the people who reside in them. Residents of agricultural sections who a few years ago looked upon the automobile as a nuisance, are begin ning to realize that it is a great factor in road improvement, and has brought about renewed interest in country roads and their betterment, with a cor responding benefit to the farmers. It is as much to the interest of the people of a town that there be good roads leading to it, as it is to the farmers who must use them In haul ing their goods to market. There is a vast difference in the farmers of to-day and the farmers of a quarter of a century ago. It is won derful how the improvements brought into existence in a single generation will change conditions. Every inno vation that makes life in the towns more desirable, also finds a way of conferring a benefit upon the farmers. No longer need for the resident of the farm district to not have all the up to-date things that can be found in the finest city homes. The telephone and the rural delivery has brought him within a "stone throw" of the city. Living for the Children. Froobel's sentiment "Come, let us live for our children" rests on a sound philosophic basis. To live for them is to call out the noblest impulses of parenthood. And we cannot live for them in the truset sense until we be come familiar with their needs. It is in the endeavor to meet those needs in the largest way possible that we find our own characters richly recom pensed in strong and well-developed parenthood. We practically become what we are by what we have done or left undone, what we are willing or unwilling to do for our children. The principle is universal, and should find its extension and application among children at all times and in all places. Has not the church lost ground in failing to recognize the primary and fundamental place of the child in so ciety? If so, it is obvious how that lost ground may be recovered. —Homi- letic Review. Anticipating Age. Why do people allow themselves to fret about getting old? There are those who anticipate it and fear it as if it were the most melancholy fate that could befall one, and many of them have never been really young in spirit. And youth is more a matter of spirit than it is of body. Enthusiasm, interest in everything, warmth of heart and breadth of feeling, are the qualities that stand for youth. The Guile of the Greeks. At first the more thoughtful ones regarded the gift suspiciously. Then, taking further thought, they said, ono to the other: "Aw, what's the dif? It's only a near-art. horse, anyhow. Now, if it was ono of those chug-chug wagon;' coming in here to break the speed limit laws we wouldn't stand for .t for a minute." Thus it was, the victim of ovor confidence, that Troy fell. —Puck. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1907. DEADLY GAS Killed Seven Miners in an Abandoned Pit. ALL ARE ITALIANS. The Accident Is Said to Have Been Due to the Ignorance of the Unlucky Workmen. Hazleton, Pa. —Seven mine work ers, all Italians, were killed in an abandoned slope of the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Co. at Honey Brook Thursday by deadly white damp. Three others are missing, but official confirmation as to whether they are | in the mine cannot be secured. Of the dead only the body of James Lavanno, a foreman, has been recov ered from the slope and there is no hope that the other bodies can be se cured soon because of the deadly gases. The accident is said to have been due to the ignorance of the workmen regarding the mine gases. Two of the men had been sent into the slope to I measure water by Foreman Lavanno. j When the men failed to return to the I surface two other men were sent into the mine to assist them. These also | failed to return and two more de scended. Finally Lavanno went into the workings with Frank Bowda, an experienced Inside man. Bowda de tected the white damp and got out safely, but Lavanno refused to leave and perished. James Goldsmith, superintendent; William Goldsmith, a fire boss; Will iam Davis, foreman: Charles Schaar, fire boss, and Philip Harsleft, a pump | man, organized a rescuing party and | went into the slope, but they were ! driven back. Dr. Farrar, of Auden | ried, was finally lowered IGO feet into ! the slope and succeeded in bringing | up the body of Lavanno, though he ; was almost unconscious when he was drawn up from the workings. A STORY Of BRIBERY. Man Who Is Acting as Mayor of San Francisco Tells of Selling His Vote to Telephone Company for $5,000. San Francisco, Cal. —Dr. Charles | Boxton, temporary mayor of San Francisco, on the witness stand j in tlic Glass trial Thursday afternoon ] told the story of his alleged debanch ment by Theodore V. Halsey, indicted ! agent of the Pacific States Telephone j Co., who, Boxton testified, paid him ! $5,000 "mostly in SIOO bills" for hav ing voted and used his influence as a supervisor