lO 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



buy from Imiul in innulli until suili lini<' 

 aK slocks bccoino nmn- iiU-ntiful. 



Tlu- siimo oondlllon Is true as roRards 

 • tlip wliolosnip 1111(1 rptnll yard dcalcrK, ox- 

 copt that tlify don't buy froiu lianil to 

 moutli l<pti\uso of any prejudice aKiiiiist 

 acfuiiiulatiiii; stock so nitii-h as from an In- 

 alillily to pet It in sulHclent quantities to 

 any more than mi>et tlie requirements of 

 their trade. 



Ill other wonls. tlio fact tlint city yards. 

 iHith the yards of consumers and of deal- 

 ers, are so bare of lumlier, is duo larKel.\ 

 to the fact that it is more or less liu])rac- 

 tieable at this time to neouniulate stocks 

 bei-ause there is very iittlc stock to nccu- 

 mnlnte. Tliis accounts in part for the 

 shortage, but there has been, within the 

 past few years, a change wrouglit in tlic 

 metliods of Inuuliinj; the hardwood hinib.r 

 trade whicli will preclude tlie carrying in 

 the future of sucli lariie reserves in the city 

 markets as was formerly done. 



Nine or ten years ago one might stand 

 on North Uranch street on Goose Island 

 and see L*o million feet of hardwood lum- 

 ber in the yards of Vinnedge Bros.. Ames 

 & Frost. K. Granger & Co. and L. V. 

 Boyle & Co. To-day that section is bare 

 and desolate In comparison, and four mi!- 

 lions will probably cover all the stock car- 

 ried. 



It was the same in the hardwood dis- 

 triet of the South Side, at Twenty-second 

 and Lumber streets, where Hayden Bros.. 

 K. B. Appleby & Sons, P. G. Dodge tV Co. 

 and Lesh & Matthews carried heavy stocks, 

 aggregating 20 or 27, millions. To-day 

 there isn't a million feet in that whole sec- 

 tion. 



Of all the firms named above, only two. 

 Vinnedge Bros, and P. G. Dodge & Co 

 are still in the yard business, and they have 

 reduced their stocks to a retail basis. The 

 only hardwood yards in Chicago which 

 carry heavy stocks at the present time are 

 those which deal in northern hardwoods 

 sucli as W. O. King & Co., Theo. Fathauer 

 Comi)any, IC. Sondheimer Companj-, Heath- 

 Witbeck Company and another or two. 



The dry hardwoods naturally carried in 

 stock on the Chicago wholesale and retail 

 yards to-day are at least IW) million less 

 than was naturally carried ten years ago. 

 Of recent years the tendency toward di- 

 rect shipment in carlots has encouraged 

 the carrying of the surplus stocks at such 

 shipping points as Cairo and Evansville, 

 but a visit to those markets at present 

 shows stocks at the lowest possible ebb. 

 Those conditions, taken in connection with 

 the fact that the stocks at the mills are 

 extremely light, bring us up against the 

 fact that in hardwood lumber consumption 

 is crowding close upon the heels of the 

 saw mill. There was probably never a 

 time in the history of the trade when the 

 stocks of dry hardwoods were lower than 

 right at the present. 



The proposition that under the circum- 

 stances there can be any serious let-down 

 in prices is an absurdity. 



A WISE MAN GONE. 

 Wo had Hiarlod In heati this "A G«kxI 

 .Man tJono." but, as It has reference tn the 

 dealli of Pope I.eo XIII., wi- Ihonglit that 

 heading nut sulllclont. 



Kvery man Is good according in bis own 

 lights. The dllTcrenco In men is their dif- 

 ference in wisdom anil opportuidty. The 

 wiser a man Is the better ho Is. for wisdom 

 teaches, above all else, that there Is no 

 l)roh[ in evil. 



The jiross of the wlioli> world has Joined 

 in a (>til(.gy of l.oo Xlll., an<l Justly. One 

 writer .says that the secret of his vjist iri- 

 lluence was his goodness; another thai it 

 was his courage; anoilior that it was his 

 craft and knowledge of human nature; an- 

 other that the secret of his power hiy in 

 his scientific living, his abstemiousness and 

 iiiodoration. The fact is. that the onlv 

 statement that will account for Pope Leo 

 is to say that he was a' man of deep and 

 profound wisdom. That fact established 

 accounts for everything. 



The wise man is a good man, and a 

 good man not from impulse but from con- 

 viction. A man who is good from iiupulse 

 is all right in his way. Many a criminal 

 who^lias died on the scaffold or rotted ii' 

 prison was a man of good impulses. 

