Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-08
A GLASS EXPOSITION.
The COuntry'S Crystal Com.
merce Comes to Pittsburg
FOR ITS PROMISING DEALS.
Our Glass City Attracts Hundreds of
Live Competitors, in
LINES NOT MANUFACTURED HERE.
The Pottery Trust is FrOwned Upon by ALI
the Drummers.
LINES NOT MANUFACTURED HERE.
WHY THE PRICE-RAISERS MAY FAIL

From to-day on, for month or six weeks,
the Monongahela House will be transferred
into National Glass Exchange, represent
ing the glass industry of nearly every
factory in the United States outside Of
Pittsburg that makes household articles.
For the past few days box upon box and
barrel after barrel have found their way to
the hotel from all parts of the country, con-
signed to different drummers for the
factories they represent; and the drummers
will all be here by to-day or tomorrow.
Eleven of them were registered yesterday,
and the number will be more than doubled
by the time named All the large spare
rooms in the house are being transformed
into sample rooms, and the goods will be dis
played Cd tables. Only two or three had
unpacked their goods yesterday, and these
goods were on tables, with the usual black
velvet as background, and in some cases
with mirrors behind them.
1t is expected that between 300 and 400
representatives of wholesale and retail firms,
from Maine to California, will visit the city
during the time the Exchange is in session,
and will buy either from some of the firms
represented at the Monongahela House, or OF
Pittsburg firms In the next six weeks the
Pittsburg firms will be pitted against the
rest of the United States for supremacy In
new designs and patronage.
A PRoMIsING OUTLOOK.
The drummers say the prospects are very
bright this year, and that the annual Ex-
change will represent more firms than ever
before, and surpass all previous years in the
display made. The men in charge of their
factories have made an effort to turn out the
''best there is going" and they are to
make a bold dash for the trade,
and say: "Pittsburg is not the
only place That makes glass!" Looking
over what stock was displayed IN different
lines, it would seem that the United States
has no need to call on England, or any
other country, for anything at all in the
glass line. The samples OF cut.glass were
very beautiful and of superior shapes and
finish, and the manufacturers claim their
cut ware comes up to anything England can
turn out Some of the articles come high;
a large bowl, for instance, was priced at $50.
The drummers report the prospects very
bright in all lines. A representative of a
Trenton pottery house says prices are about
the same as last year, and, from lettels he
had received from customers, the demand
was good.
The samples of decorative ware, in both
glass and pottery, are very fine. The drum
mer of the pottery firm mentioned above
said the demand for decorated ware was in
creasing all the time, and that more ware
OF that kind had been sold since January
than ever before by a large percentage.
CoRNED, IF NOT CoRNERED.
A new line of decorated glassware will to-
morrow be placed for the first time on the
market. 1t is called "Maize ware, and is
in the shape of ears of corn, the pieces in
cluding pitchers, glasses, mugs, individual
salts, fruit dishes, etc. The color of the
corn and the green leaves of the husks are
beautifully brought out and form a novelty
in glass.
The drummers to be present will repre-
sent over 81, 500, 900 of capital, and some of
their displays are to be very costly. One
little exhibit alone is valued at over 81, 900.
In the more common wares the value of the
samples will be slight.
The display of pottery will not be as
large as that of glass. The drummers were
all of opinion that pottery trust would be
eventually formed; bat the agents in that
line are making strong objections, as.
under the proposed method of running
things, the trust would do away
with all but possibly four travelling agents,
BY reason of the pooling. Another reason
why it has failed to materialize is because
the directors selected by the Trenton firms
did not suit some of the other firms. Moth
ing further will be done in the matter until
July 25, when, it is thought, all animosities
will have died out and the potters will be
ready to take hold and pull together.
A serious question has already come up
to thwart the proposed trust in the matter
of raising prices too high. If they advance
the charges enough to let the manufacturers
in England sell at profit above the duty,
they will be beaten at their own game.