The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-18

standard size to apply to everybody 1t
would seem on the surface to be mighty
confusing and inexact way of doing bus
mess but it's the simplest in the long
run. customers find that debit and c~cd-
II oiierences are about even. We ECU
idte on hitting the size of a box wi hin
an men or two, and l reckon the ship
ping clerks Of the average Broadway
concern are about as consciautiously ex-
act on their side of the fence
America doesn't lead in boxl1,a king
gu We heard that the. Germans are the
pest packers in the world Well, It's
Simply because their box men have given
tneIl the best packing cases for it. You'd
tilnk they filled every one Of them with
pig lead and dropped them On their cor
Hers rom thlrd story windows as fac
Tory test! There's a Dutch box'-and
IL certainly seemed to be solid as a
chopping block-''the woods some sort
Oh Iarch or birch, but It's often only
pine. And they don't use the same
weight OF lumber that we and the Eng
Hsh 90. With them it's the way they
place their battens and put in their
mans. It's the mechanics of the craft
they make count. See how badly batter
cd 1t been, and still it hasn't u corner
that beginning to be loose yet
Inc English build big. heavy cases of
them line old sum They hold together,
true enough; nothing but blasting powder
coulo open some of them, it's often
seemed to me. But there's about as much
stupidity as solidity on their putting to-
gether Look at thatI'-and he thumpad
a hulklng big packing case, which gave
OUT such another dull, sullen, booming
as rumbfed forth from the cave Of the
Cyclops. And hear that! Why, my OLD
grandfather, who lived before hoop iron
cIeatlngs were ever thought or-and
VINO used up whole twenty-acre blocks Of
hickory saplings for botten stFaps--Uas
always knocking it into his apprentices
that they ought to use half the timber
and twice the brains. Yet he dtdn'. have
TO worry any about the cost Of lumber;
: was the theory of the thing he was
looking at Lord! father tells of grand
dads once catching him mailing on !hosa
Old hickory straps from above inst cad
OF from below, The old boy just shut his
lips together tight, ripped those straps
OIL ike woman taking an cid binding
of skirt, and laid them across dad Z
back for a good ten minutes before he
had him nail them on again. Some
times l think I've inherited the good
of that licking. know l mortally hate
to see stupidity made box, wheth er
- turned out on the side of the world
or on the other
The French run to all sorts of fancy
notions-barrel and firkin shapes rivetted
cIeatings and what not. But they won't
put in the strength that's necessary, and
the wood they use is great deaf too dry
and brittle for A1e purpose. It's the Japs
who have the wood exactly suited to the
trade. 1 often wish we could get hol6
of it for the repairing. It's as learhery
as STEPPED ash and as light as white
wood Those are Jap boxes on top
there. He sprang the side of Il rather
WarWorn looking case in and out admir-
ingly. Tough as a bow, isn't it? Yet y1u
can see its age and the usage it's had
by the provinces of the wood and the
way it's marked and battered.
And [ can show you, too, by this
box, the amount of travelling they do.
In the first place, look at that" One
corner had been reinforced with wooden
pegs. That's been done in the East
somewhere, but not in Japan, for there
they only use wooden nails on very
small cases. .Battens have been put on
some time or other-you can see that by
the cleanness of the wood at the ends
and that isn't japanese, eitheG. It's
been cut down. too; that's plain by the
shifting of the middle. There's the
British government STENCIL there's a
German mark, and the twisted wire
binding is Yankee. And sur&ose if
were a Sherlock Holmes I could read
you all these other crosses and crows
feet on it, and prove that it's been on
the road the life of a freight ca and
done the itinerary. of a tramp steamer
And in this yard there must be dozens
more that have been as far and at it
as long. We get boxes that have been
Drowned in fires, and others lhat have
been under the sea-their woods bitter
with salt But none of them get any
rest. They're snatched into the repair
shop only to be whirled out Of it again
to some other corner of the world. Some
of them have been through our yard
three of four times The men seem to
know them. I couldn't tell you how for
there's generally years between their
visits One old English sockdologer has
been through five times at least. The
men have put a cross of nails on him
and call him The Wandering Jew