Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-10
A Lull on the Surface, but a Great
Deal Going on Down Below.
VALUES ARE STABLE AS A ROCK.
Conservative Methods of Investors Safe.
guard Against Reaction.
HOW THE LITTLE BROWN JUG is MADE

Of the spring and summer have sunk to
| gentle murmur There is lull. What
does it signify?
Real estate, like every other commodity
that is bought and sold, is subject to spells
of activity and depression. 1t would be
unreasonable to expect it to be forever on
the jump. The iron trade is dull at times.
1t has just recovered from long period of
inaction. Every other interest has Its ups
and downs. Real estate is not an excep-
tion. 1t has been remarkably buoyant for
year or two. A brief respite from the
feverish activity of the past will do it good.
1t will give investors time to look over the
field and mature their plans for the winter and
spring campaign. The battle is not over.
There is only lull-calm on the surface but
restless beneath.
The cautious manner in which investors are
proceeding shows that they want to look before
they leap. This is full guarantee against
reaction. 1t would be easy to start boom. A
few capitalists coald combine and start
speculative craze that would rival or surpass
that of 1873, which ruined hundreds. But this
is not their object. They see in real estate
good opportunity for investment, and they are
treating it on business principles, so as to main
tain values and allow enhancement to keep pace
with the increased demand. This insures
permanent and stable market 1t eliminates
the element of uncertainty, and gives conf
dence to buyers. A great deal of the land that
Las been handled the past year has passed into
the possession of people who have put up
houses on it, in which they are living. 1t is out
of the market. This is an additional element of
strength and activity.
There is great deal of desirable land for
sale in the city and suburbs and the demand
for it is increasing with the rapid growth of
population. But prices while firm. show very
little disposition to advance, except in special
cases, where property is exceptionally well
located for business or residence purposes, or
is wanted to round out other parcels, or to
maintain the uniformity of nelghborhood, as
at Boulevard Place, Benvenue, Oakland and
few other places. The bulk of the property on
the market is held at about the same figures as
were demanded year ago. There has been no
imitation.
From the foregoing hasty survey Of the situ-
alton it will be seen that the market for realty
is in healthy condition; that there is no boom
but good demand. giving promise of a brisk
Idll huu HlHbcT UuelucSb, duQ Ludb NdludklOuo
are holding their own, with no indications of a
reaction. but, on the contrary, with slightly |
hardening tendency. This is a good time to
buy. Land will be worth more and bring more |
a year hence.
The manufacture of pottery is a large and |
growing industry in this country its strong |
holds being East Liverpool, O., Trenton. n. j., |
and Nashville, Tenn, where it has only quite |
recently been introduced. The capital invested |
in this business in the United States is about |
sS,OOO 600 Twenty or 80 years ago only the
coarser articles of pottery we're produced in
this country. Now the product is equal in
quality and originality OF design to almost any
imported.
The process of manufacture is interesting
1t differs slightly, as each manufacturer has a
method of his own in working out details but
in the main they all operate on the same gen.
eral lines. The crude clay is put into large
tank with water sufficient to work it. and is
thoroughly mixed and crushed by arms at
tached to a vertical shaft driven by steam
From this tank it passes in liquid form through
fine wire screen, called a 'laun." This screen
has 80 meshes to the inch and a rapid oscillat-
ing motion. 1t is next pumped (by means of
jet pump to large vats in the second story.
where it is cooked" by steam pipes until the
water is driven out and it assumes proper
consistency for working. 1t is then ready for
shaping into any desired form.
Everybody is familiar with the appearance
and uses of "The little brown Jug" 1t is made
in four pieces. A suitable amount of material
is clApped into revolving mold which forms
the outside bottom half of the jug. The inside
is formed by kind of a wooden paddle at
tacbed to a movable horizontal lever. The up
per part is formed in the same manner in a
different mold, fitted to the bottom and welded
by a wet sponge held on the inside of the re-
volving vessel. The mouth is formed in a sepa-
rate mold and attached in the same manner ex-
cept it is welded" on the outside. The handle
is then put on and the vessels set short boards
in series Of large racks to dry few days be-
fore being fred. The firing is done in large brick
furnaces of the style called "up-draft," much
more costly arrangement than the ordinary
open furnace The vessels after being dipped
in the glazing mixture and having the same
"squirted'' into the inside by a steam jet, are
placed in "saggers," an oblong flask made of
the same material and shaped like cook stove
boiler, and of sizes to hold two pieces each.
These 'saggers" are placed in the furnace, one
on top of another, and made air-tight by a
joint of clay. When the furnace is full the door
is sealed up and the firing begins, slowly at
first and gradually increased for SO to 72 hours
according TO the kind of ware The furnace
doors are then Theoretically sealed with fire
bricks and bats cemented with mortar made of
the coarse clay from the screen or 'laun," and
in four or five days is ready to be drawn"
Other wares are produced in the same way.
with variations as to firing and length of time
they are left in the furnace. Of course the
finer the ware the greater the skill and care
required in its manufacture Some of the
olo IN fha bav | ,
years been discovered in Tennessee, Missouri. :
Indiana and two or three other States.
There is matter for reflection in the following
remarks of a writer in House Painting: .sThe
author of the Bread Winners describes the
secret anger of carpenter who was not spoken
TO- or even noticed by the rich man in whose
library he was working. The employer in this
ease was not purse-proud man; he had in
nerited his wealth, he had been a soldier in the
war for the Union, he had devoted his life to
The benefit of his fellow-men, he meant no dis
respect. but he supposed that there was nothing
n common between the mechanic and himself.
If clerk had entered the same room who (
worked perhaps for less than half the wages !
he carpenter earned he would have met with
courteous reception, as it would have been 1
assumed that he was an educated man.
''This is supposititious case, but ask if it is
IN exaggerated one? In looking backover your :
,wn lives-if you, as some of you probably did /
your life's work when you were !
ads-I think it will be found that ycu were ad-
vanced to be foremen, that you struck out for I
yourselves as master mechanics, not only be- .
ause you may have been good workmen, but
lso because your parents gave you good edu-
alton. If you respect your own calling, if you
vish others to respect it, remember that the
american mechanic needs to be an educated