Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-12-31

Autographs of Famous People.
TN New York, as in other great
cities, where the fight for life is
the fiercest, there is a price for
& everything-even, under certain
conditions, for the very air we
breathe. Father Time himself is on
sale. The Western Union Telegraph
Company has desks in the Naval OBJ
servatory in Washington. Four min.
utes before noon the wires of the sys-
tenn all over the United States are
cleared of business, and the instant
the sun passes the seventyfifth mer-
idian electricity carries the news to
every city. The time-ball falls in
New York at noon, in Chicago at ii
q. m, in Omaha at 10 a. IN. and in
San Francisco at q. m, in simultan-
eous obedience to that single click
from the instrument at Washington.
In all the large cities the Western
Union has supplied business houses,
bank and offices with electric clocks,
that respond Immediately to the daily
mandate. Each of these rent for $40
per year, and in New York alone over
5000 have been put up. Last years
revenue to the telegraph company
from the sale of time approximated
81, 500, 900.
Water is sold regularly to the ships
in the harbor and the "water boats"
with big tanks on board, are familiar
objects to all yachtsmen. Brooklyn
ties will recall the discomfit, incident
to the breaking of big main not long
since and the people of Newark can
not forget the annoyance and cost of
Their experience three years ago. The
supply from the Passaic was like mud
soup and, for the time being, the
owners of an artesian we'll in the
Oranges did large trade in water.
The householders of Roseyille, and
those even further downtown, watched
for the morning water carts more
eagerly than ever n milkman was
awaited, and saw q sufficient quantity
for the day provided before taking
train for New York.
Ordinarily there is no sale for air,
but, like water, when man wants it
he wants it mighty bad" This for a
while was the case at Libby Prison,
where, before the prisoners organized
o sort of government of their own, 1t
was customary for the stronger men
to get as near the windows as they
dared and then sell their places to
weaker comrades who were gasping
for breath. Fire, of course, in the
form of various combustibles is rec
ognized commodity.
One frequently hears of those who
suffer from strange and incurable dis.
eases and who make comfortable their
last days by selling their bodies to the
surgeons for dissection.
Reduced gentlewomen often derive
revenue by chaperoning and intro
ducing to good society the daughters
of the newly rich. Invitations to Sc
lect balls occasionally represents a
large outlay, and it probably costs as
much to get into the swell set as il
does to gain seat in Congress. The
social aspirant makes ''presents, >
while the political is assessed"
Relics, sacred, profane and CHASTITY
have their price. Autographs of ia
nous people are always in demand,
and bit of the rope with which o
murderer has been hanged is valued
by gamblers and the superstitious. In
Paris it is customary, once year, to
sell at auction the personal effects OF
those who have been executed, and
this always attracts large crowd OF
purchasers. Locks of hair from the
heads of noted beauties or celebrated
men are marketable.
Charms, including, of course, the
rabbits foot, bring revenue to their
cunning devisers, and astrologers and
fortune-tellers have a clientele re-
spectacle in numbers. Lucky stones
and mad-stones are priced by those
who believe in their virtues.
Consumptives often pay for the
privilege of drinking fresh blood as it
pours from the necks of butchered
animals at the slaughter houses, hop.
ing that the sanguine draught may
stay the ravages of disease. The big
hotels in New York and elsewhere de-
rive some income from the sale of un-
spoiled scraps of food to the keepers
OF cheap restaurants, and thus the
latter are able to serve their patrons
with large bowls of stew at maxi
mum price of ten cents.
On the east side of this city several
people exc out scanty living by
writing letters for the illiterate. Even
the four-leaved clover may be turned
into coin. A big business is done in
selling electricity and steam power,
while many man in New York is
paying a high price for sunlight. A
"view" adds materially to the value
of house. New York World.