The Forrest City times., 1896-07-03
EXPERTS IGNORE FACTORIES
Finest Swiss Watches Are Made in Little
 Cottages.

 Finest Swiss Watches Are Made in Little
 Cottages.
 It IS most interesting to c 'mpare ihc different methods by means cf which the highest grade of mechanical perfcc. iion is attained in varioas countries, Notwithstanding the high character of American watches, for example. the finest Swiss watches still maintain their great reputation. The Swiss workman receives the parts fiom the manufactur- CT Tn the rough, takes them to his home, puts his bes. individual skill into the finishing and assembling, and brings the completed watches to his em- ployer. The latter inspects the wo,k k. and out of batch of. say, 50 watches. he selects five or six as worthy of his own attention and puts the others into his regular trade under some general trade name. The selected watches he readJusts, working them over for days, weeks, and months, before he considers them worthy to bear his own name, and II is these watches which go to those who not only have the money to buy. but also the patience to wait.
 A prominen. 6rm of American jewell CTS, chafng unner the inconveniences of this old world method of doing things, sought to introduce American methods, and see If the highest grade of Swiss watches could not be made more me- medically. A factory was built, en. ticing rates of wages were offered to the most skillful workmen, and the. eA- pertinent was tried. But, alas! The Swiss workman soon found that no regular wages could pay him for his loss of liberty. To be on hand when the whistle blew in the morning. to have his stated hour for dinner, and his fixed hour for quitting at night-these re- strictions he could not long stand. Formerly he had worked when he felt l like it and stopped when it pleased him. and when he was paid for one job he took his time to begin the next. general | ly waiting until his funds ran low. The factory plan did not work for long, and the idle building now bears silent testi- mony to the Swiss love for independ- | ence, which is as much factor in pres ent life as it has been in past history.
 The fact that much of the work of the | makers is done in this primitive manner | does not in the least detract from it's | high quality but rather adds to it's per lection by embodying in each article the individual skill of the workman. The writer desired to procure one of the | famous Goldschmidt aneroid baromet- | CTS, and only after some difficulty and many inquiries did he succeed in find | ing the whereabouts of the maker at all. At last he was directed to the quaint street in the quarter of the city of Zurich known as the "Trittligasse" (tha street of the little steps). There he found gate in wall bearing the de- sired number, but no name or sign of any description to indicate what was within. Knocking to obtain admission, he was finally let into a garden, over another wall and up picturesque set of steps, and ushered into little room in which was work of the finest descrip- tion.
 A few men and boys, a couple of women-this was the working force. but here were products which surpassed the finest instruments of any he had ever seen. Each article was shown and handled as if it had been personal pct, hardly to be parted with. and it was in- deed interesting to see how every instrument was calibered and tested and recorded in a manner which couid not but prove that for such work in- dividualsm had it's advantages over col | lectivism. The articles were indeed manufactured" in the true etymologlc- al sense of the term, hand made" and head made, too, for that matter, and all !nis in little out-building accessible only after diligent search and many misadventures.-Ca -Cassier's Magazine.