Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-14
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
Cotton Thread In Watch Works-squeezing
Water Out of Prescriptions and Drug
gists' Profits-And Other Notes of the

water Out OF Prescriptions and Drug
gists' Profifs-And Other Notes of the
Day.
1T is astonishing how much abuse watch
will stand at q boys hands before it stops short
like grandfather's clock, never to go again.
On his last birthday, a month or two ago q
youngster in knickerbockers who lives in the
East End received from his father silver
watch, the price of which, it is safe to say, did
not exceed sl5 1t will not surprise you to hear
that the boy took the watch to pieces after it
had burned in his pocket but three days. When
every wheel lay in his hand the boy naturally
fell to thinking how he might put the watch in
running order again. lie must be something Of
a mechanical genius, for he succeed in get
ting the dismembered works inside the case in
some sort of shape. 1t is hardly reflection
upon the boys skill, either, that after the
mechanism was put together IL failed to re-
spond to the winding stem. But the boy perse-
vered. He detected the root of the trouble in
| the balance wheel, which seemed to interfere
with other parts of the setting. So at the bal
ance wheel he tinkered, until to his unfeigned
astonishment after he had lacked up the wheel
with bandage of cotton thread, the watch be-
gan to tick again.
And now that boy delights to show his friends
the works of his watch with the lisameht of cot
ton, rattling off the hours with perfect accur acy
and cheerfulness.
MOST of you know that aqua purd is often
an expensive item in the prescription which
the druggist obligingly fills. A doctor of my
acquaintance has way of saving his patients
money in this matter, which strikes me as very
original.
rfr,ff for, A..
other day remarked to him that medicine was
a very expensive luxury. He astonished me
by asking in return: Have you paid your
water taxi"
YES" said l.
/ Have you plenty of water"
''Yes"
''Then will give you the prescription dry,
and it will cost you cents instead of rs cents"
And 1 found the doctor was right.
In this part of the world the railroads do
not advertise themselves in the prodigaI man.
ner of Western roads. The mass of literature
aoated by the railroads which have their head
quarters in Chicago is something prodigious
In books, circulars, almanacs, pamphlets, leaf
let's picture cards and in numberless other and
often eccentric forms Western railroad will
often spend tens and even hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars year in advertising the advan-
tages of their lines. Some of these advertising
works possess artistic value and contain some
literary merit. A few Eastern railroads, and
notably the Baltimore and Ohio, have until re-
Gently exploited themselves in the same way:
The value of a great deal of this extraordi
nary putting cannot be put at a high figure.
The literary quality of most of the handbooks
issued by the Chicago railroad bureaus is low.
and Western men generally take them at their
proper value.
1t is seldom that such an entertaining and
really instructive little book is published by a
railroad as that recently sent out in the interest
of the Pennsylvania lines. 1t Is really a valua.
BILE book of reference, with Its wonderfully
plain and clear maps of a dozen of the chief
cities In the Union-including Pittsburg-and
its data about hotels cab fares and the like.
Mr.. L. G. Mcpherson, of the Pennsylvania
Company's passenger department. who is the
author of the work-and who is, by the way,
well known in Pittsburg, where he has been
stationed for soma years-certainly may feel
that many men besides travellers on the Penn
sylvania will be grateful to him.
50
AS was foretold in this column some weeks
ago Mr.. Andrew Carnegie has returned to take
very active part in the arrangement Of his
vast business interests in this city. What
grateful sight the nearly completed library in
Allegheny must be to Mr. Carnegie's eyes!
The building has already done for Allegheny
City what the new Court House did for Pitts
burg, transformed the unsightliest spot in its
very heart into the most beautiful. But the
poor old City Hall of Allegheny looks meaner
than ever beside its handsome neighbor.
x.< r..
A GERMAN-AMERIcAN citizen whose heart |
is still tied by natural though not political ties
to the Fatherland said to me yesterday: II
never thought for a moment that America and |
Germany would come to blows. but neverthe- |
less the latest news from Berlin makes me |
tremble for the future of my native land. The |
irritable temper and martial proclivities of the
young Kaiser and the decay of Bismarck's |
mind under the pressure of disease and the as |
saults of his political foes, do not promise a |
long continuance of peace and unity in the |
German empire"