OCR Text |
Show THINGS 1'OUUAiNBCY. ! . ' A LIST OF ARTICLES NOT GENERALLY CONSIDERED MERCHANTABLE. Time and Water Tor Sale In Kew York. Electricity and Power Are Daily Bought, and a View Has Value In Ileal Estate. People Who Sell Their Dead Bodies. In New York, as in other great cities, where the fight for life is fiercest, there Is a price for everything even under certain conditions for the very air we breathe. Father Time himself is on-sale. Tne Western Union Telegraph company has desks in the national observatory In Washington. Four minutes before noon the wires cf the system all pver the United States are cleared of business, busi-ness, and the instant the sun passes the Beventy-fifth meridian electricity carries car-ries the news to every city. The time ball falls in New York at noon, in Chi-xago Chi-xago at 11 a. m., in Omaha at 10 a. m. and in San Francisco at 9 a m., in simultaneous obedience to that single click from the instrument at Washington. Washing-ton. In all the large cities the Western , Union has supplied business houses, i banks and offices with electric clocks i that respond obediently to the daily mandate. Each of these rents for $15 per year, and in New York alone over 8,000 have been put up. Last year's revenue to the telegraph company from the tale of time approximated $1,500, 000. Water is sold regularly to tho ships in the harbor, and tho "water boats," with big tanks on board, are familiar objects to all yachtsmen. Brooklynites Will recall the discomfort incident to : the breaking of a big ruaiu not long eince, and the people of Newark cannot forget tho annoyance and cost of their experience three years nga The Bupply from the Passaic waa like mud eoup, I md for the time being the owners of i an artesian veil in the Oranges did a large trade in water. Tho householders of Koseville and those even farther down town watched for the morning water carts mors eagerly than ever a milkman was awaited and eaw a sufficient suf-ficient quantity for the day provided bo-fore bo-fore taking train for New York. Ordinarily there is no sale for air; but, like water, when a man wants it ho wants it "mighty bad." This fov awhile was tho case at Libby prison, where, before tho prisoners organized a sort of government of their own, it waa customary for tho stronger men to get as near tho windows as they dared and then sell their places to weaker comrades com-rades who were gasping for breath. Fire, of course, in the form of various combustibles com-bustibles is a recognized commodity. One frequently hears of those who Buffer from strange and incurable diseases dis-eases and who make comfortable their last days by gelling their bodies to the surgeons for dissoction. At church and other sorts of fairs kisses may sometimes be purchased, the tariff varying according to the purse of the kisser or the charms of tho kissee. Reduced gentlewomen often derive revenue reve-nue by chaperoning and introducing to good society the daughters of the newly rich. Invitations to select balls occasionally occa-sionally represent a large outlay, and it probably costs as much to get into the swell eet aa it does to gain a Beat in congress. The social aspirant makes "presents," while the political is "assessed. "as-sessed. Relics, eacred, profane and ghastly, have their price. Autographs of famous people are always in demand, and a bit of the rope with which a murderer has been handed is valued by gamblers and the snperstitious. In Paris it is customary, custom-ary, once a year, to sell at auction the personal effects of those who have been executed, and this always attracts a large crowd of purchasers. Locks of hair from the heads of noted beautieor celebrated men are marketable. Charms, including, of course, the rabbit's foot, dear to the African heart, bring revenue to their cunning devisers, and astrologers and fortmif. tellers havA a clientele respectable in numbers. Lucky stones and madsfcjnes are prized by those who believe in their virtues. Consumptives often pay for the privilege priv-ilege of drinking fresh blood as it pours from the necks of butchered animals at tho slaughter house, hoping that the Eanguine draft may stay tho ravages of disease. The big hotels in New Y ork and elsewhere derive some income trom lie sale of unspoiled scraps of food to the keepers of cheap restaurants, and thus the latter are able to serve their patrons with large bowls of stew at e maximum price of 10 cents. On the east side of this city several people eke out a scanty living by writing writ-ing letters for the illiterate. Even the four leaved clover may be turned into coin. A big business is done in selling electricity and steam power, while many a man in New York is paying a high price for sunlight. A "view" adds materially ma-terially to the value of a house. New 7ork World, jn the first place, says an English writer, writ-er, red is a color to which cattle are unaccustomed, un-accustomed, so that they may naturally bo supposed to be startled by its very novelty. Scientists show the sensation of red to be the complement of that of green, being induced by exactly opposite affections of tbe rstina. If the eyes of cattle are constructed on a similar principle to our own, the continual contemplation of green, as in frees and herbage, must produce a state of retinal fatigue, predisposing a violent vio-lent excitement of the retina immediately immedi-ately a red substance is presented cu |