Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-07-06
HOW PEOPLE
MAKE LIVING
QUEER OCCUPATIONS BY WHICH
SNUG FORTUNES HAVE
BEEN MADE.
CENSUS TO SHOW 1T
One Man Raises Rattlesnakes by tho
Wholesale and Another Get.
ting Rich on WaIrus
Whiskers.

When the thirteenth census is COM
!; pleted, that is when the last compila-
, zion has been made and each individual
has been put in the proper class, it
will be the most exhaustive classified
ton ever made by the census bureau.
says the Scientific American. For in
stance, while machinists will Of course,
be placed under one general heading.
each Of them will be classified accord
ing to the particular work he is doing.
and so with other trades and indus
tries Some Of the Sub-classes will con-
tain but single name. This will bring
to light number Of queer ways in
which some people are engaged in earn
ing livelihood. AS far as the work has
progressed, there Is only one man
classed as snake merchant This man
has snake ranch in Texas, and has for
more than seven years made a business
OF handling snakes. During the year
1910 he sold over 10000 rattlesnakes
and black snakes, the prices ranging
from rs cents to 81 each. Tney are sold
to ZOOS. side shows of circuses, medi-
cal colleges and scientists
Queer Vacations.
Under the shoe industry one would
hardly expect to find persons sub ella S.
ed judges, takers. and pancake makers.
but there they are. Another man who
will be all In class by himself when
Kansas City. His sole business is to
bottle smoke Of burning hickory logs.
He claims that when this smoke is let
loose in an air tight compartment
where meat has been hung it will pro-
duce the same results upon the meat as
though 1t had been smoked in an old
fashioned smoke house. Such titles as
whittier" In q straw hat factory.
"tobies," a maker Of stogies, dock wal
a al "nnnnnaY'
hat making establishment vibrator"
In clock factory, "tonger" in connec-
ton with oysters, "teaser" in a glass
factory, are some Of the other queer
designations used by the census bu-
reau,
Indeed there are as many women as
there are men who pursue odd ways Of
would be designated as goats" were
a common expression of the times
used. for it is their business to be
discharged" from the department
stores In which they are employed" a
number OF times each day, or as often
as necessity might demand. When q
grouchy or naughty customer makes a
complaint Of discourteous treatment or
what not against a clerk one Of the
goat" Is summoned to the office as the
person In charge OF that particular de-
partment There she Is given a good
talking to before the angry customer
and summarily dismissed and the com
pliinant goes away rejoicing.
Women Policemen.
Women policemen are becoming
rather commonplace. We have a wom-
an chief Of police in Kansas; a tow II
in Pennsylvania boasts fair deputy
sheriff, who Is a college gra::uate, and
J .os Angeles was the first city to ap
point woman to its police force.
One woman in Pennsylvania earns
her daily bread by raising Persian Gets
and selling them for from S25 to 500
each. She not infreQuently makes large
sales to wealthy cat fanciers. Still an
other woman in Maryland devotes her
time to pigeon raising, claiming her In
a year.
One Of the most unique trades of
the entire list however, Is that carried
on bv a man in Seattle. His business,
and a profitable one, too, is to secure
the mustaches from walrus killed In
Boring Straits and sell them to the
Chinese for toothpicks. These stout
bristles arc plucked from the nose of
the walrus by Indians, tied into small
bundles and sold by him on the Pa
cif1c coast to agents, who ship them to
China, where they are In great demand.
In an aged bull walrus the bristles are ,
about foot long and nearly as thick
as lead pencil. Besides being extreme
ly tough, they can, when made into
picks, be pushed between the teeth
without injury to the enamel Last year
this dealer cleared something like a
thousand dollars by his traffic in wal
rus whiskers.