December 25, 1913 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



for something, and even old grouchy Duce Flanagan was not over- 

 looked, and it took the seventy-year-old grouch out of him in five 

 minutes. His gift was a porcelain pipe with a running hound 

 carved on the stem. Poor old man. For fifty years he had smoked 

 homemade sheep-laurel pipes with plain sarsaparilla vine for stems. 

 His emotions almost overcame him as he slowly rose to his feet 

 and with broken voice addressed the meeting: 



"I want to take it all back. I have said many hard things about 

 the Pennsylvanians, but I don't want anybody to believe a word 

 of it. I was mistaken. I met them on a good many battlefields of 

 the war, and I want to say that they stood up aud fought us like 

 men, and I want to say here and now that they are men from head 



to heel. Friends and neighbors, I will ask you to join me in three 

 cheers for the Pennsylvanians. ' ' 



The cheers were a fitting close for the Seldomsoen Christmas cele- 

 bration. That was a good many years ago, and the narrative might 

 stop there, but the story went a little farther. Bank Huddleson, the 

 prize fighter, never entered the ring again. He developed, gi'ew into 

 larger things, became a power in business and a leader of men. 

 His palatial home is a landmark in the region where he built it. 

 It is surrounded by luxury and abounds in hospitality, and it is 

 presided over by as queenly a woman as ever helped shape the des- 

 tinies of a strong man. She had been the teacher of the little fore- 

 lorn school at Seldomseen. 



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One Outlet for Sawdust 



In a good many sections, wlicre the nuuibcr of ice factories is not 

 great, the ice manufacturers supply quite a large territory, shipping 

 their product in as small lots «s single cakes weighing 100 pounds. 

 In order to prevent excessive loss through melting in the express 

 car, this ice is sacked, and some sort of insulating material is 

 placed around the ice to protect it from the atmosphere. 



Sawdust has been found to be one of the best insulators that 

 could be provided for this purpose, and now and then a millman 

 has been able to get a regular outlet for dust during the summer 

 months b.y supplying some nearby ice factory. In most cases, of 

 course, a charge which barely covers handling costs must be made, 

 but this is better than burning it in the open, or even in regular 

 equipment provided for this purpose. 



An interesting side-light on this proposition was furnished by 

 a southern manufacturer, whose surplus of sawdust, as well as wood, 

 was giving him a good deal of worry. He finally got in touch with 

 an ice concern a short distance away and arranged to supply it 

 with dust for packing purposes at handling cost. This would make 

 the net gross cost to the user this amount plus the freight charges. 

 The lumberman was astonished to learn, however, that freight 

 amounted to such an excessiv-e figure that the ice factory could not 

 handle the material, even on the favorable basis arranged. The 

 rate charged was just double the lumber rate, the billing clerk of 

 the railroad, not finding a specific rate on sawdust, applying the 

 nearest commodity rate that he could locate, 



This led to the arrangement being dropped, though it would 

 doubtless have been possible, by taking the matter up with the 

 railroad, to have had a reasonable rate issued and reparation given 

 on the overcharge. 



In the days that are to be sawmill men will doubtless solve their 

 sawdust and waste problem by the more satisfactory — and profitable 

 — method of by-products manufacture. Until then the situation is 

 bound to be displeasing to the lumberman who looks at his proposi- 

 tion from an economic standpoint. 



His Majesty, the Buyer 



A good many lumber salesmen are fond of telling about the 

 "tough customers" they run into in the form of buyers, who take 

 their time about admitting them to the sanctum and who seem to 

 delight in reducing the earning capacity of their callers by making 

 them warm ehairs^in the outside office as long as possible. 



Doubtless there are a lot of these picayunish people who, in order 

 to seem busier than they are, "stall" awhile before granting an 

 interview to the man who has lumber or anything else to sell. But 

 did you ever consider the question from the standpoint of the busy 

 factory man, who has a thousand things to think of and to attend 

 to, and who can not in every case spare the time to chat with a 

 lumber salesman, no matter how genial the latter may be? 



Of course, in view of the fact that buying lumber for a factory 

 is an important part of any consumer's work, it stands to reason 



that it is good business for him, as well as the salesman, to give 

 the latter a chance to present his proposition. But there are times 

 when the buyer has all the stock he needs and when he is not 

 interested in quotations. In that event, while he may grant the 

 courtesy of an interview, he is not anxious to make it any longer 

 than necessary, nor, on the other hand, to rush the salesman into 

 his private office ahead of his regular turn. 



Looking at it from this angle and realizing that the salesman 

 who gets the ear of the buyer is receiving something of value in 

 the form of his time, whether he buys or not, it follows that the 

 lumber representative who wants to make good in every way 

 must be prepared to render service. In other words, he ought to 

 expect to pay for what he is getting in the form of ideas. If he 

 can't sell lumber, he can at least make himself persona grata by 

 passing out a timely hint or two; and the salesman who regularly 

 demonstrates his ability to make suggestions of value will usually 

 find the "Wedeome" door-mat ready for him the next time he calls. 



Incomplete Sprinkler Protection 



A big woodworking factory in the Middle West, which was pro- 

 tected with sprinkler equipment in the main building but not in an 

 addition, was recentl}' burned with heavy loss. The fire started in 

 the addition and by the time it reached the main plant it had 

 gained such headway that the automatic sprinklers were useless 

 against it. Most of the sprinkler heads were set off, but the volume 

 of water poured on the fire was not adequate at that stage of the 

 game to prevent the destruction of the plant. 



This is something that sawmill and factory men, who may have 

 their plants equipped with automatic sprinklers and who may be 

 enjoying a low insurance rate on that account, ought nevertheless 

 to think about. Is every building which involves an exposure of the 

 main plant similarly equipped? Is the first hazard reduced in the 

 warehouse, say, as it is in the factory? 



Of course most insurance inspection bureaus will not grant a 

 minimum rate for a sprinklered risk unless all exposures are pro- 

 tected also. But the competition for preferred business of this type 

 — and incidentally it may be suggested to the manufacturer who 

 has sprinkler equipment that he can usually beat the published rate 

 by giving competing companies a chance to quote through their im- 

 proved risk departments — is such that a low rate is often given 

 for the plant which carries this kind of equipment, regardless of 

 the fact that an adjoining or exposing building, from which fire 

 may easily spread, is not protected by sprinklers. 



The lumberman or consumer is not primarily interested in fire 

 insurance rates, though he may think he is. What he really wants 

 to do is to prevent a fire, and secondarily to get his protection at 

 as low a cost as possible. Hence he should not lean back com- 

 fortably and dismiss all thoughts of a possible disastrous blaze 

 merely because he has sprinklers in his main plant. The thing to 

 do is to see that a blaze anywhere will be put out before it can get 

 really started. 



