Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1906-04-27
THE CHOICE OF PAINT.

was q rare sight; to-day an implanted
house Is rarer. II people knew the
real value of paint house in need
Of paint would be ''scarcer than hens
teeth" There was some excuse for
our forefathers. Many OF them lived
in houses hardly worth preserving;
they knew nothing about paint, ex-
cept that it was pretty; and to get
house painted was a serious and cost
" Job. The difference between their
case and ours Is that when they want.
ed paint it had to be made for them;
whereas when we need paint we can
20 to the nearest good store and buy
1t, In any color Or quality ready for
use. We know, or ought to know by
this time, that to let house stand
implanted is most costly, while good
coat of paint, applied in season, is the
best of investments. If we put off the
brief visit of the painter we shall in
due time have the carpenter coming
to pay us a long visit at our expense.
Lumber is constantly getting scarcer.
dearer and poorer, while prepared
paints are getting plentier, better and
less expensive. 1t is a. short-sighted
plan to let the valuable lumber Of our
houses go to pieces for the want Of
paint.
For the man that needs paint there
are two forms from which to choose;
one is the old form, still favored by
certain unprogressive painters who
have not yet caught up with the times
lead and oil; the other Is the ready
for-use paint found in every up-to-date
store. The first must be mixed with
oil, driers, turpentine and cclors be-
fore it is ready for use; the other
need only be stirred up In the can
and 1t is ready to 60 on. To buy
lead and oil, colors, etc., and mix
them into a paint by hand is, in this
twentieth century, about the same
as refusing to ride in a trolley car
because ones grandfather had to walk
or ride on horseback when he wanted
to go anywhere. Prepared paints have
been on the market less than fifty
years, but they have proved on the
whole so inexpensive, so convenient
and so good that the consumption to-
day is something over sixty million
gallons a year and still growing. Un-
less they had been in the main salts.
factory, it stands to reason there
would have been no such steady
growth in their use.
Mixed paints are necessarily cheap
er than paint of the hand-mixed kind,
because they are made in large way
by machinery from materials bought
in large quantities by the manufac-
turer. They are necessarily better
than paints mixed by hand, because
they are more finely ground and more
thoroughly mixed, and because there
IS less chance of the raw materials in
them being adulterated. No painter,
however careful he may be, can ever
be sure that the materials he buys are
not adulterated, but the large paint
manufacturer does know in every
case, because everything he buys goes
through the chemists hands before
he accepts it.
Of course there are poor paints on
the market (Which are generally
cheap paints). So there is poor -four
poor cloth, poor soap; but because of
| that do we 60 back to the hand-mill
the hand-loom and the soap-kettle OF
the backwoods No, we use our COM
mon sense in choosing goods. We find
out the reputation OF the different
brands of -four, cloth and soap; we
take account Of the standing Of the
| dealer that handles them, we ask
bur neighbors. So with paint; if the
manufacturer has a good reputation
Il the dealer is responsible, if oul
neighbors have had satisfaction with
it, that ought to be pretty good evi
dence that the paint is all right
MANY men of many kinds
Many paints of many kinds;
but while prepared paints may diffel
considerably in composition, the bet
ter grades of them all agree pretty
closely in results. Gail roads lead tt
Rome" and the paint manufacturers
starting by different paths, have al
the same object-to make the bes
paint possible to sell for the leas
money, and so capture and keep tn
trade
There is scarcely any other articl
Of general use on the market to-da.
that can be bought with anything lik
the assurance of getting your money
worth as the established brands of pre-
pared paint. The paint you buy tc
day may not be like certain paten
; medicine, "the same as you have al
ways bought" but if not, it will b
because the manufacturer has foun
a way of giving you better articl
for your money, and so making NOR
sure of your next order.
P. G..