Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-18
ToorHPICK OUTPUT.
Millions Manufactured in America
 and More Imported

ENAuhuA uN1AASNA AA @AAhSA NC
 and More Imported.
 There is one article of manufacture that is used 50 extensively in the United States that no one has an idea of the annual quantity consumed, namely, wooden toothpicks. Accord ing to an expert, the number is sim ply incalculable. Millions upon mil. lions of the tiny wooden slivers are turned out every year from American factories alone, and on top of this tre- mendous output come importatione from Portugal and Japan and other countries nearly as large as the domes. tic product, reports the New York Times
 Most of the American toothpicks come from Franklin county, in Maine near the forest home of the white birch out of which s5 per cent. of the domes- tic toothpicks are made. This wood is soft and pIiable and of admirable re. sistance for the purpose for which 1t is used. Whole mills in Maine are de voted to supplying the country with toothpiclxs, and in the industry is td be found some of the finest and most intricate of machinery. So tremendous Is the output of these machines that in brief season, during the spring. enough toothpicks can be made 10 sup. ply the markets of the entire country for the year to come
 A further idea of the capacity of the machines may be had from the fact that only 100 men are necessary tc operate and run all the mills in Frank. lin county. Other mills of this kind vania and Massachusetts and western New York, but the real home of the toothpick is Maine.
 White birch is not the only wood used for the domestic toothpick, maple and poplar are employed as well, but birch has the property of retaining it's for est odor and sweetness.
 The feIling of toothpick trees is only incidental to the regular 1u1n- Der work of tho Maine foresters. No especial men are sent out to hunt up suitable trees. But whenever the foreman of a gang of woodsmen comes across tree especially adapt cd to toothpicks he orders 1t felled and laid aside. The branches of the tree arc then trimmed and only the trunk itself is transported to the mills. There the bark is skinned and the naked trunk Is run through s machine which sewers it into veneers, ''Veneers" is tho technical expression for thin strips of wood no thicker than piece of plotting paper and no wider than the length of toothpick Once the trunk has been cut into these sheets of wood, only one pro. cess remains to turn out the tooth picks fit for packing and shipping to market. The veneers are fed into a second machine supplied with sharp rotary knives that whirl at tremen. dous high speed, shipping the veneers into toothpicks at the rate of hun dreds of thousands an hour.
 It is only the go-called fancy 1 toothpick that is not made in this country. In Portugal, from where most of the orangewood picks are i'm. ported, the sticks are sharpened by young girls who, in return for turn. ing out "picks" sharp as needles and smooth as ivory, are paid three cents a day.
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 The Japanese toothpicks are made of fine reeds, and are distinct from those sent to this country by the Por, ] tuguese manufacturers. A Japanese toothpick is delicate and thin as tis sue paper, and nevertheless strong and pliable. The Japanese toothpicl maker earns even less than his Portu. guese fellow-craftsman, his renumer ation being but a fraction more thar two cents a day. Tn short, thous and toothpicks may be bought ir Japan for as much as it costs only te pack and box 5000 of American make What the Waite House T@.
 To the American people the white house represents the personality o1 the president of the United States. Te the politician the magic words may stand for the goal of an ambition toe often associated with the deepest and most poignant disappointment; while