The Opelousas courier., 1908-01-04
ANXIOUS

Decreasing Supply OF Timber L
Already Worrying Manufac'
f1rarS.
rom the Boston Transcript.
It is perhaps more characters
Ia Of Americans than of any Other
teople to hold small things in con.
empt, forgetting that little drops
water, little grains of sand con.
&itute the planet we inhabit.
hatch is a small and insignificant
fair, yet multiplied as it has be
this country and the rest of the
civilized world, it has been one oil
be most potential agents of mod
I'm material development. 1t has
orae into use at a late day in the
Eorld's history. There are many
wing among us still who can re-
MEMBER when the flint and finder
Eere the regular means of starting
fresh fire, and the old one was
arefully preserved by burying
be embers night after night to be
NeVived in the morning. It is
Eighty years ago the present year
hat the lucifer match, the first
Senuine friction match, was in
Sented, and even that required an
ttachment of bent sand-paper to
reduce the desired results.
1t is hard for the present gen.
ration to realize the inconve-
iences from which the friction
hatch emancipated their ances-
brs. The manufacture of this pro-
uct has become a great an even a
bmeWhat diversified industry, be-
ause every section seems to have
patches peculiar to itself. A man
Eho has been a commercial tray
Ter for many years tells us that
he were taken up and carried to
lny point east of the Alleghanies,
! could tell within a hudred
niles of where he was by the
matches he should find n use
here is also a national pride in
latches. A recent mayor of Man
hester, England, visiting friends
u Boston a few days ago, spoke
ery highly of our "~abominable
patches" and declared that he
ia not see how a high-spirited,
Independent and enterprising
zeople like ourselves put up with
hem.
4 The American people, however,
kppear to be fairly well contented
18th the home product, else they
kould not buy and consume 50
4pany with comparatively so little
Humbling. They use up about
100, 0O0, 000, 900 a year or about
8alf of all that are manufactured
the world. There are hundreds
u factories scattered over the
buntry, one plant on the Pacific
past covering 240 acres and oper-
ting over thirty miles of railroad,
&ver which is carried to it daily
10000 feet of Ougar pine and yell
w pine logs for the match ma
hines. Inferior lumber will not do.
Il must be straight grained and
lee from knots and carefully
&eated in addition. The by-prod-
let goes into larger things. The
&ctory on the Pacific coast re-
FRED to turns out as this by
foduct a thousand doors and
Do window sashes daily. In a sin
year one match company in
le lake region cut 225, 000,0 900
bard feet Of pine, though that
as intended for more than a year
kOduct.
II is no wonder, when we con-
9der these figures, that the match
bakers are becoming anxious.
md that is true In other countries
well as our own. In Germany
i'd France there is q movement
D have forests planted just for
batch timber, and we may soon
ice q famine in match wood in
III country, for not all kinds can
used for that purpose. It may
% happen that invention may
svelop something that will take
be place of matches. 1t Is not
probable that the limit Of prog
ss has been reached in the
beans Of producing fire at need.
there il no Promothean penalty
Or the man who shall make the
discovery, but rather welcome
Ind reward by his eager fellow
men.
NJ L ~ q - uHFrw N IN nTr