| Show ANOTHER TRUST IT is ia estimated that there are produced dally daily in the united states about toothpicks there are am several factories specially engaged in the production of these pointed splinters maine has three indiana one new york one and iowa one the same question might be asked about toothpicks as ad to is often asked about pins what becomes of them pins however have engaged the attention of the wisest philosophers I 1 and learned have been written on them it is true the toothpick also to a limited extent has a place in general literature but it has never achieved any particular distinction it is questionable whether it even figures in the industrial statistics of the country and it has never been mentioned in connection with the mckinley bill suppose the profitless discussion on tinplate tin plate be dropped for a moment and the toothpick issue be taken up very recently a trust for the manufacture of this article has been formed with its headquarters in chicago the price has already risen from per case of to the most ardent free traders have not charged this trust to the protective tariff nor the rise to the mckinley bill there are cords of wood used annually to su supply p ply the toothpick market maple poplar and orange tree make the best woods for the purpose in iowa cottonwood is used because it is so easily worked the timber to is first out into blocks about twelve inches square and two and a half inches thick each piece is then placed beneath a compound kind of knife or rather of interlaced knives in one piece of machinery and it comes out in picks these maple chips go everywhere they are handled by the taper fingers of the of Delmo nicols coa as well as by the grimy hands at the mining camps it is becoming unfashionable in the eastern cities to use toothpick sin fact their use is decried and one writer who is considered an authority on matters of fashion calls the pick a vulgar disgusting Ame american institution 12 though he is supposed to be a thorough american himself but it is a futile task to attempt the suppression of this institution for such it has become the archives of the patent office abound abdun I 1 with models of this little article in a variety of forms jewelers make a specialty of it in gold and sell it oftentimes coias for as much as itis it is also manufactured from quill whalebone steel etcetera and very often the free born american monarch uses his clasp knife to ease his molars and give them ventilation ben jonson mentions the toothpick so does shakespeare even the latin poets martial and horace speak of it eulogistically martial was democratic enough to say that a piece of common wood was the best for use it was one of the marks by which a gentleman was known some two centuries ago in europe for messenger Mas says 1 I have all requisite to the making up of a my spruce ruff my hooded cloak long stocking and pained hose my ewe case of toothpicks and my silver fork to convey an olive neatly to my mouth there were no trusts in those days and many other modern improve ments mente were unknown very soon every article in common use will be hampered by a trust to raise it its price and thus the public will be mulcted mulched and the manufacturers pile up wealth while the laborers who produce the article derive no benefits from the combination the trust monopoly la Is one of the social monsters of the age |
