Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-01-27
FEW SHIP CHAMBERS LEFT.
New Methods and Steamships Play Havoc
With an Interesting Trade.

New Methods and Steamships Play Havoc
With an Interesting Trade.
In the old days when great square
rugged ships prevailed ship chan
oilers used to be very important fac
tors in maritime business. But since
steamships have become SO numer-
Gus and fewer sailing vessels Of huge
tonnage ply the main the trade of
ship chandlery has diminished in
proportion. While many establish
ments devoted to the furnishing of
stores to ships still exist along the
East river front, the greater part of
those known in the times gone by
have been swallowed up in other
branches of trade.
But those of the old ship chandlery
stores that remain are very interest
ing. The flavor of -bygone years
clings to them still, and it verify
seems as if many of them have not
changed in aspect since the time of
their prosperity Most of the stores
that still exist are like the London
shops that Cruikshank loved to
draw and which Dickens described.
The buildings which the ship
chambers occupy near the water
front were in the halcyon days used
as dwelling houses by merchants.
Nearly all have sloping roofs and
are marked by the dinginess of de-
cay. A visitor entering one of these
stores, and looking bewildered at
the endless array of almost every
article of commerce under the sun
displayed in apparently inextricable
confusion, is bound to exclaim:
why there's nothing that man
can't get here!"
"Yes, we can supply anything for
a Ship" is the answer that the
ohandler's assistant is likely to
make.
Hung about the store one sees
cordage and rigging, anchors, pots,
harpoons, sailcloth, capstan bars,
hooks, blocks, hams, sausages and
SO on in interminable array. The
chandleries are like nothing else SO
much as country stores, where all
the needs of a community are sup
piled. But custom clings close, and
as long as sailing vessels tack to
and fro on the surface of the waters
is it likely that the old ship chan
oilers will minister to their wants.
The chandleries to be seen along
the water front invariably have low
ceilings and dust and cobwebs are
thick upon many of them. The win
dows admit but little light. The
clerks of the chambers, most of
them, seem as old as the stores
themselves-men who have seen
the revolution in the commerce of
the sea. Department stores in a
measure would seem to have had
their birth in the chandleries, for
side by side with the counter and
shelves where groceries and pre-
served meats are sold are exhibited
stationery, paints and carpenters
tools. The pungept odor OF tarred
rope mingles with the fragrance of
tea and fruit-indeed there is COM
bination of odors that helps to make
the impression of many lands all
the more vivid.
The ledgers look as old as the
clerks behind the time stained rail
ings. Everything is withered and
dry. The presence of younger and
fresher men would be an anachro-
nism. There is sand upon the floor,
just as there used to he years ago.
All, the business is not what it
used to be, " sighed one of the chan
dlers. 1.-The stewards of the steam
ships now direct the furnishing of
supplies themselves. Many of the
masters of the sailing vessels even
neglect us. It is rare; nowadays
that are called upon to furnish a
ship with sails, rigging and stores.
Such things come in drihbles now. y
Most of the chandleries that now
remain are to be- found along South
and Water streets. They huddle to-
gether as it seeking protection in a
union against the advances of time
and the encroachmento of other lines
of business. Fortunes have been
made by many persons in ship
chandlery, but riches in that branch
now remain, it is declared, for the,
few. New York Sun.
'Pin Money"
Long ago twas the custom in the
south to give the lady whom one in
vited for drive or outing y small