The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1869-12-31
THE pARsEE LETTERS.
No. %.
10 Horace Greetcy:


blessed with gas for nearly six years.
1t appeared at first u great novelty.
As n Parsee and fre-worshippcr, I,
like MI my sect, do not admire the
introduction of the sacred flame which
80 gracefully burns, rs it seems on
nothing. But that does not prevent
quite trade in bronze chandeliers.
One of our Bombay customers,
whose name is A13tichund, q very
sprite Hindoo, got somehow the priv
ilege from the gas company of sup
plying the gas chandeliers. He does
quite lively business, and our house
imports all the chandeliers for Aryti-
ehmd. | myself selected some 800
worth for him, from Saunders, OF
Broad street, Birmingham. / never
did admire either tho French or Ger
man chandeliers much even in glass,
they are beaten by the English.
The very first night / entered my
hotel IN New York | was struck with
tho beauty and simplicity of the
American gas chandelier. / ut first
really believed them to be s0ld bronze,
until / tested with my stick the sound
on one of the arms, and found it to be
hollow.
was anxious to gladden. Aryti-
ehund's heart with n shipment of
them. and 10 introduce in Bombay a
simple, graceful article.
/ had no difficulty in finding several
large manufacturers Of chandeliers in
New York.
was delighted, as indeed I always
am, with the charming articles Of your
Yankee manufactures. Even chan
delicrs, an article so essentially French
in design and English in detail, I
found we're improved by American
practical good sense. The clumsy
weights for sliding n chandelier mp
aud down are discarded by yonr man
ufacturers and even the complicated
and severe beauty Of the French de-
sign is 50 treated with simplicity that,
while all the expensive and objection
able auperhuity is dispensed with, all
the parts stand out III relief to please
the eye.
Wen. / was ready 10 operate in
chandeliers. but, alas, it was dclu-
sion. The plice was enormous. /
really. III my rambles for goods, feel
very much ike that enchanted student
III Faust-I mean the opera-who no
sooner touches flower but that at
once ii fades. /, too, no sooner ask
tho price OF an article than Mt once
the bright vision of possessing it fades.
- Sahib. said /, do you never make,
or have d desire 10 make, chandeliers
for foreign country p
Sir said the chandelier sahib.
g aua New Yorker, and my father
before me was a New Yorker. We
have commerce and trade III this great
city. Il ii possible that the inhab-
itants of this glorious island, resem-
bling as it does the noblest ship ere
ated, not by man s hands but By.
Proyidence-is it likely, I say, that
we would not strain with all our
might to trade with foreign lands ?"
:" Well, then" 1 said, "my enthusi-
astic sahib, you cannot make bronze
chandeliers cheap enough for export.
IL know We cannot, said the chan
delier sahib Indeed, We do not
even make half enough for our own
people, who have enough to do to buy
clothes for their families. and dispense
With work like ours. :"
Where does the difficulty lie, in
quired I?
Where else, said he, "but in our
heavy taxation? Where else but in
the tariff? If I buy copper to make
bronze. i find the tariff to oppress ne;
if / buy iron, zinc, or spelter, to melt
with the copper, I find the tariff to
oppress me; if buy brass wire to
make the chain ornaments on the
chandelier, ] find the tariff to oppress
me-
"My workmen, who are mostly
skilled hands, / have to pay double
the wages that are paid BY the Bir-
mingham manufacturer, and they find
the same oppression / have named
above, in the tailor store, in the dry
goods store, in the grocery store, in
the shoe store, in the crockery store,
in the glass store-in fact they find
the oppression everywhere, and cannot
live with the high wages I pay them,
which will purchase for them SO very
little.
How very unsatisfactory, said J..
eyes" +" cried he, '.but the greatest
mockery is that / am actually pro-
tected to death. / have o protection
of 45 per cent. on my chandeliers, but
I don't want it. l know that our
style, taste, and ingenuity is enough
to keep out all foreign chandeliers, if
we could have our materials at the
worlds value, and not at the value of
what metal manufacturers are pleased
to demand for it (; and if my workmen
could buy their necessaries CORES
pondingly cheap, SO if we gave them
lower wages they would still be able
to buy more for their earnings than
they do now.
THAT is all I want, sahib,' I said
" have heard something similar from
other manufacturers. 1t appears to
me, stranger as / am in your country,
and stranger as | am to your institu-
tons, that the remedy is in your
own hands. You are free people,
and you have q free press. Why don't
you speak out? Why don't You lay
your distress before Congress, and
demand your rights
My friend, said the chandelier
sahib, who is a New Yorker, and
whose father was o New Yorker before
him, and who lives on the noblest
vessel, specially created by Providence
for him to live on, /" truly believe