The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-21
WORLDS BIG
 LAUNDRY BILL
New Workers Pay $1,- 100000 Every Week.

VSSs~~N eS'SA/ SSA~ City's Baby Crop Now Worth s2,ooo,. 100000 Annuauy.-supreme Court Must Find Lost Brook. | Pedestrian versus Horse- New York, March. 2o.-(Special.)- )- The distinction of paying the larges, bill on record undoubtedly belongs tc this city.
 Knickerbocker's extensive and expen- sive family expend more than $1,000, 00( for having their clothes washed, or an annual amount almost equal to the interest on the national debt. Not only in its cost but in all its other aspects as well, the city's weekly wash Is tre- mendous.
 More than 4o.eoo persons are engag. ed in laundering as a regular busi- ness. working In more than 1,soO laun- dries. In addition to these there are other persons. some 60.0o0 in number who do in their own homes washing or as outside day workers.
 The articles of clothing handled every week would provide for a good sized army. The largest item is made up of collars, about 15,000,000 of them Handerkerchiefs number about, 5000 900, shirts 6,000,000. sheets 1.250.000 napkins 100000. while other articles bring the total far above 50,000, ,000 area it is estimated Is equal to all that part of the city below Fourteenth Street. and if strung on single clothesline they would extend from New York to Chicago.
 The 75,000,000 clothespins neces- sary for the hanging out of such a wash would if laid end to end. reach 500 miles and the million cakes of soap used would All good-sized office building.
 Water to an amount sufficient to float twenty of our largest warships is only another incidental to this laun dry bill
 Use of Electric Chair.
 Discussion concerning the use of the electric chair as the medium of in- flicting the death penalty on criminals convicted of murder in the first degree has broken out again.
 It has been asserted in the past by some well known authorities that elec- trocution did not really cause death, a statement which they offered to prove provided the body of & man who had undergone the penalty be turned over to them for resuscitation immediately after it's inhiction.
 All sorts of reasons were advanced in substantiation of this claim but mo- thing ever came of 1t on account of the refusal of the authorities to allow the n rrvtnp nr.f nf the aXnprinnant
 Two recent events, however. have served to reopen the whole matter and to make possible abolishment of the electric chair. The first of these hap penings was the failure last week of the electric current to cause death un- til nearly six minutes had expired while only a few days ago at a pri- vate gathering a man voluntarily sub- jected himself to a current of 1800l volts under the same conditions as those by which 1t is applied at Sing Sin. There were no Ill results alth ough the current was kept on for more thar a minute, the subject of the expert. ment sitting unmoved. During that time his assistant touched various l parts of his body with alcohol soaked l handkerchief which immediately burst into flame.
 The man who thus defied death ha. uO SAplduaLlOu VI uLc oiAH ply saying that he had discovered his ability to take heavy electric shocks Physicians who watched the expert ment have no explanation either and they are anxious to have it repeated Meanwhile there would seem to be at least one man in the state who could comit murder with immunity. since the only legal means of punishing him would in his case be without effect. Valuable Baby Crop. New York's annual baby crop, to. taling now about 100000 infants |, according to the latest figures worth a litle more than $2.0o0,O00.000, thus putting 1t far ahead of the country's corn crop heretofore looked upon as the most valuable.
 Figured on a strictly economic basis this crop of youngsters which through out the whole country Is now about 2.000, 100000 a year. represents a value | of s40,000. .000, ,000-a sum equal to two | hfths of the whole estimated wealth oi the nation. Therefore when 1t comes to records in the value of crops pro- duced agricultural districts will have to give way to this city.
 These surprising figures are reached by taking from the census reports the value of a workers year In products turned out ana his wages. The result Is his value tc the community for. that period and his total value Is easily calculated by null tiplying this figure by the number oi years of his working life. The average value of a years pro- duct per worker Is now $2.6S0. Foi forty years the total, after subtractine wages, is S20,720, and that Is the po- tential value of every member of the baby crop. At present 1t Is estimated the country loses more than $e,0oo.000 900 every year through the death oi one infant out of every six under tho age of twelve months. It is expected however that modern methods of car ing for babies will be able to decrease this rate to at least one In ten. It this Is accomplish ed 1t would mear a saving of $2,627. .3OO.OO0 every year. A Vanished Brook. This city, which already has a nun | of commissions created for the purpose | of untaugling various municipal trou | bles and problems may soon have one more which will unique in that it. | purpose will be to discover a vanished | brook.
 l A justice of the Supreme Court whC was petitioned to find the brook. whici has not been seen for many years. anC may have gotten anywhere by now feeling himself unequal to the nove task, suggested that a commission b. appointed to do so.
 The curious situation arises from thu