The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1895-03-30


Electricity and Power Are Daily Bought.
and View Has Value In Real Estate.
People Who Sell Their Dead Bodies.
In New York, as in other oreat cit;es
where the fight for life is fiercest, there
Is price for everything-even under
certain conditions for the very air we
breathe Father Time himself is ON sale.
The Western Union Telegraph companv
has desks in the national observatory
in Washington. Four minutes heforo
noon the wires Of the system all over
the United States are cleared Of busi-
ness, and the instant the sun passes the
seventy-fifth meridian electricity car
ries the news to every city. The time
ball falls in New York at noon, in Chi
cago at / a. m, in Omaha at 10 a. m.
and in San Francisco at a. m. in
simultaneous obedience to that single
click from the instrument at Washing
ton.
In all the large cities the Western
Union has supplied business honses.
banks and offices with electric clocks
that respond obediently to the daily
mandate. Each of these rents for S15
per year, and in New York alone over
8, 600 have been put up. Last years
revenue to the telegraph company from
the sale Of time approximated 81. 5OO.-
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. Brooklynites
will recall the discomfort incident to
the breaking of big main not long
since, and the people of Newark cannot
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 well in the Oranges did a
large trade in water. The householders
of Roseville and those even farther
down town watched for the morning
water carts more eagerly than ever a
milkman was awaited and saw suf-
ficient quantity for the day provided be-
fore 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
awhile was the case at Libby prison.
where, before the prisoners organized a
sort of government Of their own, it was
customary for the stronger men to get
as near the windows as they dared and
then sell their places to weaker COM
rades who were gasping for breath. Fire,
of course, in the form Of various COM
bustibles is a recognized 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.
AT church and other sorts of fairs
kisses may sometimes be purchased, the
$ tariff varying according to the purse OF
p the kisser or the charms of the kissee.
5 Reduced gentlewomen often derive reve-
. nue. by chaperoning and introducing to
{ good society the daughters of the newly
4 rich. Invitations to select balls occa-
\ sionally represent a large outlay, and
it probably costs as much to get into the
o swell set as it does to gain seat IL
3 congress. The social aspirant make:
- presents, =" while the political is ''as
j. sessed. -
= Relics, sacred profane and ghastly
\ have their price. Autographs Of famous
u people are always in demand, and bi
> of the rope with which a murderer ha
been hanged is valued by gamblers an'
the superstitious In Paris it is custom
airy, once year, to sell at auction tn
S personal effects of those who have beel
J. executed and this always attracts
+ large crowd of purchasers. Locks o
> hair from the heads of noted beauties o
= celebrated men are marketable.
i Charms, including, of course, tn
r rabbits foot, dear to the African heart
II bring revenue to their cunning devisers
is and astrologers and fortune tellers hav
I clientele respectable in numbers
p Lucky stones and madstones are prize
y by those who believe in their virtues
n Consumptives often pay for the priv
L ilege of drinking fresh blood as 1t pour
N from the necks of butchered animals
', the slaughter house, hoping that tn
sanguine draft may stay the ravages
disease. The big hotels in New Nor
and elsewhere derive some income frol
OIL the sale of unspoiled scraps of food
= the keepers of cheap restaurants, an
10 thus the latter are able to serve the
ne patrons with large bowls of stew at
in maximum price of 10 cents.
ds On the east side of this city sever
ey people exc out a scanty living by wri
st ing letters for the illiterate. Even Il
as four leaved clover may be turned IN
"a coin. A big business is done in sellu
" electricity and steam power, while MAJ
a man in New York is paying n hil
price for sunlight. A view" adds m
'ly terially to the value of a house. Ne
ne York World.