against the granting of a franchise to the Home Telephone Co., | a rival concern. Adjournment was taken to permit j Boxton to attend "a very important, meeting of the board of supervisors." The first and only important ques- ; tion asked of Boxton in cross-exami- j nation before he was excused brought out the answer that the supervisorial caucus at which a majority of the IS supervisors decided to abandon the Pacific States Telephone Co. by which, according to their confessions to the grand jury, the supervisors had been bribed, and to vote a fran- j chlse to the Home company, was held in the office of Mayor Schmitz on the j Sunday evening preceding February I 20, 1906. A TRAFFIC IN SLAVE GIRLS. Japanese Women are Brought to Pa cific Coast Cities and Sold. Washington, D. C. —A vigorous protest has been received by the gov-' eminent from the Japanese and Kor- j ean Exclusion league, the headquar ters of which is at Seattle, against I what is asserted to be an organized traffic in Japanese women, who, it is alleged, are brought to this country in large numbers for immoral purposes, j The protest declares that wholesale J misrepresentation, perjury and fraud j are perpetrated on the part of immi grants, and perjury and collusion on the part of Japanese residents in this j country. It is stated that the traffic is regularly organized and that wo- j men are brought into the country and j sold into a system of slavery. In connection with the traffic there ; Is said to exist a gang of blackmailers j composed of Japanese who live on the "hush money" collected from the im porters of the Japanese slave girls. It is asserted by the officers of the league that hundreds of these women are scattered among the cities of the northwest and in the logging and min ing camps. Negroes Shoot Two Policemen. Pittsburg, Pa. —In attempting to arrest three negroes who were caught effecting an entrance to the Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad sta tion at East Pittsburg shortly after midnight Policeman Thomas Sullivan was shot dead and Policeman John O'Brien was so seriously wounded that the physicians say he cannot live. A Japanese Spy Is Arrested. San Diego, Cal. A Japanese has been arrested at Fort Rose crans while making drawings of the fort. Maj. Getchell acknowledges that n Japanese was arrested, that he was drawing plans of the fort and that there is a heavy punishment for the offense. Explosion was Fatal to Four. Ketchikan, Alaska. The barge Japan, loaded with explosives, blew up when Hearing Bold Island Wednesday night and four men were killed. A PLUNGE TO DEATH. SIX PEOPLE IN NAPTHA LAUNCH ARE DROWNED IN CONE WANGO RIVER. Boat Was Swept Over a Dam Near Russell, Pa.—Three of the Party Escaped. Jamestown. N. Y. —• Six people were drowned late Friday evening near Russell, Pa., 11 miles south of here. Nine people h'ad taken a gaso line launch on the Conewango river, which was very high owing to recent rains. The boat was swept over a dam and six people drowned. The dead are: Mr. and Mrs. John Best and daugh ter Violet, aged 18, of Warren, Pa. Mrs. George Baker, Warren, Pa. Mrs. Hilda Knox, Warren, Pa. O. F. Butts, a traveling salesman from Philadelphia. A dispatch from Russell, Pa., says that Mr. 'and Mrs. John Best had in vited a company of friends to take supper with them at their cottage on the Conewango river and had come down to the Russell boat landing to meet them. The visitors were in one naphtha launch and Mr. Best and his party in another. The boat containing the visitors be came lodged on a rock pile a short distance above the dam and Mr. Best went to assist them, when the engine in his launch broke and the boat con taining nine persons drifted toward the dam without an oar to stay them. When the boat reached the dam it was drifting broadside and as it went over turned upside down. Six of the nine persons were caught under i£. BUSINESS BULLETIN. Few Complaints of Midsummer Dull ness Are Heard —Retail Trade Is Brisk. New York. —R. G. Dun & Co.'s Weekly Review of Trade says: There is not the customary com plaint of midsummer dullness in gen eral trade channels, while the demand for seasonable fabrics is rapidly de pleting stocks that threatened to be carried over. Brisk retail trade is ac companied by more prompt collections and many cities that were slow to re spond to the better feeling now send satisfactory reports. Jobbers and wholesalers are receiving liberal or ders for fall and winter merchandise, and interior buyers are active in the primary markets. Manufacturing re turns tell of large orders on hand and very heavy production during the first half of the year. Lower prices for pig iron were due to the larger output and more prompt deliveries that reduced the premiums paid for early shipments. Consump tion has not. appreciably diminished, although a few of the steel mills are closed for repairs. Despite some fur naces rendered idle for the same rea son, the total number in blast increas ed six during June. LARGE FINES ARE IMPOSED. Officers of a Steel Company are Mulcted for Failing to Stop Ore Dust Nuisance. Pittsburg, Pa.