Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-03-12
HERE AND THERE

II suppose the harness repair busi-
ness Is suffering more than almost any
other business you can name. because
of lack of new apprentices" said Mr..
J.. F.. Moore OF Yorkville, recently. ut
is rare thing that you ever see a
young man getting into the harness re-
pair business nowadays. and new
hand made work In this line Is ex-
ceedingly scarce and hard TO get. The
price of leather has advanced tre-
mendously since the war broke out,
and nowadays the leather alone for a
good set OF harness costs almost as
much as work and all formerly cost.
People are holding on to their old
harness now, too. as they never held
on to anything like that before. be-
cause leather is one Of the things for
which there has never yet been found
a very satisfactory substitute"
The loss of freight and express in
transit is not the least Of the mer-
chants troubles. 1t Is frequently the
case that goods are ordered and ship
ped-goods that are needed AID badly
wanted and then when the cases In
which the goods were shipped are re-
ceived and opened the merchant finds
that the goods most wanted or the
most expensive and high priced arti-
cles, have been removed by some slick
thief, and then this makes the mer-
chant more trouble. and his troubles
are az nothing as compared with the
honest freight agent who has to try
and locate stealage or the point OF
stealage or the station. junction or
railroad line at which or on which the
stealage took place. For instance. not
long since a local merchant received
a shipment Of fine dress goods, includ-
ing silks and satins in bolts. To all
appearances when the package was
received at the local Southern depot
It was in good order. When the mer-
chant opened the case and began
checking up the shipment TO the In
voice, Just about the center he came
to an empty wrapper which had con-
tanned q bolt Of fine satin, valued at
about $27. The merchant flles his
claim with the local station, and then
the matter Is followed back as far as
possible to the original shipping point
and after a while, maybe q month or
sixty days, the local merchant will be
paid for the satin at the original in
voice price. Another merchant re-
Gently received a shipment OF hosiery.
including silk hosiery OF various
grades. When the case was opened the
merchant found that $50 or more Of
the better grades had been stolen
from the box. The thieves had OPEN
ed the box and deliberately gone
through the shipment picking out the
good hosiery and soiling and crump-
ling the cheaper grades, evidently not
wanting anything but the best. And
so it goes. Sometimes the package
reach the local depots in bad order.
with every evidence Of having been
tampered with and robbed so that II
can be seen by any one handling the
freight. At other times wooden ship
ping cases reach the local depots to
all appearances in perfect condition
and in good order. and then when
opened the pilfering Is discovered.
There has always been more or less OF
this stealage from the railroads going
on. but during the past six months the
stealings have increased at an alarm
Ing rate and are still growing. II was
thought for q while that when the
government took charge OF the rail-
roads q large part Of this stealase