 Ninety-nine people out of a hundred mean 

 well. Good impulses are very common in 

 this world, and it is even said that hell 

 is paved with them. But they do not cu« 

 much figure in the affairs of men. 



Fully half the time thev sliould be re- 

 sisted. To say that a man is "a good- 

 hearted man" is saying very little for him. 

 When a man has earned that description 

 the chances are that botli his heart and 

 his head are soft, and that he will do more 

 harm in the world than he will do good. 



When we say that Pope Leo was a good 

 man, we mean that, because of his broad 

 and comprehensive wi.sdom, he devoted all 

 the vast powers of his mind to leaving the 

 world better than be found it. Being ;; 

 truly wise man, he held most of the things 

 for which men strive at their true valua- 

 tion. Being a truly wise man, to do good 

 was his only ambition. We know from 

 what some very wise men have said that 

 to them any other ambition seems foolislJ. 

 Napoleon was a great man in many 

 ways, but he was not a wise man. Had he 

 been he would not have failed. A wise 

 man does not fail. Had Napoleon been a 

 man of Leo's wisdom he would have known 

 that his ambition to make a French empire 

 of Europe wa.s, while a rather large ambi- 

 tion, a childish one. And had he been <i 

 wise man he would have known that his 

 project was impossible. A wise man does 

 not undertake the impossible. 



From his peculiar position as head o'' 

 the Roman Catholic Church. Leo had the 

 .•idvantage of being unhampered by p-j- 

 triotism. which, when all it said and done. 

 is a narrow virtue. Indeed, we rather 

 doubt if a very great man considers it a 

 virtue at all. 

 He had an interest in the affairs of nil 



iiiiti..ii~ \ groat man who was limited liv 

 piilrloiism to the work of ndvaiiciiii; IIh' 

 inlercsl and welfare of his nallon and his 

 |M'<ipli-, at the o.xponNe, and. maybe, the 

 ruin of ollii'r nations and other peoples, 

 could never have wielded the Intlnenco fur 

 good that I'opo l.oo wielded. That a groat 

 man should be forced by ciroinnslanooK to 

 devote all his great powers to the lawk of 

 eniibling a man on one side of a river to 

 wrest the good tilings of life from a in:in 

 on the other side of a river, diM-s not. wo 

 ImagiiH-, strike a wise nnin as a oonKlHlent 

 or Impressive porformanco. It no doubt 

 strikes a wise nnin that a man Is entltloi' 

 to Justice and fair troatmont, no matter on 

 which side of the river In- happens to re- 

 side. 



The Uoman Catholic Chun-h is a mighty 

 power, whelhor for good or evil. It litis 

 often, under other loaders, boon used In 

 a spirit of bigotry, criiolly and all unwis- 

 dom. It has boon use<I to forward petty, 

 unworthy, personal ambitions. It has been 

 used In all its mighty strength to oppress 

 the bcxlios. stunt the minds and dwarf the 

 souls of men. Indeed, so often had it 

 been ii.-iod for unworthy purposes that there 

 had grown a conviction in the minds of 

 many that it was evil in Itself. 



But Loo has shown that, mighty as It 

 had been as a power of evil, it could be 

 mightier as a power for good. He has 

 shown that, while it had been a mighty 

 instniMiciit for oppression in the jiast. '• 

 could be a niighlior instrument to fight op- 

 pression Willi. And this groat jiower has 

 been used so tactfully, so carefully, so pa- 

 tiently— in short, so wisel.v— that not manv 

 people knew it was being used. 



And after a half century of use Leo 

 leaves his great instrument stronger and 

 better than ever before — because that 

 which is good is stronger ami bolter than 

 that which is evil. 



One of the most striking things about 

 this striking man was the calm and serene 

 wi.sdom with which ho managed his body 

 that it might make the most effective In- 

 strumont for serving the purposes of his 

 mind. Ho seems to h.ivo looked upon hi« 

 liody much as a careful driver looks upon 

 his horse; .and to have given close atten- 

 tion to how he might get the last possilde 

 ounce of service out of it before it became 

 too badly worn for further use. It was 

 not n good body to begin with, being frail 

 and lacking in vigor, but by careful hand- 

 ling it went a long and arduous jonrni'V 

 and luiilod a heavy load. 



Leo knew that he was a great man with 

 a great opportunity to do a great work, 

 and that the thing for him to do was to 

 make his tenement of clay hold out as long 

 as possible. And bringing all the powers 

 of his remarkable mind to the task, he 

 made it last to an astonishing time and to 

 yield up its strongtii to tlie best advantage 

 and to the very last shred. 



AVhen he sat at table, the question with 

 him was not the weak and incontinent 

 quc'slibn of -ivh.-i^ he liked or what would 



