Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-15
RURAL INDUSTRIES,
"GATH'S" CHAT ABOUT SOME OF OUR
SMALL MANUFACTURERS.
The Wagonmaker of an Obscure Village.
American Mechanics in Country Towns.
The Peddler, Chicken Merchant, Etc.
Why People Went West.

The Wagonmaker of an Obscure Village.
American Mechanics in Country Towns.
The Peddler, Chicken Merchant, Etc.
Why People Went West.
! was about to say that take an interest
in the small manufacturers of the land, and
ran upon one of these only yesterday at an
obscure village which is about fourteen miles
from any railroad, and at that distance has
three different railroads tantalizingly de
scribing n kind of diamond around it, but not
one drawing any nearer The consequence
has been that the artisans Of that little vii
lage have adhered to the crafts of their fore
fathers. My wife wanted wagon and had
been to this village TO see the wagonmaker's |
assortment, and | drove eleven miles to look
into her selection. There waSa PLAN man
who had lived through all the civil war a |
firm Unionist, had manufactured from his |
youth up the different kinds of riding |
wagons, and was still making them between |
the intervals of his job work Living re-
mote from q railroad, in a country of |
abundant food and wood and leather, he
could afford to make wagon for 20 per
cent. less than city work. His little warehouse
contained ten or twelve new wagons and
one of these which had been transformed had
been driven nineteen years by its purchaser,
who then sold it back again and got new
one. Here, for $50, you could get hand
made wagon quite as cheap as the cheapest
pattern made wagons in the western states.
For $50 you could buy what is called Day
ton wagon with two seats; for so you could
buy tongue made TO order, and according
to the dimensions you might leave, the
tongue being set with all its paraphernalia,
with front and rear. For 81 you could have
brake put on any wagon. OF course the
springs of these wagons are made at different
places, such as Wilmington, Del the wheels
are generally made in the adjacent country,
and sometimes come from the west All the
rest of the machinery, except the iron fix
lures, like the steps, is made on the spot
We are constantly saving that there are no
American mechanics, but We are only talk
ing about the towns In the country towns
of the United States there are Just as many
blacksmiths, wheelwrights, etc, as there
| ever were. These men, working alone and
making all parts of finished product, not
dividing their labor into series of single
| drudgeries, become intelligent and OBJ
servant and keep their eyes upon the manu-
| featuring centers of the country and know
whenever a new spring has come out or if
new patent is better adapted TO their purpose
| than an old one. In this way the old Ger
manic regions of the United States through
eastern Pennsylvania, middle Maryland and
central Virginia keep up their little shops of
all descriptions, and on emergency you
could collect a small army of country me
chanics, every one Of them old in this soil
and stock
Again you will see, about twice week,
through the district I have described, the
chicken merchant come past with his wagon
constructed to put chickens in the body,
turkeys towards the front and other sorts Of
fowl in about the rear. He goes surrounded
with cackling and growing, and his little
game is to forward the said chickens to the
| city market in coops and crates made for that
| end.
About twice a week, also, YOU will see the
| egg and butter man come along in wagon
manufactured for his service. 1t contains a
refrigerator part for the butter and a saw
dust body for the eggs. He buys chiefly
| from the poor, and those who want ready
money, who would otherwise put in their
butter and eggs at the country store in the
wayof bartering, and thus suffer two shaves;
first the shave off their product, and, SEQ
ondly, the shave upon the product they ex-
change for The egg and butter man pays
| rehgiously but cents pound for butter to
the country people who keep a COW or two.
He pays 6 cents a dozen for eggs at nearly
all times of the year. He saves the wayside
a walk of two or three miles to the next vii
lage store. AT the present time eggs are IS
cents dozen at the stores, and therefore
every time the egg man surrounds dozen
eggs he has made 10 cents.
You might not suppose that there were
country potters any more in this region, but
you would be mistaken there. They have an
old pottery at Hagerstown, which is more
than 100 years old, and know of one in an
obscure part of the country which has sup
ported two or three generations of the same
family in respectable independence That is
to say, they may make 500 a year in cash
uDon their pots, jars, etc. The man gets his
clay from some distance, and has little kiln
which you would hardly think to be more
than Dutch oven, and be has small shop
where he sits at his wheel and makes his pots
and jars. Sometimes be delivers them at the
railroad station, and at other times the farm
ers come with their own teams and place the
pots in the straw and take them home to their
wives, who fill the said pots with pickles, pre-
serves, catsup, apple butter, etc. Really our
largest manufacturers have come from these
little beginnings. The majestic works of
this country, which employ 1000 hands, fire.
quently began with a rural blacksmith.
, Not long ago l drove to the only county
seat or court house town in Pennsylv ania
, where it is said the whole county is destitute
| of g oil ba1 20
ain to get into this county, and there lay the
) court house clustered in a beautiful but mar
row valley, with abundant streams. The
whole county was walled in by nature like
some parts of the Alps For fifty years the
S people had conceived that railroads woulC
( have to come to them some day, because
{ they were on one Of the great lines of com
t munication between the east and west Al
. last some of the Pittsburg people united with
the Vanderbilt family to run a railroad
through that region, and spent great dea
, of money in beginning the tunnels and build
: ing the steel towers to cross the chasms, Blu
: the exigencies of many railroads united t.
;. withdraw ali this enterprise just as the con
, summation seemed within reach. The PEG
:. pie there have settled down to the conviction
= that now they will never have any railroad
: whatever
= The result is seen in the moving OF ever
! young man to Kansas, Dakota and the ia
a west The young men stayed around as lonj
:, as there was a chance to work on the railroat
o and enjoy the fruits of its construction
a When they found the matter was knocked il
= the head, so to speak, they packed thei
!. bundles and set Off for the excursion trail
~ which once n week or twice month tn
year through, runs from these old settle
d parts to Kansas and Nebraska You woul
e see in those trains the Dunkers the Unite
IT Brethren, the Lutherans and the Reforme
Brethren taking their lunches frequentl
with them, going to Kansas under the charg
of guide which the railroad company en-
pioys and they perhaps go out and return 70
o. S25 or even less. They look at the new lane
n, figure up on their old farms, and the
!. dispatch son-in-law or son to the new RI
- gion to put in his crop upon those plains an
"a prairles, where no trees are to be cut dow
nor any stones are to be gathered from th
as surface.-George Alfred Townsend in Bosto
d Globe
It Chloride Of lime spread on the soil ne
t plants will protect them from insects or We
Il min. Brushing over the stems of plants wi
" solution of the chloride will keep all inse
- plaques at distance
Coffee pounded in a mortar and roasted
| an iron Al1fn l.