The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1907-12-21

IT is perhaps more Characteristic
Of Americans than of any other peo-
pie to hold small things in contempt,
forgetting that little drops Of water,
little grains OF sand" constitute the
planet we inhabit. says the Boston
Transcript. A match is \ small and
insignificant affair, yet multiplied as
it has been in this country and the
rest of the civilized world it has
been one OF the most potential agents
Of modern material development. 1t
has come into use at a late day in
the worlds history. There are many
living among us still who can re-
member when the flint and finder
were the regular means of starting
fresh fire, and the old one was care
fully preserved by burying the en-
hers night after night to be revied
in the morning. 1t is eighty years
ago the present year that the lucifer
match, the first genuine friction
match, was invented, and even that
required an attachment of bent sand
paper TO produce the desired results.
1t is hard for the present genera
ton TO realize the Inconvenience
from which the friction match eman-
cipated their ancestors. The manu-
facture of this product has become a
great and even a somewhat diversi-
fed industry, because every section
seems to have matches peculiar to
itself A man who has been a com
mereial traveller for many years tells
MS that if he were taken up and car
ried TO any point east of the Ale
ghanies he could tell within a humid
red miles OF where he was by the
matches he should find in use. There
is also a national pride in matches
A recent mayor of Manchester, Eng
land, visiting friends in Boston a few
days ago, spoke very highly of our
"abominable matches" and declared
that he did not see how high-spirit-
ed, Independent and enterprising peo-l
pie like ourselves put up with them.
The American people, however, app
pear to he fairly well contented with
the home product, else they would
not buy and consume so many with
comparatively so little grumbling.
They use up about 100000, 900, 900
year or about half of all that are
manufactured in the world. There
are hundreds of factories scattered
over the country, one plant on the
Pacific coast covering $40 acres and
operating over thirty miles of rail-
road, over which is carried to it daily
100000 feet of sugar pine and yell.
low pine logs for the macth machines.
Inferior lumber will not do. 1t
must be straight-grained and free
from knots and carefully treated in
addition. The by-porduct goes into
larger things. The factory on the
Pacific coast referreG to turns out
as this by-product a thousand doors
and 500 window sashes daily. In
a single year one match company in
tho lake region cut 5000, 900
board feet of pine though that was
Intended for more than years pro-
duct
1t is no wonder, when we consider
these figures, that the matchmakers
are becoming anxious. And that is |
true in other countries as well as
our own. In Germany and France
there is movement to have forests
planted Just for match timber, and
we may soon face famine in match
wood in this country, for not all
kinds can be used for that purpose
1t may also happen that invention
may develop something that will take
the place of matches. 1t is not