—A decision of in terest to property owners in tha mill districts was handed down by Judge Young in common pleas court Friday in the suit instituted by the residents of Oakland against the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. to have the company stop the emission of ore dust from its blast furnaces. The court held all the officers of the company to be in contempt for failing to comply with the order to atop the nuisance, and fined B. F. Jones, president of the company, 000, Superintendent Messner, of the Eliza furnace, SIOO, and all the direct ors of the company each SIOO. Judge Young further stated that unless the Company can get a device to do away with the ore dust it must shut down the furnaces. In this case, 10,000 men will be thrown out of employ ment in the Jones & Laughlin Co. alone. An appeal from Judge Young's decision has been taken to the Penn sylvania supreme court. ACQUITTED OF MURDER. Mrs. Bowie and Her Son, Who Killed the Betrayer of Their Daughter and Sister, Go Free. La Plata, Md. —It took the jury in the Bowie murder trial Friday but five minutes to decide that, in southern Maryland at least, the "un written law" is the law to which the seducer must hold himself answer able. And while there was 110 marked demonstration when the verdict be came known, there was sufficient evi dence that the verdict of the jury was the verdict of the people of this sec tion. Both jury and people acquit Mrs. Mary E. Bowie and her son, Henry, of •all blame for meir acknowledged slaying last January of Hubert Posey, the seducer of their daughter and sis ter, Priscilla Bowie, who, with her fatherless child, made a pathetic pic ture in the court room. Four People Drowned. Springfield, Ky. Miss Nellie Nee,- »\us* Mary Comstock, Jacob Pargiew and a negro boy, of this place, wore drowned Friday in Little Beech Fork riv.-r. The young people were out in ■£ rowboat which was swamped. An Embezzler's Sentence. St, Paul, Minn. Philip Kcm plen, formerly paying teller at the Capital national b.i ik, was un Fri day sentenced to four years in prison He pleaded guilty to misappr >priatiot Of $ J5,000. Balcom & Lloyd. ( WE have the best stocked m general store In the county J| and if yon are looking for re- »§ liable goods at reasonable !* prioes, we are ready to serve t| yon with the best to be found. *j Our reputation for ti ust- 3 worthy goods and f&ir dealing "J is too well known to sell any but high grade goods. jl Our stock of Queensware and Ohinaware is selected with 9 great care and we have some nj| of the most handsome dishes P ever shown in this section, both in imported and domestic makes. We invite you to visit B us and look our goods over. S i * i i pj - « | Balcom & Lloyd, j wnwwpowiim'iifw nimur ww ny urn ** <wp ny w wnw n |! LOOK ELSEWHERE BUT DON'T FORGET || THESE PRICES AND FACTS AT I | LaBAPTS || 14 II " I M M £| We carry in stock ~ | £1 £ j the largest line of Car- -, ' pj pets, Linoleums and S HTHTTiT fff] B ' || H Mattings of all kinds ~ hi ever brought to this . 112? town. Also a big line ' afar £2 M of samples. M Avery large line of -FOR .THE |." . gg 55 Lace Curtains that can- ...* . . i?- - H " rhereVAhe p r le auy COMFORTABLE LODGING »j Art Squares and of fine books in a choice library J3 Rugs of all sizes and select the Ideal pattern of Globe- M M kind, from the cheap- Wernicke "Elastic" Bookcase. ffl est to the best. I Furnished with bevel French 1 £ ! M plate or leaded glass doors. I j| j M Dining Chairs, I '°"■" j Rockers and GEO. J. LaBAR, tkjH High ChairS. Bole Agent for Cameron Countj. ku 112 J A large and elegant I—————————_ fa ?? line of Tufted and Drop-head Couches. Beauties and at bargain prices. K 4 ^ ———— |jj| |3O Bedroom Suits, COC |4O Sideboard, quar- ffQfl fcj solid oak at 4>ZO tered cak 4>OU PI S2B Bedroom Suite, tfOI f32 Sideboard, qnar- tfOC £3 If solid oak at 4>Zl tered oak 4>ZJ $26 Bed room Suits, tfOfl |22 Sideboard, quar- CIC *3 M solid oak at 4>ZU I tered oak 4) 10 || M A large line of Dressers from I Cb ffoniers of all kinds and p| *ji $8 up. all prices. fc#' i. . || hg The finest line of Sewing Machines on the market, kg II the "DOMESTIC" and "ELDRILGE.' All drop- {J N™ heads and warranted. *3 A fine line of Dishes, common grade and China, in 112! ** sets and by the piece. k As I keep a full line of everything that goes to pi $| make up a good Furniture store, it is useless to enum- $| M erate them all. £$ Please call and see for yourself that lam telling || you the truth, and if you don't buy, there is 110 harm ££ done, as it is no trouble to show goods. II GEO. J .LaBAR. § TJpaiDEsrs.TAis.iNo. 3
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers