24 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



transactions in a day and you will find that it makes a good sum 

 of money in a week. 



Another thing that tiie sealer of weights and measures does 

 is to check up the coal in the course of transit to the consumer. 

 I have been very much surprised at the amount of short weight 

 given in coal. In one city recently, there was some coal checked 

 up, billed as a ton. which weighed 1350 pounds. That man pro- 

 bably wanted to make a fortune in a few days. Ordinarily if 

 a man wants to give short weight he will take out two or three 

 hundred pounds. W'e had a case in New York City where a man 

 was giving short weight. \\'e checked up that wagon two or 

 three times, weighed it before and after delivery and it was all 

 right. r>ut talking with the driver at one time, he gave us a 

 tip as to how it was done. Under the seat was a box and in that 

 box was 300 lbs. of coal. When he was stopped by the sealer 

 he would open that box and deliver the ton ; but if he was not 

 stopped that 300 lbs. would stay in the box. After we found 

 this out it was a very easy matter to catch him. We have foimd 

 that there has been a great deal of short weight given in coal, 

 especially in the cities where coal is sold in small quantities. It 

 is not the value of the coal so much as the amount of personal 

 loss or personal inconvenience, in a good many cases, that is 

 brought on to tlie consumer through the absence of a few 

 pounds of coal. To illustrate that I will cite a little instance: 

 I was out once on a Saturday night looking after some of the 

 dealers in coal. One man brought up a bag of coal supposed 

 to contain too pounds to the second floor of a tenement house 

 and the woman showed me the coal. I tested it and it weighed 

 80 pounds. She said she was a widow with three children and 

 she worked hard, scrubbing floors. She bought a bag of coal 

 every Saturday, and since dealing with this man she found that 

 the coal would not last over Friday night. She could not buy 

 any more until Saturday afternoon and those children had to 

 stay in bed all day Saturday in the winter, to keep warm, sim- 

 ply because that man took 20 i>ounds of coal from the sack. 

 That is one of the cases where the shortage is not measured by 

 the money loss but by the amount of inconvenience and suflFer- 

 ing entailed. \\'e have found a number of those rases, which 

 make us feel as though we wanted to inflict some severe pun- 

 ishment on the man. but unfortunatelv the law does not allow 



