The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-24
A CENSUS OF
 QUEER TRADES Ways in Which Americans
 Make a Living REPORT OF CENSUS Will Show That There Are Seven or Eight Thousand Different Trades Followed by People of This
 Country
From the Kansas City Star.

publish a report on the various occupa
 ticns by which men and women in thi:
 country earn their daily bread. Thougf
 it will be many months before the report will be given to the public, conserVa l tive estimate places the number of class l ihcations of industry at between 7000 and | 5000.
 | II seems safe prediction to state that there will be found but one man in tn: entire country making living from bottling the smoke of burning hickory wood. This man, who lives in Kansas City, contends that his bottled smoke let loose in and airtight compartment lr which meat has been placed will produce the same effect upon meat as though cured by hickory smoke in the usual manner.
 Nor would the uninitiated expect to find profit in raising bulfrogs for their legs Two New Jersey women, however are making a good living by doing so, and a certain California woman obtains over s1o0 an ounce wholesale for the seeds of petunias.
 In some of the reports of the census enumerators in the field are found tabu- lations so unusual that they require no end of labor in properly classifying them at the bureau. One man frankly asserted that he was booze fighter" and an- other, who works in saloon, styled him self "a destroyer of men,
 Such occupations as 'pouncer," in a hat factory; 'tobies,' maker of stogies; ''whittler,' in straw works; "dock vol loper, a longshoreman; vibrator" :n a clock factory; "tonguer," in connection with oysters; "teaser," in a glass factory;
 "scabbler,' in quarrying; "fiosser," in a corset factory. and "dubber, in ship building, are all unusual occupations that must be listed
 In Washington especially are there a large number of persons who earn their living by performing unusual tasks. The majority of them are employed by the government. There is young man in the National museum-Henry Hendley- who is known as the official portrait bustmaker of Indian features for a unique portrait gallery of the North American redskin. The government is in- terested in the preservation of types of the pure American Indian and in the changes in their facial characteristics step by step as they adopt civilized GUS toms. During the course of a year many Indians come to Washington to see. the President or the commissioner of Indian affairs If so persuaded they appear be- fore Mir Hendley.
 To secure a lifelike bust for the gal lery Hendley has to make a plaster cast of each Indians face and head For his services Poor Lo is generally paid s1
 I. B. Millner is an expert modeler in pspier mache of things past, present and future for the National museum.
 Several of his wonderful models are on exhibition now, among them one of c Hawaiian village. showing with marvel ous accuracy and beauty the volcanic nature of the soil, tiny lagoon as blue as the sea. artificial fish ponds. the meth cd of irrigation peculiar to the island. and delightful perspective of cocoanut trees. grass houses and coral beaches. But the most wonderful figure in the whole spectacle is that of a girl swim ming Her hair floats behind her on the water as she swims across the tiny la goon, and the waves that form as sine glides through the water give a most astounding semblance of motion.
 Along similar lines is the work of Ed win Howell. a maker of maps. In his workshop he evolves relief maps of cer- tain sections of the country, which not only indicate rivers and mountains and towns. but all the minerals, rocks, flow CTS, trees and varying soils to be found there. He makes maps that enable the weather bureau to more easily ascertain climatic changes and atmospheric condi- tions in different portions of the land.
 The original of relief map he made of the Isthmus of Panama is at the White House, where it was placed at tne re- cuest of President Taft. It cost several thousand dollars and required eight mopths to construct In his workshop he has huge map of the entire United ties, showing with unquestionable ac- curacy every depression and every ele- vation rivers, harbors, etc, in the land.
 One of the most interesting of his maps was made for the marine hospital and public health service. It is intended as warning against allowing people ig- norant of geological conditions to dig wells and as plea for the artesian well. This was a painted background of sky and trees, with two wooden structures one a dwelling where painted figures gaze from the windows-and the other T barn. Pigs, cows and chickens disport themselves in the barnyard. Tn the fore ground a cross section of earth reveals first a straight drop of soil, then a strat- um of rock and lastly subtratum of sand Here the well has been sunk Ev- idently the water must be pure because it comes up through rock" But sucn is not the case Nature has so arranged the Assures at this point that they all otal, rI ha xra And down through the soil and rock to the sand goes the pollution from the barnyard to the water supply.
 Upon Mrs. Villa A. Leonard of the Treasury Department falls the task of the work of detecting counterfeit money. As the original Sherlock Holmes of the ''oueer,' she has brought destruction to clever counterfeiters to he extent of thousands of dollars. For over 40 years she has been considered all expert in her unusual occupation. Mrs. Leonard be- lieves that a perfectly engraved counter felt note has never been produced. Another remarkabl woman doing ar unusual work for Uncle Sam is Mrs Patti Lyle Collins of the dead letter di- vision of the Postoffce Department FoI many years she has deciphered almost illegible addresses on mail matter that has defied the postmasters Though nol blind herself, she is known as the blind reader" because of her remarkable abili- ty in deciphering illegibe addresses in English and other languages.
 In the Agricultural Department is 9 woman Mrs Mica Zesta Heidemann who makes models of the various bugs that prey upon grain, trees and farm produce. in order that students of agri- culture may receive practical demonstra-