The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-11-24
Graye.Yards as Gold Mines.

"There are about 1900 dentists in
the United States and they pack into
the teeth of the American people ton of
pure gold every year. l guess about five
times that weight of less precious met
al, such as tin, silver and platinum, 90
the. same way. Now, these metals are
worth S1,000,000, and in the twenty
first century all the coin in the United
States will be buried in the grave
yards. The dentist looked distressed
at the result of his calculations, and the
reporter, to revive him, suggested that
the figures were an argument in favor
of cremation. The dentist shrugged
his shoulders. "Yes," said he, "but
you've no idea how the gold is thus be-
coming used up. People used to be
content with filling the dark caverns
OF their molars with any kind of metal,
now it must be gold. There is also a
growing industry in filing artificial
teeth. p"
''How can they want filing ?' asked
the surprised reporter.
why, my dear sir, they are made
so. You know how carpenters will
pick the fairest, smCothest board for
interior work in house and will then
have painter to daub it all over with
knots, cross-grains and splits ? So the
modern patron of artificial teeth takes
his elegant new set to the dentist and
has him drill out vacancies to fill.
Looks natural, don't you see Hun
dreds of pounds of gold are disposed
ofin this way every year. 1t isn't so par
ticularly the gold that the wearer of
these artificial teeth wants to display as
1t IS to have the average citizen look
upon them as his natural grinders.
You see, don't you? ?" and the dentist
tapped his own false teeth with q little
probe that he held in his hand.
els the artificial teeth industry
growing one?" inquired the reporter.
80, yes; although statistics show
that only one-third of the people of the
United States who really need artificial
teeth avail themselves of them.
Strange, isn't it? Yet there are about
100000 of them made in this country
a year, as it is. Prices have come down
terribly, though, and where dentists
used to retire after eight or nine wears
of practice and live in luxury the rest
of their lives, they now have to struggle
Nh oliO DCou VI UnCll lives tIui UIlGH ul6
poor. We formerly had from $40 to
500 for double set of teeth. Now
$50 is good price, and good ones that
will last five or six years can be bought
for from s. to S16.'
SIS the decay of teeth increasing or
diminishing among the people of this
country"
go, increasing. Two hundred years
ago one person in five had sound teeth.
A hundred years ago but one person in
twenty-five had perfect teeth, and in
this nineteenth century age of reform
our very latest statistics show that but
one person in eighty had perfectly sound
teeth. It's an alarming condition of
things, and by the same ratio it doesn't
take a very deep mathematician to see
that the time is near at hand when I'M
sound teeth will be universal. Their
decay is largely augmented by the use
of cheap dentifrices and powders which
are advertised to give them pearly
look. 1t does just the reverse. 1t re-
moves the sparkling enamel and puts
in its place ghastly plaster-o paris
color that is positively repulsive. -
Cleveland Herald.