The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-18

VI ILLS smhll DUttie mas assured mOue-
tary profit to two, il not three trades
men. When we come to think of it
there must be many others who have
shared in our penny. When examined
in order we find: the bottle; the ink,
black and fluid, and exceedingly pleas
ant for writing; a cork sealed with wax;
printed label, covering slot in the
bottle, in which rests a wooden pen
holder, containing good steel nib.
Thus we have six articles, each one from
a different source, brought together and
retailed for one penny. How can it be
done for the money? Perhaps if we exam
inc still closer, we may get some in
sight into the secret, though to fathom it
completely must necessarily be beyond
us.
The glass of the bottle is Of the cheap
est quality. 1t is evidently made of "cul-
let"-a technical term for broken win
dows, tumblers, bottles, and every de-
scription of fractured glass. The molds
have taxed more than ordinary intelli-
gence. It needs rare mechanical mind
to produce even common bottle mold
The pattern-maker, the iron founder, and
the mechanic who finishes the rough
castings, have all brought their special
tact and knowledge to bear before sin
gle bottle could be produced.
Next, the ink. The "unspeakable Turks"
have stripped their oak trees of the gall
nuts of which all black inks worthy the
name are made; the hardy north country
men on the Tyne have furnished the best
copperas; there are brokers, dealers, and
drysalters, with their clerks, porters, and
the dock lsborers; there are the chemist
who blends the chemicals, and the ink
boilers who have made the ink; there are
the men, boys or girls who pour it into
these small bottles and in other ways
prepare it for sale-every one of whom
has had portion of our penny.
The cork is SO small as almost to escape
notice. Workmen have stripped the
bark from the cork tree, after ten years
growth; other brokers have sold it at
public auction; the skillful cutter has
shaped it with his sharp knife = and all
these have found their reward in por-
ton of our penny.
If the cork was small, what shall be
said of the seal upon it? In this minute
dab of wax we have rosin from America,
shellac from India, pign emit Of color,
and other ingredients known only in the
mystery of wax making These-not for
getting the manipulator's wages-have
all been paid out OF our penny.
The label suggests the paper makers,
and we might go further back to the
type founder and compositor, the printer
and the cutter-out and gluer, each one
participating in our penny.
Now for the pen and the holder. There
is handle Of hard wood, a tip to hold a
pen, and a steel nib. 1t would be hard
to say where the wood came from-prob-
ably from Norway or to conjecture
through how many hands it passed be-
fore reaching the shaping machine, a
beautifully constructed piece of mechan-
ism, that splits and fashions it ir to it's
present polished cylindrical shape. The
tip, or holder has engaged the skill and
intelligence of a tool maker, who has de-
signed cutters to pierce the soft sheet
steel, and other tools to bring it to its
/ proper form = possibly through some
half a-dozen processes in heavy, costly
/ he 90
through many hands before reaching
these artificers, and on leaving, passes
through others to be hardened. The
nib also owes it's existence to tie united
labors of a similar army of workers and
all these, every one, has had portion of
our penny.
Though the portion claimed by each of
the workers concerned in this bottle of
ink must be exceedingly minute. the fact
remains, the penny has paid them all.
at is the quantity that PAYS yet that
which rules a thousand gross, regulates
in its degree the single bottle drawn
from the bulk. How many profits can
our penny have paid? From first to last,
here there, everywhere all over the world,
are the workers, direct and indirect, with.
out whom our penny bottle of ink could
not be. Who shall number them?
The rain is over, the sky is clearing;
let us to the sandsl Stay Take care of
our purchase. Give it place of honor
on the mantel-shelf. 1t deserves some
consideration. Has it not beguiled a
half hour that might have been tedious?
And it may be we. in our turn, have
found one more profit in our penny
| Chambers Journal.