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Show EHESGS YOU CAN BUY. A LIST OF ARTICLES NOT GENERALLY CONSIDERED MERCHANTABLE. Time and Water Tor Sale In New "Fork. Electricity and Power Are Daily Bought, and a View Has Talne In Keal 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. The Western Union Telegraph company has desks in the national observatory in Washington. Four minntes before noon the wires of the system all over the United States are cleared of business, busi-ness, and the instant the sun passes the seventy-fifth meridian electricity carries car-ries the news to every city. The time ball falls in New York at noon, in Chicago Chi-cago 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. In all the large cities the Western Union has supplied business houses, banks and offices with electric clocks 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 sale of time approximated $1,500, -000. Water is, sold regularly to the ships in the harbor, and the "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, main not long Bince, and the people of Newark cannot forget the annoyance and cost of their experience three years ago. The supply from the Passaic was like mud soup, and for the time being the owners of an artesian well in the Oranges did a large trade in water. The householders of Eoseville and those even farther down town watched for the morning water carts more eagerly than ever a milkman was awaited and saw a sufficient suf-ficient quantity for the day provided before be-fore taking train for New York. Ordinarily there is no sale for air; but, like water, when a man wants ii he -wants it "mighty bad." This for awhile was the case at Libby prison, where, before the prisoners organized a sort of government of their own, it was customary for the stronger men to get as near the 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 suffer from strange and incurable diseases dis-eases and who make comfortable their last days by selling their bodies to the surgeons for dissection. 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 the 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 set as it does to gain a seat in congress. The social aspirant niakes. ""presents," while the political is "assessed." "as-sessed." ' Eelics, sacred, 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 hanged is valued by gamblers and the superstitious. 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 beauties or celebrated men are marketabla Charms, including, of course, the rabbit's foot, dear to the African heart, bring revenue to their cunning devisers, and astrologers and fortune tellers have a clientele respectable in numbers. Lucky stones and madsfcones 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 the slaughter house, hoping that the sanguine draft may stay the ravages of disease. The big hotels in New York and elsewhere derive some income from the 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 a 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 & house. New York World. |