River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-08-09
Facts about Toothpicks.

In this general stagnation, the tooth
pick business is an encouraging example
of branch of industry that has not ma
terially suffered. This IS owing partly
TO the nature of toothpick business, and
partly to the wise management Of those
engaged in it. Toothpicks in this soun-
try can hardly be called luxuries. Our
people are said to he the greatest tooth
pickers in the world. in Europe costly
toothpicks for the rich and titled are
plenty enough, but il was reserved for
America to produce the wooden tooth
picks. The great popularity of wooden
toothpicks is carrying the trade through
the hard times. The great army of lunch
ers has become so accustomed To them
that no keeper Of an eating house would
dare curtail his supply. He would soon
or reduce his force Of walters or hire
cheaper cooks. Toothpick dealers say
that their business has never been bet
ter.
There are two reasons for the popular
ity of toothpicks among US, growing out
of their double use. Primarily they are
for picking the teeth, and a careless OBJ
server might conclude that they have no
other use. But let him stand near the
entrance of a restaurant for few minutes
in dinner hours, and be will soon be con-
WINGED of his mistake. lie will see the
well-filled customers sauntering out, each
with his toothpick, and for every one who
is picking his teeth he will see five who
are chewing their toothpicks, The reason
may be that this affords a convenient way
of bringing the jaws gradually to rest
without the shock of a sudden stoppage.
The gentler mastication of the yielding
toothpick is a pleasant decline from the
furious motion of eating as practised III
our eating houses. 1t also assists in pla-
cid meditation. This may be seen by any
one who viii observe the measured tread
of the confirmed toothpick chewer when
he is engaged in his favorite exercise.
With this explanation of the secondary,
and ret perhaps most popular, use OF
wooden t0othpicks, il is easy 10 see why
the toothpick trade pre- sents bold front
TO the hard times. y OGDEN toothpicks
have not varied much in price. The live.
" competition among tile manufacturers,
who are mostly New Englanders, has
always kept the price down TO the lowest
point-from one cent to two cents hun
dred and even less. The vulnerable
point in the trade is in the costlier kinds
of goods, and there the hard times might
have struck a serious blow but for the
shrewd foresight of the dealers. When
the depression began they let their prices
for fancy tocthpicks drop so, so, and in
some cases even IS per cent, This, Of
course, changed the whole face of the
trade. The swells who had gloried in the
exclusiveness, of their costly toothpicks
suddenly saw them brought within the
reach of men Of moderate means. They
were driven, in defence Of their exclusive
ness, to buy still costlier toothpicks,
while there was q great rush for the 9TH
ers. Thus the trade gained in two OPP
posite directions, and the increase in tue
demand more than made up for the de-
crease in price. \ fancy tcothpick can
now be bought of a street vender for or
10 cents, which formerly would have cost
Is or % cents OF course this business
strategy, although now very successful,
would In the end be damaging to the
dealers, should the hard times continue
long enough to throw them back upon
mushroom trade which it has produced
for their sole dependence. No money
can be made out of fancy toothpicks at
such prices, and the object unquestionably
Is to create a briskness in the trade which
will tide il over the hard times then the
prices may be made remunerative again
In other words, everything else is aban-
doncd for the sake OF securing an inertia
of motion in the trade which shall carry
il through the depression. This does not
apply to the trade in wooden toothpicks,
however: that needs no strategy.