Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1881-02-15
From the the New York Sunday sun.
SLEDS AND SLEIGHS.
THE DEMAND FOR THKM LARGER THAN
EVER KNOWN BEroRE-WHERE THEY
ARE MADE.

TIE DEMAND FOR THEA LARGER THAN
EVER KNOWN BEroRE.-WHERE THEY
ARE MADE.
Sleds have been in demand this winter,
and rarely have as many been sold. 10
day one Of the scarcest articles In the toy
market Is sled. Jobbers, wholesale deai'
ers, and retailers have sold out their stock,
and the factories cannot furnish them with
more. The cause OF this good trade Is the
early and continued snow. Messrs. Ly-
man { Curtss OF 20 Murray street handle
probably more sleds than auy other hrIn
In the city, aud are qualified to speak on
the important subject. Last year was
not good year for the sled business,
said Mr.. Curtis "There was little snow,
and that came late In the year. This year
il Is Just the contrary; the snow came
early aud kept coming, and, as conse-
quence, the sales have been very large.
You remember there was quite n fall oil
snow on Thanksgiving Day. The next
day we sold 1000 sleds right here In the
store don't mean at retail. we sell
only at wholesale. We could have sold
more if we had had them. We ordered
more immediately by telegraph, and on tue
Monday following received from the
factories G,000 sleds. In week every
one was gone. Quick work, wasn't II! III
has been so ever since. We have proba-
bly, handled 20, 900 sleds this season, and
haven't dozen in the store to-day, and we
can't get them
ADO you manufacturer
"No. Most of the sleds used In this
State. in New Jersey. and In Pennsylvania
are made in New England. one OF the
largest manufactures Is the Paris hlii
Manufacturing Co, at Paris Hill, Me
They turn out thousands of sleds each
year. winton OF Binghamton makes large
" for the Philadelphia market. There Is
big factory at Jordan in this State, and an
other at Seneca Falls. These factories
make wagons rs well. aud some other
things of that sort In July aud August
they begin making stock for the following
winter, and they make right up To Chrlst-
mas, and after that no sledS are made, eN-
cept, perhaps, n special ORDER; Tor then
they begin making wagons for the spring
trade. This year the market was some
what affected by a large order from San
Francisco. one house Their ordered s,oVO
sleds. They were made early In the sea
son and shipped by sailing vessel, went
around the Horn, and reached San iran
sIsco early in the fall. That transaction
had n tendency TO advance prices some
what"
at Is reported that Philadelphia has
been having a corner In slcds, or rather
feeling the effects OF one i that true:
"In n measure The two last winters
made retailers rather careful about order
inc. The scarcity OF snow and small de-
mand made dealers cautious about carry
inn a large stock. SO when ;he snow came,
and with IL the great demand, they were
unprepared Tor the rush. They tried TO
get sleds from the factories then, but II
was too late 10 order, and the makers put
prices up on them, and dealers IN Plhla-
delphia have been forced to pay double
prices. We have had letter after letter
from them asking Vs. 10 send them sleds,
out we had all we could do to supply our
regular customers.
lis Il usual To send slcds 20 the far West
and Northwest
NO. IL can't be done nj n profit. The
railroads charge at least double rates for
freight because they are light aud very
bulky, so that II don't pay To send them.
We rarely send further West than ONO.
but we ship 10 New England and all
through PENNSYLVANIA and Jersey. This
winter there has been an unprecedented
demand for sleds IN Washington and Balti-
more. especially In Washington. The peo-
ple seem to have gone fairly crazy over the
unusual snow, aud dealers have sent 10 Us
begging " 10 send than anything IN the
shape OF sled that We could get, so we
scrapcd together everything we could IND
and sent them along. We have sent Sleds
A. far South A. Richmond, Va, this win
ter. No: we do not send into Canada
The duty OF IS per cent makes 1t unprouta-
BILE Were II not for that, slcds would 60
into Canada In large numbers. Boston l.
a great sled centre. 80 Is Albany. DO
we export sledsl We have. Two years
ago we sent an invoice To Sweden. IL was
the only order OF the Kind | know Of
am not AT all certain that there i not good
| business yet To- be done In exporting sleds
I 10 Europe We send them wagons, wheel
barrows, aud the like; why not sleds!'
How about styles In sleds' DO they
change much
Not much. You'll see the small boy
/ orto.day riding on much the same style OF
sled on which you rode when you were n
small boy. There are two general and
distinct styles, clippers and frame sleds.
/ The former are the boys slcds above all
J others, and particularly the city boys.
/ They are long, low sleds, the runners made
OF a solid piece OF lumber, aud Shod with
stout iron or stce. shoes. They will stand
| almost any sort OF abuse, bear all the
weight you can pile on them, and run very
| fast over ice aud frozen snow. One OF our
men put l010 pounds on Paris Hin oak
| clipper the other day aud never hudSed 1t.
| A loaded coal cart went over one or them
| the other day and the sled came out all
right In the country where the snow Is
deeper the boys prefer a post or frame sled
| They are made OF different woods, pine,
wildwood, spruce, ash, hickory, aud oak.
Some OF them will last about twenty-four
hours, others lifetime. Cheap sledS are
painted gaudily and goFgeol-iy, The best
| s.eds are simpiy vanished over the natural
wood and striped, perhaps. Girl, invari-
ably prefer the frame sled, which is higher
than the clipper, aud usually lighter An
excellent sled Is the bent knee sled, made
almost exactly like cg,te;, and very pref
" and durable Then there are baby sleds,
made like a cutter, upholstered, with
handles behind TO push them by. Pricess
They vary all they way from $500
dozen to Sc. so apiece. These are manu-
facturers prices, and refer particularly 10
the Paris Hill sleds. There are some
cheaper"
ny,rr.py -niel nj Rrockton Mass