The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-05
ELECTRIC GLOBES
Accepted as Currency I'm Payment
for Drinks In Saloons,

Accepted as Currency I'm Payment
for Drinks in Saloons,
New York Journal
Say, pard," said one of the tramps.
Wod yer think? That chap in there said
he'd only give me a beer for a globe.
WOO yer think Of that? Wod yer think
of it?"
"Wod do 1 think of it?' echoed the
other It's downright thievery! A globe
use to be good for a whskey. They must
nave made some kind of a trust.''
Inc tone or supreme disgust which the
tramps assumed suggested that some i'm
position had been played upon them: and
1t mad. The small saloons in the vicinity
or Park row that accept electric mean
descent globes as currency have made
some sort of arrangement among them
selves to reduce the price allowed to
those who bring them in.
owners OF office buildings who have to
replenish the incandescent globes so very
frequently as to seriously affect their
pockets will be surprised to learn that the
electric globe is a legal tender. If they
placed nickels or dimes on their lamps
ana Old not tie them up they would not
be astonished If they disappeared. An
electric lamp is nickel or a dime, as the
case may be. 1t is purchased by a dealer,
who sells it again to the electrician of
proprietor at catalogue prices, making a
profit for himself
Several down town Office buildings have
been looted of their lamps lately. A
tramp who goes into an office to beg will
take lamp if he can find nothing else
The lamps are readily detached and can
be instantly disposed of. A man with any
ingenuity who cannot make 81 a day
stealing globes ought to go into some
other business.
Many electricians have seriously sug-
gested the employment of some sort of q
lamp lock that will fasten the globe to the
fixture and hold 1t there until some au-
| thoriZed person comes along with the key.
The genius who invents something of this
kind in such a manner that 1t may be ap-
piled ought to make some money out
of It,
The persons who receive the second
hand globes know perfectly we'll that they
are stolen. The names of these men are
known, and some of the owners of office
buildings speak Of employing detectives
and prosecuting. ..---
An electrician who says that thou
sands and thousands of the lamps are
stolen in New York to the great loss of
those who have to pay for them, suggests
that the name Of the building should be
blown in the glass so as to make it not
negotiable. The cost of doing this would
not be great, he declared, and the saving
effected would be enormous; In some
cases, he thought, Office buildings would
save almost so per cent Of their disburse-
ments for lamps
The reduction in the price of the stolen
lamps made by the saloonkeepers who re-
ceive them as currency is probably due
to the fact that the market Is glutted.
So many men have gone into the business
Of embezzling globes that the second
hand dealers have as many on hand as
they can sell. The reduction, however.
does not seem consistent with the ru-
mors that an era of prosperity is upon US.
There are many men along Park row to
whom the wintsr will be q hard one on
account OF the bear market in lamps.
A better price may be obtained gener-
ally for the iemrs from those saloon
keepers who hae electric lights them