The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1878-04-03

Rose and Frankfort street, on the
site of which is a shackley old brick
house which has occupied its pre-
sent site between sixty and seventy
years. Klock's pretty daughter
Fredrika was the pride Of her
fathers heart, and presided over
his household like a queen. The
knowing ones said that be had
leather bags full of guilders and
Spanish doubloons hid away in the
tannery, which were to be the fair
Fredrika's dover, when her father
could find a man worthy to be her
husband ; but one day she eloped
with an English suitoc, and the
next poor Herminius was found
in the bottom Of one of his own
tan-vats. The ruling passion being
strong in death, heno doubt wished
to illustrate, in his own proper
person, that there is nothing like
leather.
Times have changed since then.
The race that followed stout Her
minus became great and opulent
merchants, some Of the most sub
stantial representatives of the leath-
er trade being found in the Society
OF Friends. Every guild has its
own oracles and saints, and 1t is
not astonishing that names should
be held in afectionate reverence by
the tanners, the owners Of which
have devoted their lives to improv-
ing the soles of their fellow men.
In the narrow circle Of Ealf a
mile is done a business exclusively
in leather amounting to many mil
lions of dollars, and croakers about
our national decline are here met by
stubborn facts which prove con
clusively that every day we are
adding to our substantial elements
of wealth and are growing with a
rapidity that few except those who
make accurate statistics their bust
ness seem to- be aware. In 1870 New
York shipped leather to foreign
ports to the value Of S131, ,37S; the
shipment, though not large, was
disastrous to the shippers, even
that small consignment entailing
serious loss. In II it exceeded a
million and a half, and in IL it had
exceeded that by over two millions
of dollars in 1875 it had reached
the, handsome sum of nearly eight
millions of dollars--being an in
crease of mary hundreds per cent.
in the course of five years. In
England, in 70, we found it difficult
to sell side of American SOLE
leather; and in 1875, OF only five
years later, Great Britain and her
colonies consumed thirty thousand
sides; twenty-five thousand went
to Hamburg, while Antwerp and
Rotterdam took ten thousand more.
Sad are the reflections that press
upon you as you pass through this
Golgotha of horses and dogs, cats,
sheep, and cattle. The pelt Of
ssMarys little lamb" is treated with
no more consideration than the skin
of the fractious dog which the COW
with the crumpled horn sent flying
over the barn on certain memora-
bic occasion. The furry mantllla
of your fa7orite cat and the woody
overcoat of your pet poodle hang
here, like Mohammed's coffin, dang
ling between heaven and earth, IN
stead of enjoying the rites Of a
decent sepulture, Or being rescued
from this infamy by cremation. In a
huge pile Of leather on my left was
the hide of famous race-horse. I
recollect the day very we'll, and that
not long ago, when excited thou
sands roared themselves hoarse as
he came laundering down the home
stretch the winner of thousands OF
dollars, and now his sleek coat re-
tails at fifteen cents a pound, which
is about the price of horse beef in
the shambles of Paris. There is
nothing in the way of a hide that
you cannot find somewhere in the
Swamp-skins fine enough for the
daintiest lady's glove, and hides
from the back Of huge alligators
secured in the lagoons and bayous
| of Florida; walrus and seal skins,
| whose homes are near the pole, lie
cheek by jowl with piles Of hides
gathered under the burning equator
or amid the grand pampas OF
Patagonia. While the buildings have
altered and business has increased,
| II. -... =: ..,,.la L. 1o.a o1,.,oo.o -, III n