The Indianapolis journal., 1903-10-04
WHERE MAIDENS ABOUND
GLOVERSvILLE, N. ", A PARADISE
INDEED FOR A BACHELOR.
Ten Women to Every Man in the Place
Girls Are Employed in the Nu-
merous Glove Factories.
Brooklyn agle.

| He was an interested observer from the
| steps of hotel as night was falling.
| the arc lamps were being lit and the plate
| glass of the shop fronts were being bright
| ened with electric lights Women were
| passing in droves-thats the word, droves,
for it is one of the pecularities-but that
| doesn't come in yet-and the most modern
| of electric cars were wn:zzing up and down.
| Evidently he a stranger TO this town.
| The one to whom the question had been
| addressed responded with that air of be-
| nevolent superiority one assumes learn
ing that he knows more about the subject
in hand than the other, asking:
First visit TO Gloversville?"
| 1.-THE first and I've been on the road
thirty years." was the others response.
This is the first time 1 ever knew there
was such pretty, hustling place hid away
in the mountains. I'm going to see some
thing of the town before it's too dark
Stepping briskly down the steps to the
sidewalk and lodging out of the way of a
platoon of hatless girls who swept the
sidewalk from houseline to curbline, he
brought up head on against a trio who
Shunted him into a laughing pair enjoy
ing his confusion, and from whom he es-
/ capped only To founder in pillows of skirts
| because 1t would seem as If only women
|
There certainly was praise in the words
| the man had uttered the hotel steps and
his tone was heartily sincere. However. they
We're not satisfactory 40 resident amiably
| supporting pillar Of the hotel doorway.
| ''Humph." grumbled the resident I'm the
| mountains! Why is il every stranger takes
| us for mountaineers?
| When you go to GloverSville conceal your
| consciousness OF having climbed up hills in
trolley car from Fonda, nine miles away,
| and make respectful mention of the noun
|
/ some distance away. Your tact will be ap-
preciated and you will have escaped knowl-
| edge of the fly in Gloversvilles amber.
But all the same, the city is in the foot
hills of the Adirondack mountains, eight
| hundred feet above the level of the Central
| Railroad tracks in the Mohawk valley be-
| shadowingly, the first range of the Adiron-
dacks looking from the south.
| Gloversville is a city, most charming,
most prosperous, most attractive, with
| broad streets, lined with buildings, all of
| which have that air of saying to you, II m
| doing pretty well, thank you, how are you?
| Got any money, come in and spend it,"
| That is the business streets. On the resi-
| Dental streets as they peer out through
| broad verandas and peep from under the
| trees that surround them. they say: Come
| In e while and take some of our comfort
| The latch string is always out and our peo-
pie are most hospitable." And the city has
! peculiarities differentiating it from all
others of the State. giving it its own indi-
| viduality.
|
For instance it is a bachelors paradise
| since there are ten women for every one
man in the place. You can no more escape
the fact in your thoughts of Gloversvile
than you can attention to it on arriving
even before you have brushed the dust from
your clothes. But let us get to statistics.
Gloversville is a city of 10000 inhabitants
most thirty and most modern. Its streets
|
broad and tagged sidewalks. Its architec-
ture is not perfection, but there are some
| excellent specimens, the general effect be-
| ing pleasing. Its shops-this, on the au-
| thority of a persistent and critical shopper
| of Fulton street, Broadway and Sixth ave
| nue-places where you do we'll as in
the metropolis, as satisfactory in quality
| and variety OF merchandise, If not in guam
| tity The city is lit by electricity, talks by
| electricity and is transported by electricity.
| 1t has forty-five miles of streets, twenty
| one of which are already severed; pure
| water, which comes clear and sparkling
from the mountain heights above it; cheap
and excellent telephone and ample tele-
| graph service as could be wished. The val
uatiOn of its property for taxing purposes
is $7,0OO,OOO. while its funded debt is but
| 1856, ,O00 and yet it lacks nothing. in the way
! of public buildings. 1t has nine public
| school buildings of modern type, one of
them being delightfully."- situated in a park
| are twelve churches in the place, business
! cottage, a free library. a hospital two
| banks two daily newspapers, five hotels,
uniformed police force and a volunteer fire
| department.
It's chief popularity aside from it's pre-
ponderance of-but let that pass for the
| slang "up-to-date'' is justified it is when
applied to Gloversville. You feel constantly
| as If you were ''up against" the last thing
| Its principal hotel is peculiarly "up to
date" with its telephones in each bedroom
| whereby you may talk with all the world
lyr1ac xr-frh txaey 1f I4I
| street railways. which cover all parts of the
city and connect it with other towns, are
equipped with .'up-to-date" cars of a de-
gree that would make Brooklyn Rapid
| Transit conductor green with envy, If they
| ever are green-that is to say, envious. And
it looks as if the automobile was rapidly
| displacing the horse. 1t has two theaters
| which are well equipped. at which appear
| only leading attractions-only the best is
good enough for Gloversville-and which
| are largely patroniZed.
The city is prosperous. Over 100000 of
| capital is invested in it's industries, and the
| value of it's annual products is SIS 600 OOO
| OF its 10000 inhabitants, II. .000-over three
quarters of the whole population over fif-
| teen years old-are employed daily on
wages. In the remaining 5000 must be
included the rising generation, the emeritus
and those industrious yet not wage earn
ers The city is thrifty because it has few
drones in it's hive. Over three-fifths of it's
its peculiarities. 1t is the center of the
glove-making industry of the United States.
|
is the dominating industry There are
125 such factories in the place. All kinds
of hand coverings. from the buckskin nit
ten which the hardy lumbermen of the
north use in their struggles with the for
ests to the dainty kids which my lady
displays at the opera are made in this
city.
CHAPTER OF HISTORY.
You wonder why this industry was es-
tabished in this place. 1t has been in
existence many years. Prior to 1867 there
was other means of communication with
the outer world than by stage and team
wagon, the former for passengers, the other
for the conveyance of freight. Since 1870
there has been a steam railroad connect
ing with Fonda and in later years an cleo
trio road which carries baggage as well as
passengers. But prior to the building of
these roads fortunes had been made in the
glove industry of the place and it led, as
ii leads now, that of any other place. There
is a current belief that the spot was select
ed because of its contiguity to the woods
where the hunters shot the game the hides
of which furnished the glove material. That
presupposes determination to establish the
industry. AS a matter OF fact, the indus
try was the outcome of conditions arising
from the effort at establishing a very differ
ent industry, not vestige of which is to
be found at this day.
Many years ago, before the scream of the
locomotive whistle awakened the echoes of
the hills anywhere in this country, that is
to say, about 1900, some adventurous sons
of Connecticut wandered into the Mohawk
1lax- hot fr,arn