26B 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



^s It Seems to Me, 



A Letter. 



I am in receipt of the following letter: 

 BoTNE CiTIj Mich., Jan. 17, 1905. 

 Mr. Henry H. Gibson, Chicago. 



My Dear Mr. Gibson : I am in receipt of 

 s copy of the new Habdwood Recobd with 

 new cover, new ownership and under nevy man- 

 agement, .ind I wish to say to you that I am 

 much pleased with its appearance, and from 

 my linowledge of you and the experience you 

 have liad in the lumi>er business and the length 

 of time you have served with the lumber trade 

 ^ess, to say the least I must say it means suc- 

 cess, both for yourself and your readers. Your 

 ■push, energy and ability must send this paper 

 to the front. As you have said yourself. It 1b 

 a clean paper, the world knows that, but It 

 has been working under a handicap, which 

 handicap I am sure is now removed and the 

 HAKDWoon REconn will have its freedom. 



The hardwood lumbermen of the United States 

 are to be congratuI.Tted upon their representa- 

 tive, for I know that you will represent the 

 hardwood lumber tiade ably and fairly, and 

 that is what the general trade wants. I feel 

 sure you will give them the true market re- 

 port, the true condition as to supply and de- 

 mand, a record of short and long stocks, and 

 In such a condensed form that the readers can 

 get the facts without spending too much time. 



You will certainly have my co-operation as 

 long as you conduct your business along the 

 lines <m which you have heretofore conducted 

 It, for that means success and I will do any- 

 thing I possibly can to assist you. 



You have used good judgment in securing 

 the services of Mr. Charles D. Strode, a man 

 whom I esteem very highly. He has had his 

 Tips and downs in life, but he is an able editor, 

 and if he will stick to his business I think 

 he will yet make his mark. I hope you will 

 find him just as I say. and Iiave every reason 

 to believe that you will. 



I am pleased with your motto, "Do things 

 rather than talk about them." Your annual 

 subscription price Is none too high from the 

 appearance of the paper. 



With kindest regards and best wislies for 

 your success in this work, I remain yours 

 very truly, W. H. White. 



During the past fortnight I have been 

 favored with scores of congratulatory and 

 commendatory letters from hardwood lumber- 

 men throughout the United States. I have 

 made an attempt to acknowledge them ,t11 ad 

 seriatum. The,se letters have been from mem- 

 bers of the National Hardwood Ivumber 

 Dealers' Association, from members of the 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of the 

 United States, from members of the hard- 

 wood exchanges and clubs of various cities, 

 and from individuals not allied with any him- 

 lier organizations. 



I had determined to refrain from publish- 

 ing any of these extremely kind and encour- 

 aging words from my friends in the hardwood 

 lumber trade, partially because it would take 

 up a good deal of room in the Hardwood 

 Becord that niiglit be utilized for news, and 

 again I have felt that their publication would 

 "Took like a manifestation of vanity. To quote 

 Mr. White, I prefer "to do things rather 

 than talk about them." 



For the publication of Mr. White's letter 

 I beg to be forgiven, since praise from Sir 

 Hubert is praise indeed. When a man like 

 "William H, ^Vhitc, so fully engaged as is his 



time in multitudinous lumber and allied in- 

 terests, interrupts his work to write a letter 

 like the foregoing, a man may be pardoned 

 for giving it publicity. Mr. White's position 

 in the hardwood lumber industry of the 

 United States is too weU known to need com- 

 ment. He sets up for me and for the Hakd- 

 wooD Record a standard, which for both qual- 

 ity and character is very high indeed, 

 and much higher than my abUity deserves. 

 But such being the line of conduct he has 

 marked out for the Hardwood Record, so 

 will it be my aim to fulfill his highest hopes 

 for the paper. 



About E. C. Mershon and His Besaws. 



Ever since I was seven years old and got a 

 whaling for taking the inwards out of my 

 father 's watch to see how the thing went to- 

 gether, I have been very much interested in 

 machinery. During my later years this in- 

 terest has been greatly augmented by the 

 clo.se study I have made of all sawmill and 

 planing mill appliances. I never see a new 

 w rinklf about a sawmill that I do not make 

 a uote of it. I compare the details of ar- 

 rangement of machines in one mUl with that 

 of another, and analyze which is the better. 



Of particular interest to me has been the 

 development in band resawing machinery. 

