The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-04
TRIP THROUGH LA UNDRY
 YES REAL RE VELA TTONI
Percy Points Out Some of the Wonders of Modern Plant Which Has Kept Constant Pace With
 Growth of Birmingham
By FRANK WILLIS BARNETT

We never blame the tailor when our
 pants we have to pin.
 We never blame the shoe man when our
 shoes grow old and thin.
 We never blame the natter when our
 lids we have to flout,
 But we always blame the laundry when
 our shirts wear out"
 Knowing this to be q trait of human nature Percy Brewer. manager of the Domestic laundry, has put in a method to carefully Inspect every finished piece of work before it is wrapped to leave the plant, and not to walt for the GUS toner to find anything wrong. He does this by close inspection. If the garment or article Is not properly laundered, it Is put back and sent through the laun- dry. He says he would rather launder piece a dozen times than to have dissatisfied customer
 I, knew he had made great success of his business, but did not know just how he had done it until I went over and went through the establishment and had q talk with him and found It was based on personal service I had never been through big laundry and was glad to get chance, I had always been curious to know how 1t was possible to get back the same articles I sent Tn. couldn't understand the system by which they, for instance kept track on collar that made it's way with thou sands of others through the plant learned how 1t was done by visit to tho assembling tables. It's simple enough after you get on to the system.
 But in following the collar I got inter ested in a lot of machines that the va- rious articles had to go through before they were clean. My guide, Brewer. had much to say about sanitation and a sterinzed laundry It seems that even linens are not clean, though, in appear ance they may be spotless, unless they have been sterilized. The way he talked about cleanliness being next to Godli- ness' you would have thought he was "a sky pilot" that had accidentally got an appointment In a laundry and was working for his D. D.-that Is a doctor of dirt. That is just what my friend, Percy, ts He treats soiled clothes as an adventure in sanitation, and takes
 
 professor of hygiene. He has surely been bitten by the sanitation bug, for he says nothing shall mover leave his laboratory Qaundry) unless 1t is hy- gienically clean.
 l know now why he has built up q laundry business. He Is In love with his work, and what's more he knows every etail of It, and isn't above looking after the little things. I saw some women bending over q table sticking pins In by hand in centerpieces thai were pinned to } cloth spread over the table stopped because 1t seems to me 1t was a tedious and expensive process for woman to stick pin in every point in a big lace tablecoyer. I said "why take such care?'' to be told that 1t was done to make sure <, that 1t would be perfectly flat when put to use. This Is just one sample of the i care bestowed on tho work entrusted tc his keeping.
 1 Do you wonder that beginning 121; years ago with 9500 square feet the plant has grown to 36,000 square feet? That Tn l 1895 10 men constituted his force, while 1 today he employs 110? That one wagon used to be able to make deliveries, while 1 it now takes l5? and that at present his yearly business is way over the l s1o0,000 mark7 Now the Domestic laun- l dry's growth has kept pace with the | growth of Birmingham. just as has Percy Brewer, who began as a wrapper l boy in the old Avondale laundry. now ! owns one of the best equipped laundries in the south.
 I used to think of a laundry as merely doing the family wash. There was time | when In the south the colored "iadies''