 When E. C. Mershon, of W. B. Mershon & 

 Co., Saginaw, Mich., first commenced his 

 experiments in the building of a satisfactory 

 baud ressw I knew about them, followed 

 them, and have watched the developments 

 of his type of machine ever since. 



i am almost willing to swear that I have 

 seen fully one-half of the band resaws ever 

 built by W. B. Mershon & Co. in operation, 

 and I have never yet encountered a user who 

 was not satisfied with his purchase. I have 

 <cen these machines in sawmills, resawing 

 sixteen-inch hemlock flitches four inches in 

 thickness in a satisfactory manner, and I have 

 seen them resawing miscellaneous dry hard- 

 wood culls, consisting of every known wood 

 from elm and hard maple to shell bark 

 hickory at the rate of 160 feet a minute, and 

 still I have found a happy user. 



The machine from its original type has 

 now developed into a perfect appliance for 

 the sawmill, planing mill, box factory, or 

 picture-back maker. It is a manifestation of 

 the possibilities in applied mechanics that can 

 lie accomplished when a man devotes himself 

 to one thing in life and but one. I do not 

 suppose the inventor of the Mershon resaw, B. 

 C. Mershon of Saginaw, is any better drafts- 

 man or any better mechanic than hundreds 

 of others in this country, but he has applied 

 himself to the makiug of a single tool that 

 should be the best on the market, and I thor- 

 oughly believe that he has succeeded. 

 Am I Right or Wrong? 



One of the bunch of alleged hardwood lum- 

 bermen who within the month made such a 

 wretchedly disastrous failure in Buffalo, 



writes to the Habdwood Record on a very 

 handsome piece of stationery bearing his 

 name, and also the statement that he is in 

 the wholesale hardwood lumber business, and 

 asks that an advertisement be inserted ad- 

 dressed to lumber manufacturers, asking for 

 a memorandum of stock and prices on every- 

 thing from car lots to mill cuts. 



I have written that gentleman that on the 

 presumption that he is the same man who 

 recently made such a lamentable failure I 

 must respectfully decline his business for 

 the present, as I could not consistently assist 

 him to re-enter the lumlx'r business, save in 

 the capacity of an employe, until he had at 

 least rehabilitated himself in the regard of 

 his local community. I said to him further 

 that I should do nothing to interfere with his 

 again entering the hardwood lumber business 

 as long as he did business on the level; that 

 J had absolutely no feeling in the matter be- 

 yond the fact that the information I had 

 about him and his recent failure led me to 

 believe he was not competent to judiciously 

 handle the wholesale lumber business either 

 for himself or others at the present time. 



From a reply I have received from the gen- 

 tloinun T ,iudge he does not like the position 

 1 have taken in this matter. 



On the Subject of Calendars. 



The office of the Haiu)wood Record for 

 the past month has been deluged with a col- 

 lection of calendars for 1905 of all sorts and 

 conditions. I do not suppose it is a veiy 

 smart thing for me to criticise my friends in 

 the hardwood lumber trade for the money 

 they have spent in buying and mailing oal- 

 ciidiirs to the people with whom they deal in 

 all jiarts of the country. But just the same 

 1 airi going to do it. 



The McLean Lumber Company of Nash- 

 \ille sends me a remarkably handsome lith- 

 ographed calendar, showing a bunch of pretty 

 rocky-looking sycamores along the banks o£ 

 a placid stream. My wife came in just after 

 this calendar was hung up and suggested to 

 me that she had a fi-ame that would just fit 

 it, nud it would look very nice hanging up in 

 the dining-room over the sideboard. I tried 

 to explain to her that it was an advertisement 

 of a particularly pet customer of the Hard- 

 wood Record, and ought to stay in the office, 

 but she had her way, and has the picture, 

 calendar and all. 



The Haviland Lumber Company of New 

 York City sent me a beautiful example of 

 chromo-lithograph work, of a red-beaded 

 young lady, toying with a bunch of American 

 Beauty roses; tin- young la^dy's gown is 

 slightly decollete. My pet stenographic lady 

 wanted that, and you know how they are, she 

 had to have it. 



My good friends Taylor & Crate, down at 

 Buffalo, sent a beautiful chromo calendar 

 illustrating a harvest scene near North Ton- 

 awanda. Strode 's little boy came in and 

 wanted that one; I never can refuse a boy 

 anything. 



The F. J. Blackwell Company, another good 



